Thursday, April 30, 2009

SMUDGIE

Smudgie is my dear old pal, Julie's pet cat. He is now sick and need to be treated at the vet..... :(
Read the story about Smudgie.....
Smudgie will be about 12years old this year. He has always been a big boy, weighing about 6.2kg :) During that time when my place was undergoing HDB upgrading and I had to board him at the clinic as he’s really quite the easily-frightened one among my cats, he was found to have kidney problems. He started on a special diet and all was fine for a while. Then he stopped eating suddenly… Another visit to the vet shows he’s anaemic as due to his kidney problem, the kidneys do not produce a certain hormone for generating red blood cells and so his blood count dropped drastically. The vet can’t tell why he’s ill again although he’s been eating the special diet for kidney cats but older cats do tend to have more health problems. Poor boy is still hospitalized at the clinic now and undergoing hormone treatment by injections. He will need to have ongoing hormone injections and fluid therapy for quite a period of time until he’s stabilized. It’s such a heartache to see him sick. His appetite has dropped drastically too and now he’s only about 5.6kg. As long as he can live and eat happily and do not suffer for whatever amount of time he has left, here on earth with us, I will not ask for more…
I knew Julie for more than 30 years..... long way to come. What's the best gift I can gave ? My own creation of course! And I know Julie will like it (I hope so ...) So this is the black cat I design and made for her. I gave Julie the honour of choosing the cat's name and was told by her that her darling is pretty sick .... so here's hoping this little charm black cat will bring Smudgie some luck and may he be back home soon (^_^)

4 comments:

jules said...

Thank u very much, my dear friend and i really like it :-) It's sitting on my desk and staring at me now as i typed out this comment, hehe... and the luck is already starting to rub off, smudgie is much better when i went to visit him last night, thanks :-]

Shirley Lim said...

Glad to hear that he is much better, tell him that fairy-godmum say it's time to go home !

SuzyQ said...

Hi Shirley and Jules,
Smudgie sounds like a wonderful kitty. My Calvin lived to be almost 18 years old with kidney disease. I gave him subcutaneous fluid at home! I did this for five years. Ask your vet if this would be appropriate for your kitty - less expensive than hospitalization at the Vet.
Best wishes to all
Sue
beadweaver.blogspot.com
PS: There is a Renal Failure support group on Yahoo for kitties. They are really super helpful!
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Feline-CRF-Support/

jules said...

Hi Sue,

Thank u for your suggestion and the vet did suggest this option before but problem is, Smudgie is a pretty fierce cat at home and i don't think we can handle the subcut fluids at home. Even at the clinic, sometimes he can be cooperative, yet sometimes they need a few nurses to hold him down. I have done subcut fluids for another very sweet cat at home before, it stressed both humans and cat out as that fella turns into a crazed monster each time we try to give subcut fluids, *faint*. Anyway, my other option is to enagage a nurse to do housecalls like twice a week at home for the jabs and subcut fluids. Thanks again for your kind concern :-)

With warm wishes,
Julie