Orange Boy and Sissy

As many of you are probably aware, Moki is not the only kitty in our family with a medical condition. While we primarily created this blog for Moki, to discuss and raise awareness about the everyday challenges Moki faces, we have in the past also introduced to you some of his siblings and the chronic medical problems they face. Having introduced you to the other members of our family, we would now like to give you an update on their health status.

Let's begin with Orange Boy. As some of you may be aware, Orange Boy suffers from IBD (inflammatory bowel disease.) IBD can affect cats in two ways depending on which portion of the gastrointestinal is involved. When the upper portion of the small intestine is involved, animals with IBD tend to vomit, when the colon is involved, diarrhea is more likely to occur. Orange Boy tends to suffer from the later. For Orange Boy this is a life long condition, which tends to come and go. When Orange Boy has an outbreak of IBD it tends to be real bad. During IBD outbreaks Orange Boy, gets loose bloody stools. Often times he will just bleed from the rear end, even when he is not trying to use the litter box. Orange Boy is currently suffering from one such episode.

Fortunately we have found a way to help control and minimize Orange Boy's IBD out breaks. It's with a drug called, Metronidazole. The emergency doctor who first diagnosed Orange Boy with IBD back in October prescribed this drug. Whenever Orange Boy has an IBD outbreak, we give him one 50mg Metronidazole pill daily. We normally have to give him a pill for about five days before the IBD completely clears up. Once the IBD clears up, Orange Boy tends to be symptom free anywhere from one to two months before having another outbreak, at which point we start giving him the pills again until the IBD clears up.

Our ER doctor prescribe enough medication to get us through until last month, and we are now out of medication. Since the Metronidazole was prescribed by our ER doctor who is located approximately 30-45 mins away from our house, we now have to bring Orange Boy in to see his regular practitioner, before we can get any more Metronidazole, that is unless we want to drive 30-45 mins every time we need to get a refill on his medication. (Since Orange Boy's regular practitioner/ animal hospital was not the doctor/facility which diagnosed the condition, and since they have not treated Orange Boy for this particular disorder, they cannot write a prescription for the Metronidazole without first seeing him.) So with that said, we will be breaking out the prisoner transport unit tomorrow afternoon, and escort our prisoner Orange Boy to see the men in white coats.

While Orange Boy hates the prisoner transport unit and vehicle, he loves to see the men in white coats. I am sure if you ask Orange Boy about it, he will refuse to admit it, but he can often times be found purring so loudly for the men in white coats, that they are unable to get his heart beat/rate. So that's the latest with Orange Boy. We are sure after a few days on the Metronidazole his IBD will clear up again and all will be well...

Now in regards to Sissy. We first introduced Sissy awhile back, after we learned that her massive size was in fact due to a large fatty tumor. Sissy's tumor is inoperable. At the time we learned about Sissy's tumor, we thought for sure she was a goner. Sissy refused to eat or do much of anything. For two weeks I force feed Sissy multiple times a day, and was standing on the edge of giving up. If things didn't improve, and quickly I was afraid that we would have to help her to the bridge. Well as it turned out, Sissy like Moki still had alot of life left in her, and she put up a massive fight. While the tumor is still there, Sissy is now doing better than could be expected for her medical condition. Sissy has a strong appetite, lots of energy, and had been purring louder than we've ever heard her pur before. Way to go Sissy!!! So there you have it, despite some IBD occurrences, Orange Boy and Sissy are both doing well!!!