Snuggles the Cat

Monday night, little Snuggles suffered a seizure. A little spooked, we took him to the Vet and they ran some blood tests. They’ve diagnosed him with Feline Infectious Peritonitis, or FIP. All manners of research have told us this is a death sentence as there is no known cure. The dreaded “comfort care” was mentioned at least once as I browsed the web. A term I don’t much care for, as past experiences have left some sorrowful memories. We’re holding out hope that this little guy,who was left for dead once in his life, already, sitting in a taped up box with air holes next to my wife’s car on that night in September shouldn’t be forced to endure something so horrible. The Vets prescribed some medicine to help his immune system and now we’re left with a day-by-day situation, hoping for steady improvement, instead of decline.

If interested, here are some links about FIP:

• Felipedia.org: FIP
• Wikipedia.org: Feline Infectious Peritonitis
• SOCKFIP: Save Our Cats and Kittens from Feline Infectious Peritonitis
• Adorable Rag Doll Cattery: FIP Facts
• Steve Dale’s Pet World: Cat Health, FIP Part 1 & Part 2

Some may seem reduntant, but then again, more information is always better than less. If you would like to pass along links to further information about FIP, please comment on this post or contact me by way of the “Contact Me” page

Friday evening I received a call from V. As she was leaving the local pet store after picking up supplies for the rest of our zoo, she came upon a box sitting against her driver side door. A box of decent size, with plenty of holes in the sides, almost as if they were made with a knife of some kind. The box was taped shut otherwise and across the top was written, “New kitten looking for a good home”. V originally thought it a joke, until the box began meowing. Inside really was a kitten, no more than 6-8 weeks old, very skinny, to the point you could feel his little bones, but adorable nonetheless. I met her at the store as I was already out and about running a couple other errands. We find that this isn’t the first time this has happened out in front of this particular store, as another customer had reported the same situation a day earlier. Fast forward to when we pull up in front of our house and V walks inside to get Ma and explain what happened. 5 minutes later, Dad is holding this tiny creature telling us we need to take her to the vet first thing in the morning, and so begins the story of cat number 6, Snuggles. Josh got to name him, when we all thought Snuggles was a little girl, but the name seems to have stuck, regardless.

The vet says he is quite malnourished, with ear mites and roundworms. We couldn’t even get Snuggles a full checkup as the doc said he was too weak at the moment. So we’ll head back in a few weeks. The rest of the cats, for the most part, don’t like the newbie, with V’s Baby Girl taking the most dislike towards the latest addition to the family. I’ll post a picture or two, once I extract them from my phone.

We have five cats, one (Baby Girl) of which is sick with an inflamed pancreas, puking almost on cue and the other (Dizzy) with an abscessed bite wound on her butt that required a Vet visit to cut out the abscess. Dizzy now walks around the house with a cone around her neck and drainage tubes placed in the healing wound, at least until Tuesday.

Needless to say, Dizzy isn’t a happy camper and she has no problem letting everyone know it. Both cats are on meds and neither one wants to make that easy. Though with Dizzy, the abscess cat, we have been able to put it in her food. Baby Girl is a chore and a half to give the meds to. It takes two people to give her the anti nausea medicine. So far, its not helping much and we may have to up the dosage.

And no, I can’t claim this cute cat to the right, as one of my own.