Mika's Struggles With Cholangiohepatitis

Stinky15

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Hi! Sorry for being so MIA for so long. School is back in session and my first tests for all of my classes are next week (I have a test almost every day of the week). I'm essentially in all science classes this semester which is forcing me to study way more than I normally would so that I'm prepared and on top of my game. Gotta make those grades so I can get a good job to support Mika, haha!

Mika is doing really well actually! We unfortunately had to scrap the raw diet completely because she refused to eat it. We were doing so well and then she decided that it just wasn't for her. :bawling2: Her wet food preferences have been so spotty too that it made feeding her a really big challenge. :frustrated: I decided that eating was the biggest priority over everything and got samples from Dr. Elsey for their dry food. They sent me the same flavor in wet too, which was nice. Mika went nuts for the salmon flavored dry food but I didn't feel comfortable having her on a fish flavored food so we made the switch to the chicken food. She LOVES it. She's back to running to her food bowl and my roommates have been making comments that she definitely looks like she's gaining weight. Her fur is sort of coming back in. She looks like she has some odd shading around her belly and front leg. Her back legs lost all the hair down them but we've switched back to Tidy Cats so we'll see how that works out. I have a shipment of Yesterday's News in pellets coming in. My roommate with the new kitten has a pellet litter and Mika has apparently been using it with no troubles, so we'll be making the switch to that since we have another cat in the apartment that is MESSY when he goes to the litter box. He throws the litter everywhere, tracks all over the place and even gets wet litter on the walls.
I just ran out of the Dr. Elsey's food a few days ago (I only got a 2 lb bag when I actually ordered food) and Mika is VERY upset with me. It's really hard to get the food here quickly. All of the retailers (Dr. Elsey, Chewy, Petco) take a very long time for the food to deliver. Amazon is actually out of stock for it. In the mean time, I'm been trying to supplement with the Weruva Slip 'n Serve wet foods. I bought the variety pack. A lot of them aren't a big hit but she seems to be liking the chicken flavors. They don't seem to hold her over very long. My roommate is going to give me some of her kitten's food since Mika has been stealing it. I'll be using that as well to hold her over till Dr. Elsey's arrives.

With her previous medical issues Mika seems to be doing really well! Her jaundice is now completely isolated to her ears and nipples again. She's completely off of the prednisolone. I have some sneaking suspicions that Mika might have become diabetic from being on the pred. Her water consumption on pred. was always VERY high as was her appetite. But that was what we had wanted in hopes that the lowering of the inflammation and eating more would cause her to gain weight. Instead, it caused her to appear worse (we didn't do blood work) with her jaundice and overall personality. Now that Mika is off of the pred. she is still drinking (and peeing) large amounts of water. She's also constantly hungry. Part of my issue right now is that Mika wakes me up every 3 hours during the night to be fed. But because I don't have the Dr. Elsey's (the food she REALLY wants to eat) its really frustrating because she will refuse food and then become increasingly more aggravating (I will admit I have cried the last two nights at 4:30 am from frustration and lack of sleep at Mika). She will get in my face, tap me multiple times, cry loudly and scratch on the door frames and wall corners to wake me up to feed her. If I ignore her (because I do feed her, but again, not what she wants), she will jump up on my desk and chew on my papers, folders and anything else she can get her mouth around. This includes cardboard boxes. She doesn't EAT them, just chews them. But she's destroyed important notes for classes, homework and other things in the process of chewing all over stuff. It forces me to get up, find something she WILL eat, and then this process repeats in 3 more hours.
Now granted, I was being woken up (ever so slightly because I could roll over and go right back to bed) even when I had the Dr. Elsey's food available. But I would simply move her to the bowl or drop her on the floor and she'd immediately go eat. I also don't recall being woken up so often -- maybe once a night? Where as this has been the last 3 nights, going to bed at 11 after feeding her and being woken up every 3 hours after. We'll see if the kitten chow my roommate has will appease Mika during the night tonight. I can't afford to be sleep deprived this week since I have so many tests. The Dr. Elsey's is arriving Friday.

