My apologies for the lack of posts lately! It's been a busy month (or 6+ weeks!). After coming back from the coast, I had a lot of office work to make up. I was lucky enough to see Alice (Hunter's Sister) when her mama brought her into work.
She is super adorable and nothing like her brother Hunter! She is quiet and he is NOT!
Then in the first week of October I headed up to Portland for work...I attended the Justin Bieber concert with some clients.
I could not bring the cats, but I brought the pups along.
Then I had two clients with birthdays at work, so there were lots of gifts to buy and presents to open. Of course the kitties were trilled with the left overs....
Then there were 2 big emergencies with hawk and Nori...
Hawk was seeing a specialist at the emergency vet (an internal medicine doctor) because he was throwing up on a daily basis, multiple times a day, for about 2 years. Well since I took him, I could not watch it continue After many vet visits I ended up with an amazing vet at the emergency clinic. Upon video taping one of his episodes she discovered he was actually coughing so hard he was spitting up-not vomiting. Xrays, ultrasounds, fecal exams, trial medications, and a heart worm test all turned up negatives. After eliminating those things we decided on a procedure called the trachea wash. Basically they sedated him enough that he was still, but not too much that he wasn't lucid, then put a needle in his neck, inserted a setril solution into his airways, then let him cough it up. The idea was to get a sample of any bacteria or problems in his airways. He was sent home and we had to wait for the results (and his poor belly and neck were shaved). Poor Hawk was so out of it I had to carry his 80lb butt into the house. Upon walking into the door I was informed that something was terribly wrong with Nori...She was found face down on the back deck in lots of pain. They had put her on my bed in my room. I immediately went to her and she screamed in pain when I barely touched her. I assumed she was hit by a car. I loaded her into the car and back to the emergency vet I went. 4 hours later, xrays, and some shaved spots, they suspect she was attacked by another cat and fell off something while trying to get away. They found 3 puncture wounds, gave her some heavy duty pain meds and she was on her way. They wanted to keep her over night, but she perked up so much after they brought her back to me, I knew that I would be able to know if she was not getting better by her personality more than they would, so I took her home with the guidelines that I'd bring her right back if she was still in large amounts of pain. She was much better by the following day, but had to be on pain meds and antibiotics...and her shaved spots looked ridiculous!
The poor girl was so out of it for the next couple days, I had to carry her to the litter box and bring her food and water. She was in too much pain to walk and had an accident where she laid on her bed (which is why I had to start carrying her to the box).
She is completely recovered now & looking cute as ever...
however we suspect Hunter is the one that attacked her...
YA! That's right...cute innocent Hunter is who we are blaming for Nori's injuries....The week prior to her accident, he had been super mean to her. Jumping on her and latching on and biting her for no reason while she slept. He even attached her in the same spots they shaved her on at the vet 3 days after coming home. She SCREAMED IN PAIN when he came near her. We've had to keep them separated up until recently. We only them them around each other when they are supervised. We see Nori being sweet to hunter-licking and grooming him, but out of no where he still attacks her, so we are being very careful.
As for Hawk, no bateria was found in his airways, but he was diagnosed with eosinophilic airway disease...thats fancy talk for he has allergies. He is sensitive to particles in the air. I put in a large air purifier in my room and he finished a 20 day course of steroids and so far so good! No coughing/vomiting since the day he started treatment. The hope is he will never have to take them again, but more than likely he will have a flare up and he will have to start medication again, but ideally its a low dose for a few weeks until he is baseline again.
Hawk was better, but Nori was too hurt to participate in the Halloween activities, but everyone else had fun. Rowan was spooked by one of the decorations we hung from his kitty loft...he wouldn't go up there for days....
Hunter and Rowan dressed up as cops and the 3 dogs were inmates. They all went to the petsmart and petco costume contests. They all won second place in both competitions. I was so proud of Rowan because he walked on his leash in a store filled with dogs-thats hard for a cat to do!
And for the last 2 weeks I was volunteering for a new rescue organization that helps dogs and cats. I was fostering a chihuahua/doxie mix (a chiweenie). They were going to put her to sleep at the shelter she was in because she was "too snappy." The owner of the organization pulled her out and saved her life. While with me she was sweet as pie. She did have a snippy side to her, but only when she was scared and she immediately stopped that behavior when asked. With boundaries and love, she was an amazing dog that I really miss, but she was adopted and found a very loving home.
Then of course, there were the 2 rats we recused from becoming snake food...I couldn't keep them though because they would have become cat food! We got them a huge cage and real rat food (something very different from the tortilla chips they were used to eating) and then found them a good loving home with an experienced rat person who will take very good care of these sweet girls.
Hopefully I will stay more up to date on my postings =)
