Tabs, Heidi And Ginger’s Check-Up (again, Girl Power!)

Today is Tabs, Heidi and Ginger’s turn.

This new carrier was meant for Tabs (as it’s bigger), but since Heidi had gone in to make it her home, we let her be and just closed the door. Tabs had to use the smaller one, but it was big enough.

Ginger was nervous and mewed all the way there, though just softly. He also urinated in the carrier just before we reached, so I informed the vet assistants and they collected his urine in case any urine test had to be done. The vet assistants then cleaned Ginger and the carrier. While in the car, Ginger splashed his urine out and it smelled – that’s a good sign these days, isn’t it?  Smelly urine means the kidneys are working.

Smelly urine is a blessing. A great blessing.

When it was our turn, Heidi was supposed to go first, but we couldn’t get her out of the carrier. She was swiping from inside the carrier, exactly as a tiger would. So, we did Ginger first.

The vet checked and found a paw wound (oh no, again, Ginger?) covered by his thick fur. The wound is already infected and had turned a little purplish. This must be from a fight during one of his escapades.

Ginger also has a chronic ear itch problem. The vet checked and found a lot of ear dirt. He would need an ear drop for this.

Also, Ginger has a chronic vomiting problem too. He vomits very easily. This could be a food allergy so I am to watch and see which foods causes vomiting and to avoid these. So far, I’ve noticed that he can tolerate Primal Freeze Dried (high maintenance!) and homecooked. I’ll homecook for him.  He vomits Cindy kibble and cindy canned food too. Monge seems tolerable. And he loves RC renal kibble (who doesn’t?).  But I’ll go for homecooked for him.

We decided to do the FIV test for Ginger since Rosie was FIV+.

Ginger has bad breath, is in need of scaling and tooth extraction. We could see two bad teeth and one tooth already has a hole through it. What’s with the boys, right? Why do they end up with bad teeth? So far, Cow, Bunny, Indy and Ginger have bad teeth. Pole and Cleo are in the clear.

Ginger was dewormed. The vet assistant said, “Banyak senang, ini.”  Indeed, terlalu senang. Open mouth, plonk, close mouth.  No resistance at all.

Ginger’s results: Low creatinine but slightly elevated SDMA which indicates some sort of kidney injury. Ginger is 5.8kg. Ginger’s urine which was collected earlier, looks concentrated, so that’s a comfort.

As expected, he is FIV+.  The slightly high globulins is probably due to his paw wound and ear itch. Clavomox has been prescribed for his paw wound plus an external application of iodine, and an ear drop for his itchy ears. Revolution needed as well.

Next, we decided to leave Heidi first and do Tabs.

Of course, Tabs was easy. Tabs has flea dirt. The vet rubbed a wet cotton under her chin and found flea dirt. Tabs needs Revolution. There’s also balding on the belly, which is not serious. Tabs’ teeth are all okay, with just a bit of tartar. No scaling required yet.

Tabs’ blood test: ALL CLEAR!!  Tabs weighed 5.1kg today.

Next, we had to get the wild one – Heidi.

We almost could not get her out of the carrier again. She was swiping like a woman possessed. Finally, we got her out but she was screaming at the top of her lungs. I think you would be able to hear her from 3 shoplots away.

She had to be wrapped with a blanket around her body and another one around her head, but she was still screaming and swiping. The vet said we probably would not be able to do any bloodwork on her. I said that is perfectly okay. I also didn’t want anyone to be injured. Let’s just see what we can do for her, within reason.

My principle before this was to leave well enough alone. But after the experience with Vincent’s last stage kidney failure, I realised that there may be a need to catch kidney degeneration on the onset, at least at an earlier stage so that something can be done to maintain and delay the degeneration. Hence, the full check-up for everyone. Also, dental health is related to kidney health, hence, if a dental has to be done, it would have to be done (like for Cow).

For Heidi, we know she barely has any teeth left (from 2013 when she first came), so her dental should be fine.

We don’t know how old Heidi is, but the vet says she is “very old”, definitely older than 12 years. Well, she was already classified as “very old” in 2013, so how old IS she, actually?

Six years older than “very old”!!

The vet managed to trim all of Heidi’s nails. Salute!!

Finally, after enough of screaming, Heidi settled down and the vet was able to examine her. She has an old ulcer in the eye which explains the constant eye discharge. Heidi also has a yeast and bacterial ear infection which is pretty bad. So, she would need a strong ear-drop.

As expected, she has barely any teeth left, so definitely no scaling is needed. Her dental health is….good, I suppose?

The vet managed to draw blood from Heidi.  Salute!!

After that, we put Heidi back in the carrier, and she swiped from inside again. Revengeful, said the vet. Haha…oh yes. She does this at home too. Her favourite activity is to swipe at people when they walk past. She loves doing this.

Heidi weighs 3.8kg.

I thought Heidi, being so old, would surely have kidney problems already.

And here’s Heidi results!  What do you know? No kidney issues!! The globulin is high probably due to the ear infection. The slightly elevated ALT is nothing to worry about, the vet said.

Hey!! Heidi has no kidney issues!  So, none of the girls have kidney issues!

Boys, boys…..sigh. All the rotten teeth are from the boys.

The vet says all of our cats would need Revolution, preferably two rounds. All of them have been dewormed too. Yes, even Heidi – with the pill popper. Salute!!

We drove home.

Home!!

I put iodine on his paw wound and put him on the cow-collar. Ear drops done. Revolution done. Antibiotics done. As easy as pie.

That’s the paw wound.

All done. Cleo hyperventilated after the Revolution was applied. She is extremely paranoid.

Bunny, Heidi and Ginger’s ear drops.

Cleo is okay now.

Surprisingly, Pole is calmer than before nowadays.

Yes, she’s okay.

So now, let’s see the results:

I’ll have to monitor their weight from now on.

All eight cats done. Bunny, Indy and Ginger would need scaling and/or tooth extraction later. The girls are all in the clear. Girl power!!

We decided Zurik probably does not need any bloodwork as he is outside and we don’t even know if he has a home or another food source, so it’s hard to keep track of his life. Recently, I noticed he had a patch of balding on his head and after a week or so, there was a bald patch on his neck (it looks like a spot-on). Was that coincidental or is someone also looking after him?  There was significant weight loss on Zurik recently, but he seems to be quite okay now.

As for the fish oil, we are down to the following 3 pet products:

I’ve checked and am told that the borage oil in pet products is safe as the toxic components have been filtered off. And from the above there, apparently, reliable tests have been done on Coatex and the results are good.

I do have a bottle of Ark Naturals so we shall use that up as well.  Then, it will probably be Coatex for everyone.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2019/03/29/tabs-heidi-and-gingers-c..

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