Another thing to note is that I have noticed some interesting things going on with Mika's skin. I have two separate things occurring on her that I'm not sure about. I plan to take her to the vet in a few weeks when I get paid. The first thing I have noticed is around her mouth: I believe this is from her medication. It is only focused around her mouth on one side (the side I give her medication on). If you feel it with your fingers, it feels crunchy? Like a scab or food collected there. I have scratched it when she rubs her face on my fingers and what normally happens is it flakes off in large chunks with fur attached. Like the fur mats to the flaky skin? It's a bit hard to describe but I have gone in before and gotten tweezers and removed chunks. It isn't painful for her it seems but rather, relieving? I think it might itch because she will press into the flat side of the tweezers when I run them over the area. When the flakey fur/mat is scratched/removed there is skin below but as said, all the hair in that area is falling out when scratched or removed. It isn't spreading and the other cats haven't had any issues (Mika rubs on them) so it doesn't seem contagious. The other skin issue I've noticed is on her belly/legs: This isn't concerning to me but I don't have any idea what could be causing it. Black and pink patches have started develop on Mika's underside and legs. Some of the black patches are flaky and look dry (the skin) but they don't bother her in anyway. I don't ever see her licking them or anything along those lines. When I rubbed one of the black dry spots it flaked like dandruff. I read that dry skin like that in cats is associated with being dehydrated but as mentioned before she drinks A LOT of water. Another suspicion for diabetes.

Lastly, the only other update with Mika is in regards to the new kitten. My roommate was a little ignorant in believing that because the kitten grew up originally in a vet's clinic, surrounded by many other new animals all the time (and did really well with the transition to her parents home) that she wouldn't need to be transitioned here. When she got here with the new kitten, she let her out directly into the kitchen when Mika was hanging out. Of course the new kitten got frightened and Mika got curious about the new animal. I, of course, separated the two and then helped my roommate transition the new kitten in her room and bathroom. Every time the male cat in the apartment meowed (or went to the door) or Mika went to the door, the new kitten would hiss and swat under the door. My roommate was shocked. :rolleyes3: Regardless, it took the new kitten a week to transition to the new room and then we slowly let her out. She's now fully transitioned and comfortable around the whole apartment. My issue is that the new kitten (Stassi) has gotten along BEAUTIFULLY with the male cat (Oliver). They play all day long, sleep together and groom each other. But Stassi and Mika? Nope. Stassi will consistently hiss at Mika, even if she approaches Mika first. Mika never reacts and it has never escalated beyond that but it really bothers all of us in the apartment that Stassi can't be around Mika without hissing. Mika has tried to play with Stassi, like chasing after her or play batting a few times and EVERY TIME Stassi shuts her down with a hiss. The weird thing is that they can sleep near each other and be in the same general area/room with no trouble. But as soon as they get to a certain distance from each other, Stassi hisses. I thought it might have had to do with the bad first introduction but I'm not sure. It breaks my heart because Mika clearly does want to be around Stassi but the feeling isn't reciprocated so Mika often gets dejected and will go sit in a corner or a perch to watch Oliver and Stassi play. I don't know how to fix the problem..

Again, SO sorry for the long delay (and as a result a long long update). I will try to be more proactive about updating with Mika, but they may be every weekend rather than every day like they use to be.
I am so happy she is doing better. My cat liked the Dr. elsey's dry for a while but now doesn't seem to care for it. I didn't get a wet sample but their food only comes in the 5.5 oz can and my cat will rarely eat left overs. Best of luck with your tests!
 
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mikameek

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Hi all! Sorry for the INCREDIBLY late update. It's been very difficult for me to find free time this semester with all of my classes, so when I do have, the last thing on my mind is to update this forum (Sorry all...)!

Firstly, I want to let you all know Mika is doing SPLENDIDLY. :cheerleader: She has regrown all of the fur she was missing (It seriously felt like she just had it all grow in at once and overnight). She's a full kit-cat now! :wavey: Her eating has been great. She's actually put on some more weight which has been such a huge sigh of relief for me. We aren't to her goal weight of 8 lbs but we have made it into the 7 lb range again. She is currently around 7.3 lbs and I'm very proud of that considering we struggled for so long to get above 6 lbs. Her eating has also calmed down more. My vet said that more than likely, because she was a street cat for the majority of her life, she overate in preparation for the winter months. It seems strange to me but she has calmed down with her constant need for food.

