Princess, The Miracle Cat

We are so thankful to everyone who has been rooting for Rosie. And also very grateful to Peggy Tiong for all her sharing about her cat, Nini, who also had liver disease sometimes ago (Nini recovered and is well now), as well as to Selina, whose cat, Princess had liver problems last year when Princess was 18 years old.

Selina shared the remarkable story of Princess. We are publishing here with her consent and hope that it will inspire all of us not to give up when the going gets tough.

I am very keen to share with you re. Princess’ problem. She has been close to death so many times it is ridiculous, and even our vets are calling her the miracle cat.

We never knew what caused her liver to go AWOL like that, but it was likely an infection. Firstly, she had a serious mega colon problem (probably from having been a stray in her first 2 years) and in 2008 had most of it removed by the wonderful vet in PJ. Since then, she has had intermittent constipation problems and would need regular visits to our neighbourhood vet to get a clear out. Sometimes the problem was very severe. Usually took a combination of Lactulose over several days, and then a Senokot, to give her the clearance she needed. It’s been like that for years, but she is still OK. However at end August 2016, she came back from one of her regular “poo & enema” trips to the vet and suddenly looked sickly and yellow. Her ears and eyes turned bright yellow almost overnight, and she had zero energy. Suspected bacterial infection and was put on strong antibiotics & subcutaneous drip every 2 days. No effect and she got worse at first. No appetite, looked dreadful, became skeletal very quickly. At her worst she dropped from 2.3 to 1.5kg! Had to force-feed her A/D mixed with water. By 10 days, she was perkier and stronger. However, this didn’t last, and after another few days, she had a huge setback when she passed frank blood (a LOT of it) through her anus. Vet says may be cancer or some growth. It was like an open tap! Probably an unrelated problem, the vet reckons. So then her liver problem became overshadowed by this new problem, which was severe anemia. No idea what caused the blood to gush like that – it has happened before in 2015, and the EPO (prescribed by the PJ vet) got her back on track. But this time it was a real wipeout and nobody thought she would survive past a few days. This was mid Sept 2016. Put her on more antibiotics and folic acid. Continued to force-feed her. By this stage, she was so weak she could barely stand. Literally a bag of bones! We kept her in “her” room, which she actually really liked. No alternative medicine, but we just loved her to bits and put on nice aromatherapy for her (Young Living “Joy” blend, hahaha!!!), and played her lots of mantras and soothing music (Imee Ooi, Medicine Buddha prayers, Sanghata Sutra recitations) – who knows, but maybe all this was what really helped! She was rather happy in her own half-dead, very sick way! By the end of Sept 2016, she was still badly anemic (this was when her PCV dropped to its lowest level at 12%), and vet decided to try her on EPO again as she was out of options. 1st EPO shot was on 30.09.16. Actually she was already showing signs of improvement by then, even though her blood test results were so bad. I had started her on daily probiotics, which somehow seemed to fix her bloody poos. She has been pretty good ever since, and to this day I give her a probiotic most days. Anyway, re. the EPO, it was a weekly shot and she had a total of 4 shots over a month. Her blood test results on 19.10.16 (3+ weeks after the 1st shot) were a great improvement and even the vet said it is incredible. Kidneys (which had been “shutting down” at one stage they reckon) were almost back to normal. Liver readings all back to normal. Thyroid normal. Potassium & cholesterol bit high – likely due to her new fondness for A/D (which has been very difficult to wean her off!). Anemia much improved: PCV climbed back up from 0.12 to 0.22, haemoglobin went from 25 to 51, red blood count increased from 1.97 to 4.62. Not quite there yet, but a move in the right direction. On 28 Oct, her weight had increased from a low of 1.5kg to 2kg. No longer dehydrated and skin / fur felt springy again (although this is of course relative – she is certainly old and looks it! No spongy fat to speak of!) Since then she has had her ups and downs, but these have all been quite minor compared to the liver drama.

As for the actual medicines, I don’t have the names as they were all given loose in those white packets the vets & doctors always dish out.

But it does seem that the EPO turned things around. That, plus all the intangible stuff like the blessings and aromatherapy (!!) and her cozy room and her daily outings to the garden (supervised – hardly a need when she could barely move though!!) in the morning sun. I actually think the latter stuff was crucial and was what helped her recover. Seriously not only were the vets disbelieving (and probably still are), but we are still amazed. I don’t know how she survived her kidney problem and liver problem and poo problem and severe anemia problem. Oh, and somewhere in there is also “severe ascites” (abnormal accumulation of fluids in the abdominal cavity). So – that should give some faith to Rosie! I reckon – make them feel happy and loved (as I am very sure Rosie is) and half the battle is won.

This is Princess.

Selina, thank you so much for sharing!

Princess, you go, girl!  Stay strong and healthy!!

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2017/03/05/princess-the-miracle-cat..

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