"Operation Pink Nose" for Baggy

I stopped by at the vet's today to ask if Baggy could be dewormed yet. The vet said he too thought of doing that but did not want to do too much yesterday as Baggy was really weak and pale, but since I asked, he said it's a very good idea to deworm her, in case worms are part of the burden on her health. Hookworms are particularly dangerous to young cats.

So I've dewormed Baggy now and I'll need to continue monitoring her respiration pattern. The reason she was breathing fast yesterday could be that there is insufficient blood so that made the heart pump harder. If blood parasite is the cause of all this, the antibiotic should do its work and the respiration pattern should improve over a few days.

Meanwhile, I'll also look out on the colour of her little nose.

We want to see a little pink nose, Baggy!

 Is my nose a little pinker than yesterday? 

 We're calling her "Baggy Pink Nose" for now...

Baggy says "thank you" to everyone

It rained this morning, so I quickly got up to check on Baggy.

She was fine, and was with Bunny in the pantry.

Everyone had breakfast, but Baggy didn't want her AD. She wanted Natural Balance, just like everyone else.

 The after-breakfast sojourn in the room since it was raining outside.

 This is Baggy's special seat - the drawer beside me!

 AD for brunch.

Eat up, Baggy.

Thank you for all your advice and suggestions. I'll check with the vet when she can be dewormed and if other tests are necessary to check on why she seems pale and is not putting on weight. She was on Revolution while she was at Andy Lew's place and that acts as a dewormer as well. But maybe it does not cover a wide spectrum of worms.

For now, even though her fever is gone, the vet says I still need to check on her respiration pattern about 3-4 times per day, but I can only do this when she is resting. We're concerned that Baloo passed away of accumulation of pus/blood in the lungs and the only signs were breathing difficulty.  That could have been FIP.

Baggy eats and jumps high up

It's almost midnight now. Baggy just had a fair bit of AD for supper. The vet had said AD helps to make blood, so since Baggy is still quite pale, I thought regular doses of AD should be able to help her regain some colour and health.

 This is her favourite "perch" every evening. I fed her here as she did not want to join the rest at the pantry. Also, everyone was going after the AD!

After eating, I thought I should try and see if she was willing to sleep in the condo, but the moment I put her in, she jumped out, quick as lightning and jumped up straight back to her "perch".

 It's good to see her alert and not lethargic.

Baggy was not lethargic to begin with; it was just the loss of appetite and high fever this morning. The appetite is back now and the fever (as of this evening) is gone. But the constant worry I have is that she eats a lot but does not put on any weight. In fact, she is gradually losing weight. Even though the vet said the 0.5kg loss is not significant, it still makes me feel rather uneasy. And her coat does not have a healthy sheen, unlike the rest of my brood. They all eat the same food. Maybe there is some genetic weakness in Baggy and if there is, it may take some time to build up her health through nutrition.

 You have a good rest now and you'll be better tomorrow, Baggy.

Baggy thanks everyone for all the kind and thoughtful wishes and get-well-soon prayers.

 Cow, Bunny and Tabs keep Baggy company for the night.

 Tabs will do the patrolling.

Never fear, Tabs is here.

Goodnight!

Baggy's temperature is normal

Baggy ate a few rounds of AD and this evening, she also ate a bit of her Natural Balance food.

We took her temperature this evening at about 7pm and it was 38.2 degrees, which is normal.

I'm really praying hard that it is just a blood parasite or something not so serious and that the Doxycycline will take care of it. The possibility of it being FIP is still there as she is still quite pale. The only consolation so far is that her fever has subsided.

 All afternoon, she just wanted to rest in her favourite spot. This patch of soil is actually very cooling. Maybe it's to take the heat away? I did not want to stress her by putting her in the cage, so I just monitored her all afternoon.

 Eating small amounts of AD every two hours.

 She ate quite a lot at 4.30pm.

 By late evening, she did not feel like eating anymore. Maybe the 4.30pm meal is enough for the day.

 After having her temperature taken.

 This is her favourite night spot.

It's only about 10 hours now, since the Doxycycline. I'm glad her temperature is back to normal, but my worries are not over yet.

Get well soon, Baggy!

Thank you everyone, for your kind wishes and prayers. Mr Teh dropped in to visit Baggy this afternoon too.

Baggy is suddenly unwell

This morning Baggy refused to eat and her body felt warm to the touch. Something did not feel right.

So I took her immediately to the vet's the moment the clinic opened.

 Waiting for our turn.

Baggy has a fever of 40.2 degrees, which is quite high. She is also very pale and the other worrying symptom is her abnormal breathing pattern. There is a possibility it could be due to nervousness or stress, but she appeared quite calm at the clinic, yet, her breathing was very fast.

The possibilities are:

1. Blood parasite which causes anaemia (hence, she is pale).

2. FIP

3. FeLV or FIV

The vet suggests that we put her on Doxycycline and monitor her for 48 hours. If it is a blood parasite, there should be improvement within or after 48 hours. If there is no improvement, we will proceed with bloodwork and other diagnostics for further investigation.

Baggy has always had a rough hair coat and this has always worried me. It shows she isn't really in the pink of health. However, her appetite has always been very good - she eats as many times as Tabs, together with the boys.

Baggy's case is all the more worrying because of Baloo's mysterious death. We all know that FIP is terminal and there is no cure.