Speaking of food, I made a very important discovery recently. I was getting very discouraged during the middle of the semester because Mika seemed to take a bit of a dip with her progress. She was throwing up more and had problems with softer stools. I unfortunately wasn't able to make an appointment to see a vet at the time but I emailed her. She told me to keep strict with her medication and go back to wet food (We were feeding Dr. Elsey chicken dry at the time). Well, of course, Mika being herself got very picky about the wet food she would eat and I was losing sleep over her destroying my room trying to get me to feed her something different. I finally started feeding her the dry chicken kitten food I had gotten while we were waiting for the Dr. Elsey to come in. She was very good with eating it for a while but, again, Mika being Mika, she got bored of it eventually. I made the decision that we were going to switch to a salmon flavor of this food, (It's Purina but I forget the specific title) which is made for adults instead of the kitten food. Of course, Mika went nuts over it and was eating it so well! Her condition got better and we kept her on this food up until last week. For Thanksgiving, I decided to feed Mika her favorite Dr. Elsey food. It was meant to be a treat for her over the week that I was at my parents and give her something to look forward to while being away from her pals. Once again, her condition dropped. She was throwing up 5 or 6 times a night and few times during the day. I was distraught until I finally put 2 and 2 together. She got worse on the Dr. Elsey so I won't be feeding it to her anymore. I believe that her body with the Cholangiohepatitis can't handle such a high protein level in dry food. The Purina food that I have her on now is around 30-40% protein and she's not had an issue on it once. While I dislike feeding her dry food, its what's doing her best. I haven't been supplementing wet food either because I worry she'll start to shun the wet food and it'll be wasted money. She's prefer the dry food from the moment she came into my life anyway.

Another big step is that my vet and I have decided that things have been going well enough that she no longer needs to be medicated daily! We are now on an every other day medication schedule which I feel is HUGE for us! This unfortunately came out of the fact that I left my roommate to care for her for close to a week while I was away on vacation and she didn't medicate Mika at all. While that was a STERN talk later when I realized, I also noticed that Mika did not deteriorate over the time I was gone. Instead, she was almost better. She had an incredible amount of energy, running around the apartment and flying up on top of the cabinets and playing vigorously with the kitten. I was hasty with my jump (I got so excited about this that when I called my vet, I told her I believed she'd be fine off the medication forever!) and my vet brought me back down to reality. However, she did feel it meant that Mika would be fine doing an every other day schedule!

We also figured out that Mika needs to have Tidy Cat litter from now on. While she would use the pellet litter (mixed with the Tidy Cat), she wasn't comfortable with it and stopped using my litter box after one or two uses because it is non-clumping. Once we switched back to the Tidy Cat, the spots on her body disappeared and she regrew her fur. My mom jokes with me that I found the one cat on the street with all the problems in the world. But, hey, at least we're figuring out what works.

For now, we've just gotten back from Thanksgiving break. She's happily playing with the kitten again and having a ball. I could tell she really missed them while we were gone. She kept following me around and laying with me. She is definitely an affectionate cat but she's never been that clingy. I've made plans to live with the roommate with the kitten next year though, so she'll have someone to play with for a while!

Hopefully with the semester winding down soon, I'll be able to get back into this forum again and keep everyone updated properly. For now, have some pictures!

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Tobermory

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I was just thinking about you and Mika a couple of days ago! Thanks for the update. Such great news all the way around: food and weight gain, meds, litter. You’re taking such good care of her. And she looks terrific in the photos. She’s such a bright-eyed little cutie! :redheartpump:
 

Stinky15

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Hi all! Sorry for the INCREDIBLY late update. It's been very difficult for me to find free time this semester with all of my classes, so when I do have, the last thing on my mind is to update this forum (Sorry all...)!

Firstly, I want to let you all know Mika is doing SPLENDIDLY. :cheerleader: She has regrown all of the fur she was missing (It seriously felt like she just had it all grow in at once and overnight). She's a full kit-cat now! :wavey: Her eating has been great. She's actually put on some more weight which has been such a huge sigh of relief for me. We aren't to her goal weight of 8 lbs but we have made it into the 7 lb range again. She is currently around 7.3 lbs and I'm very proud of that considering we struggled for so long to get above 6 lbs. Her eating has also calmed down more. My vet said that more than likely, because she was a street cat for the majority of her life, she overate in preparation for the winter months. It seems strange to me but she has calmed down with her constant need for food.

Speaking of food, I made a very important discovery recently. I was getting very discouraged during the middle of the semester because Mika seemed to take a bit of a dip with her progress. She was throwing up more and had problems with softer stools. I unfortunately wasn't able to make an appointment to see a vet at the time but I emailed her. She told me to keep strict with her medication and go back to wet food (We were feeding Dr. Elsey chicken dry at the time). Well, of course, Mika being herself got very picky about the wet food she would eat and I was losing sleep over her destroying my room trying to get me to feed her something different. I finally started feeding her the dry chicken kitten food I had gotten while we were waiting for the Dr. Elsey to come in. She was very good with eating it for a while but, again, Mika being Mika, she got bored of it eventually. I made the decision that we were going to switch to a salmon flavor of this food, (It's Purina but I forget the specific title) which is made for adults instead of the kitten food. Of course, Mika went nuts over it and was eating it so well! Her condition got better and we kept her on this food up until last week. For Thanksgiving, I decided to feed Mika her favorite Dr. Elsey food. It was meant to be a treat for her over the week that I was at my parents and give her something to look forward to while being away from her pals. Once again, her condition dropped. She was throwing up 5 or 6 times a night and few times during the day. I was distraught until I finally put 2 and 2 together. She got worse on the Dr. Elsey so I won't be feeding it to her anymore. I believe that her body with the Cholangiohepatitis can't handle such a high protein level in dry food. The Purina food that I have her on now is around 30-40% protein and she's not had an issue on it once. While I dislike feeding her dry food, its what's doing her best. I haven't been supplementing wet food either because I worry she'll start to shun the wet food and it'll be wasted money. She's prefer the dry food from the moment she came into my life anyway.

Another big step is that my vet and I have decided that things have been going well enough that she no longer needs to be medicated daily! We are now on an every other day medication schedule which I feel is HUGE for us! This unfortunately came out of the fact that I left my roommate to care for her for close to a week while I was away on vacation and she didn't medicate Mika at all. While that was a STERN talk later when I realized, I also noticed that Mika did not deteriorate over the time I was gone. Instead, she was almost better. She had an incredible amount of energy, running around the apartment and flying up on top of the cabinets and playing vigorously with the kitten. I was hasty with my jump (I got so excited about this that when I called my vet, I told her I believed she'd be fine off the medication forever!) and my vet brought me back down to reality. However, she did feel it meant that Mika would be fine doing an every other day schedule!

We also figured out that Mika needs to have Tidy Cat litter from now on. While she would use the pellet litter (mixed with the Tidy Cat), she wasn't comfortable with it and stopped using my litter box after one or two uses because it is non-clumping. Once we switched back to the Tidy Cat, the spots on her body disappeared and she regrew her fur. My mom jokes with me that I found the one cat on the street with all the problems in the world. But, hey, at least we're figuring out what works.

For now, we've just gotten back from Thanksgiving break. She's happily playing with the kitten again and having a ball. I could tell she really missed them while we were gone. She kept following me around and laying with me. She is definitely an affectionate cat but she's never been that clingy. I've made plans to live with the roommate with the kitten next year though, so she'll have someone to play with for a while!