We came back home and I brought a can of AD for her. I was going to force-feed her small amounts, but she ate by herself.

 Eating the AD.

 Resting.

Please do keep Baggy in your prayers. I hope it is only a blood parasite and I hope she will recover soon.

Andy Lew visits Baggy with gifts

Andy Lew and Emily bought Baggy 3 boxes of Natural Balance wetfood during PetWorld and Andy dropped in today to visit and deliver the food.

 Thank you very much, Andy and Emily!

 Hi Baggy!

 Hmm...there must be something interesting (or tasty?) in the bag...

 Andy brought some treats he had brought back from Taipei.
It's freeze-dried raw treats. Tabs and Baggy loved it.

 "This is a very friendly cat", says Andy.

Ahem...of course, that's our Miss Personality, Miss Tabitha Jane Spencer.
Though I'm not sure whether, in this case, it's "friendly" or "hungry" or just plain "greedy"?

 Introductions aside, Baggy is shamelessly digging for more treats...

 Soon Indy came round as well...the aroma of the treats travel....fast.

 May I have some more, please?

Ask (nicely) and ye shall get?

 I'll just dig for more...

How to make use of the spaces in Bunny's Place

Cow's spraying is gradually mutilating one leg of our poor tree trunk bench, so before it's completely mutilated, we've decided to shift it to the patio. Thankfully, Indy has shifted from the bench to the pink box, so we won't be depriving him from his favourite spot now.

Having moved the tree trunk bench out, we have more space in the room and cleaning is made easier too.

 Ah...more breathing space. The top shelf is Pole's. She shares it with Cleo at times. The good thing about the cats is that they seem to have a roster where they take turns to occupy the spaces. No fighting. The "apartments" still belong to Bunny, though but he shares it with Cow and the rest.

 Indy's favourite spot for now. It used to be Bunny's, then Tiger's.
Note: Indy likes batik.

This side table was initially brought for Baggy when she first arrived, so that she could be near me during the first few weeks, but now, everybody uses it. Sometimes, as above, it is used in planning....conspiracies?

 Tiger keeps a close watch on Bobby, as always.

 In the pantry, they prefer it when there are clothes "hiding" the shelf for more privacy. The shelf is usually used for napping.

 But sometimes it may be used for posing too, especially when a portrait is needed.

 This is called, very simply, the Cross-Legged Pose.

This, on the other hand, is called the "Penyu Pose". Note the similarity of the outstretched pose of the front legs to that of the front flippers of the penyu (turtle).

The box serves three purposes: (1) to prevent Bunny from spraying on the wall. (2) for napping. (3) to cover the touch-buttons when the washing machine is being operated as a cat may step on the touch-buttons and stop the washing machine (it happens all too often). The cardboard box needs to be changed regularly because it's being sprayed on by Bunny.

 This is the Clubhouse for the cats. Notice Baggy under the table? That's her favourite spot even when the day is very hot. She loves sleeping on the soil. It must be quite cooling.

 This little railway sleeper bench serves as everyone's favourite scratch post.  It does its job very well as it's very hardy, made of very hard wood.

 This tree trunk is also a spray trunk (sigh!) but also doubles up as a scratch post as well as a seat for entertaining guests or taking a peek at the outside world.

 Here, it's for entertaining our regular guest.

 Eat up, Mr G!

 The rattan trunk is shared...

 ...and can even serve up to FOUR cats at any time!

It also doubles up as a scratch post.

 More shelves in the garden, for napping.

 Or, conferencing.

 In the evenings, when the sun is down, the Clubhouse turns into a den to discuss the days' events.

 And this is the (confined) world of our cats and Bobby.

It's our compromise to ensure their safety.

Pole wins paws down!

Today is Day 4 of Operation Pilling Pole and I am waving the white flag now.

Yes, I lost and Pole wins without a doubt.

I only succeeded in making her eat the medicine-laced wetfood for one round. After that, she did not fall for the trick anymore. Not at all.

She refused to eat.

So the ground medicine (of powder that is SO fine and SO little) would be mixed with the wetfood from morning till night. Well, yes, bit by bit, I managed to feed it all.  Or almost all, but it took great perseverance and a lot of stress on both sides. There was one round where she vomited everything out. Sigh...

She would refuse the eat and I would have to coax her, and it would take something like ten to twelve sessions in a day before I could finally get her to eat up that small blob of medicine-laced food. That would be taking the dratted wetfood bit by bit and covering it up with fresh wetfood. By the time she finished that blob, the powder would have been mixed with the food for too many hours, I do wonder if it is still effective or even harmful.

She'd rather starve, and she'll mew pitifully at the grille asking for food. But the moment I let her sniff at the food (yes, it's a tiny blob no bigger than a ladybird, covered with fresh food, she would look at me with those eyes that say, "I'm hungry, please may I have some proper food?" and then she would run away. Then, within 5 minutes, she would run back and mew for food again.

That's a bit too much to endure, day after day, and anyway, by today, she's gone on a hunger strike.

I figured all this stress of making her eat medicine-laced food isn't doing her mental health any good, so I'm taking the risk of not completing the antibiotics.

It's been so tough and so tiring....

 Yes, I'm hungry but I want some real food. Is that too much to ask? 

 The Liv-a-Littles' (the white patch you see above) attraction only lasted for two rounds. After that, it failed to work.

 Happy today, after I raised the white flag and gave her some "real" food to eat.