Hopefully with the semester winding down soon, I'll be able to get back into this forum again and keep everyone updated properly. For now, have some pictures!
I'm so happy for both of you! She looks so much better and just look, she's doing Chemistry on the computer! :yess::yess::yess:
 
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mikameek

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What amazing and wonderful news!!! It has to be so nice figuring out how to help her feel better! And I looove the Halloween photo!
I was just thinking about you and Mika a couple of days ago! Thanks for the update. Such great news all the way around: food and weight gain, meds, litter. You’re taking such good care of her. And she looks terrific in the photos. She’s such a bright-eyed little cutie! :redheartpump:
I'm so happy for both of you! She looks so much better and just look, she's doing Chemistry on the computer! :yess::yess::yess:
Woot! mikameek mikameek , she looks FABULOUS. So beautiful!
I am so glad I got in touch with you again :redheartpump: LOVE the update!
Thank you to everyone! To KarenKat KarenKat : Yes! It was my favorite picture of her this year (minus one where she was being particularly cute while I was going to the bathroom but I couldn't post it since it's really obvious I'm on the toilet :p). I'm going to try and find a winter collar for her and take pictures of her with our Christmas tree! This might become a tradition of seasonal pictures. ;)
To Tobermory Tobermory : It warms my heart that you thought about us! Thank you so much! When I brought her home for Thanksgiving (our first time being home all semester!) my parents were absolutely shocked it was the same cat. She's so happy now and that's what makes it all worth it. I was telling my roommate the other day that I really think she's my soul kitty. I've really connected to her more than I've ever connected to another animal before so finally having her healthier and happy is everything I've wanted. I do hope that maybe she can get off medication (I don't know if that's possible, but it's a hope!) because thats the only part of her life she doesn't agree with right now. :lol:
To Stinky15 Stinky15 : YES, haha! I was studying with a friend for an OChem test and she wanted to help! :biggrin:
To PushPurrCatPaws PushPurrCatPaws : Thank you, Thank you!! I really particularly like that photo of her on my OChem packet because it really shows just how much weight she has put on. She still looks thin when she stands and she holds it well, but I remember the time that she was just absolute skin and bones, even when she was sitting. It brought me to tears the other day to see just how much she's improved.
 

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You are such a wonderful mom to Mika, she's so lucky to have you <3

I'm so so happy you found something that worked for Mika, she looks so much better!!!! It's amazing the love you 2 have for each other, I'm convinced your love for one angery is what's keeping Mika fighting :)

She's a beautiful girl and I wish her a long, healthy life with you
 

Antonio65

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Mika is so wonderful!
I have a soft spot for torties, she's just gorgeous, and the news she's doing much better is absolutely great.
I hope you have found the right course of action for her!
 
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mikameek

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Hello everyone! It's our routinely "over-a-month" update!

Finals finished as roughly as they came but Mika was great through all of it! She's been really sweet and wonderful recently. She had a hard time on the trip back down from my apartment to my parent's place but that's expected. She was an absolute angel for my parents while I was out of the state for a few days on a birthday vacation. She was very excited to see me when I came back home and wouldn't leave me alone for close to a week ( I mean, seriously! Following me every where -- even trying to get into the shower with me!)

She's grown really comfortable with my parents which is absolutely great. She takes her medicine from them beautifully and she's still doing really well.
I recently got her a larger carrier (In hopes that it will help with her motion sickness in the car) and I got her a laser toy to play with.
Up at the apartment, Mika had a really silly development. If you all might remember, I had a horrible time with Mika scratching up doorframes and window frames instead of using any type of scratching post I provided. I bought a sticky "cat scratch resistant" tape to put up on her typical spots at the apartment and after a while, she realized she could no longer scratch on those places. She was forced to use the scratching posts and BOY, she was awkward at it! She would stand very far away from them to scratch which would make it hard for her to be there long. Typically the post would fall over. But none-the-less, we were all thrilled she was using the scratching posts instead.
I've put up the tape at my parent's place because Mika has returned to her old habits. I'm hoping we'll go through another development where she won't scratch in the wrong places anymore.

We've been spending more time outside recently. I'll take her outside my parent's house for a good 30 minutes every day, so long as the weather is good. She's gotten very brave and is now starting to venture towards the woods. But she's been very happy out there. She rolls in the grass, chases the few bugs she can find and walks around with her tail high in the air like she owns the place.

Everyone that has been seeing her (my extended family all came to my parents for our Christmas celebration) makes a million comments on how much better she looks and how happy she seems.

It makes me tear up. I'm so thankful I didn't give up on her. I'm SO happy I did everything I could. Now all I want to do is spoil the little girl. After everything she's been through, I think she deserves a life time of spoils and love.

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Merry Christmas!

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She fell asleep holding onto me the day after I came home from my trip!

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She cuddles with my mom when I'm not there so I get pictures like these, "When you coming home momma? Haven't you been gone enough?!"
 

Tobermory

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I was just thinking about Mika the other day! She looks wonderful! Such a cutie.

I had a kitty years ago who would get car sick in her carrier. I discovered by accident that if I covered the carrier so she couldn’t see out, it helped. I would leave a little opening so she could see me and have some fresh air but not enough so she could see any movement through the windows. Maybe that would help Mika!
 
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mikameek

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I was just thinking about Mika the other day! She looks wonderful! Such a cutie.

I had a kitty years ago who would get car sick in her carrier. I discovered by accident that if I covered the carrier so she couldn’t see out, it helped. I would leave a little opening so she could see me and have some fresh air but not enough so she could see any movement through the windows. Maybe that would help Mika!
Thanks for the advice! I did try this before with my previous carrier but I think because it was too small on top of things, it didn't work well. I'm going to give the new carrier a test run to see if that makes things better and then try the covering trick too.

My mom said I really need to talk to my vet about getting something to help Mika sleep through the trip but my college student budget isn't willing to pay for something like that every time I want to come home.
 

Stinky15

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Hello everyone! It's our routinely "over-a-month" update!

Finals finished as roughly as they came but Mika was great through all of it! She's been really sweet and wonderful recently. She had a hard time on the trip back down from my apartment to my parent's place but that's expected. She was an absolute angel for my parents while I was out of the state for a few days on a birthday vacation. She was very excited to see me when I came back home and wouldn't leave me alone for close to a week ( I mean, seriously! Following me every where -- even trying to get into the shower with me!)

She's grown really comfortable with my parents which is absolutely great. She takes her medicine from them beautifully and she's still doing really well.
I recently got her a larger carrier (In hopes that it will help with her motion sickness in the car) and I got her a laser toy to play with.
Up at the apartment, Mika had a really silly development. If you all might remember, I had a horrible time with Mika scratching up doorframes and window frames instead of using any type of scratching post I provided. I bought a sticky "cat scratch resistant" tape to put up on her typical spots at the apartment and after a while, she realized she could no longer scratch on those places. She was forced to use the scratching posts and BOY, she was awkward at it! She would stand very far away from them to scratch which would make it hard for her to be there long. Typically the post would fall over. But none-the-less, we were all thrilled she was using the scratching posts instead.
I've put up the tape at my parent's place because Mika has returned to her old habits. I'm hoping we'll go through another development where she won't scratch in the wrong places anymore.

We've been spending more time outside recently. I'll take her outside my parent's house for a good 30 minutes every day, so long as the weather is good. She's gotten very brave and is now starting to venture towards the woods. But she's been very happy out there. She rolls in the grass, chases the few bugs she can find and walks around with her tail high in the air like she owns the place.

Everyone that has been seeing her (my extended family all came to my parents for our Christmas celebration) makes a million comments on how much better she looks and how happy she seems.

It makes me tear up. I'm so thankful I didn't give up on her. I'm SO happy I did everything I could. Now all I want to do is spoil the little girl. After everything she's been through, I think she deserves a life time of spoils and love.

View attachment 270047
Merry Christmas!

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She fell asleep holding onto me the day after I came home from my trip!

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She cuddles with my mom when I'm not there so I get pictures like these, "When you coming home momma? Haven't you been gone enough?!"
I'm so happy for you and Mika! You are a great Furrparent! Enjoy your time with her!
 

sidneykitty

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I just wanted to say Mika is such a gorgeous girl! I do love torties, they are something special. :)

I was reading your thread amid some fears about my own cat looking for ideas/advice/experiences and I wanted to say I am so happy to hear she is doing so well! It is so hard when our beloved cats are ill, so seeing them feeling better is just so wonderful.
 
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mikameek

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I can't imagine anyone is still following this thread but I logged on today looking for some advice with introducing two cats to each other.

Mika is absolutely FABULOUS! I don't have a single issue with her anymore aside from her issues with the carrier and travel. She does seem to have a problem with reoccurring ear infections but for the time being they are at bay (and for the longest period of time as well!)
Mika is completely off her medication!! It's absolute miracle considering where she was 2 years ago. She actually put on so much weight again that I had to start monitoring how much she was eating at a time again! Before, I would fill the bowl up and let her eat as much as she wanted through the entire day (aka, filling up the bowl every time it got empty). That was the norm for us for so long because she was having such a hard time gaining weight. We are still on dry food but her eating has come down to about a 1/2 cup a day with only 1 fill a day. Mika went from gorging herself all the time to now being a dedicated grazer. She'll walk over and eat maybe 2 or 3 bites before walking away and coming back later to nibble some more. At first I was worried this was a sign she didn't like the food but given her history, she'd definitely stop eating the food if she grew bored of it or didn't like it! She also runs towards the bowl when I fill it up first thing in the morning

She's gotten so playful. I've learned her favorite toys are those little balls that roll on the path inside a circular toy. She will lay there next to it for hours just smacking the ball around and trying to pull it out! I've actually had to replace this toy a few times because she's gotten so good at pulling it out and losing the ball! She loves her catnip toys. The me 2 years ago would have hardly believed my kitty would have the energy to bunny kick a banana catnip toy for 20 minutes but here we are!!

She still has issues with the carrier. I took to covering it so that she couldn't see out which worked for a few times but then she started going potty inside the carrier on the trips. Both peeing and pooping. I've tried withholding food and water for at least 12 hours before our trips but it doesn't seem to help. I uncovered her on my last two trips and faced the carrier towards me so she had a clear shot of me the whole trip. Still didn't keep her from going to the bathroom. I noticed the stools are often really soft too which tells me she's scared but I have no idea how to help her. I'm thinking about investing into an even bigger carrier so she has room to stand up fully. I'm at a loss for this one.

Currently my roommate is bringing her cat back to the apartment after Mika has had total range as the only cat for at least 6 months. The transition is not going well and my roommate isn't exactly being smart about this either. I don't think I can convince her to do the full weeks long process of introduction seeing as she tossed the cat out of her room the very night they got there because she was meowing and keeping her awake at night. Needless to say, its been a stressful situation on everyone in the apartment.

I really do believe this might be my last post in this thread seeing as the original purpose for it seems to have gone away. I can't imagine what was actually ailing Mika especially since it seems to just have slowly gone away. Regardless, I'm absolutely thrilled to have a healthy kitty that wants to play, snuggle and run around like any other cat her age. Here's to hoping that anyone that comes across this thread finds the help they were looking for, learns to never give up on their cat and fight for their best interests always!
 

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Tobermory

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I’m so glad for Mika and you! Thank you for coming back to wrap up her story.

I recently had to take a former feral to the vet for the first time, and I gave her gabapentin. It really helped to calm her. I know several others here have used it successfully, too.
 

PushPurrCatPaws

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[...]
Mika is absolutely FABULOUS! I don't have a single issue with her anymore aside from her issues with the carrier and travel. She does seem to have a problem with reoccurring ear infections but for the time being they are at bay (and for the longest period of time as well!)
Mika is completely off her medication!! It's absolute miracle considering where she was 2 years ago. [...]
[...]
I really do believe this might be my last post in this thread seeing as the original purpose for it seems to have gone away. I can't imagine what was actually ailing Mika especially since it seems to just have slowly gone away. Regardless, I'm absolutely thrilled to have a healthy kitty that wants to play, snuggle and run around like any other cat her age. Here's to hoping that anyone that comes across this thread finds the help they were looking for, learns to never give up on their cat and fight for their best interests always!
mikameek mikameek

Just caught up with your update! Such great news about Mika!! Hooray! So good to hear from you again, too!
 
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