Do not enter Chessa’s enclosure wearing pajamas! I was so tired this morning that before first light, I just put my robe over my pj’s and went to put Kota outside and check on Chessa.  First part of the visit went quite well which surprised me, because this will be her first full confinement (for 10 days) while she finishes her meds. I actually picked her up and put her up on the table and gave her face rubs and ear rubs (first time for that!) While she was rolling her head and enjoying the attention and purring up a storm- I quickly snuck in the three drops of tobrymycin that she is on in each of her eyes. They are quite the mess. No reaction, I am thinking hip hip hooray! I finally got her to trust me!

I put her down on the floor and she turns around to give me an ankle rub and BAM nails me! Bites the back of my shin, scratches my shin and walks away as if to say- “that’ll teach you human!”  If I had my jeans on, it might not have done so much damage, but I am pretty flayed at the moment.

Came in the house, poured bleach on it- hurts like the devil, but the best thing to kill infection (according to an ER doctor of long ago). So I guess she showed me who is actually in charge of this sick bay detention. She is calico after all!

Mike had his ablation on Weds and the night of his procedure, he went south quick. I rushed him to the hospital and they admitted him into ICU as he was going into sepsis. He also had tested positive for MRSA. They moved him to the cardiac unit after realizing the pain in his leg was interfering with his heart. If I am repeating myself, I apologize. I am worn to the core.

He is texting me from the hospital and his texts make no sense. He is out of his head in pain. When I talk to him on the phone, he complains about all the stuff he now has to do- breathe through tubes, physical therapy, bland diet, it’s a never-ending circle of complaints and I just let it go because honestly, I think it might make him feel better.

I talked to the doctor this morning (the one who did the “routine Procedure”) and asked him why, he did the procedure when he knew the risk of infection might happen. He said that this type of reaction to this procedure is “extremely rare.” He said he didn’t become a surgeon to do harm to people and he is very sorry that they didn’t cover all their bases, but it was not done in a truly sterile environment ( surgical room) just at the office in a special room and they “take every precaution to keep the field sterile.” He said he thought the rewards warranted the risks as Mike has continued to have multiple infections, lesions, ulcers on this leg. He gave me his cell phone number and told me to call him anytime. It didn’t make me feel better about what Mike is having to endure and I got a bit of a feeling that he was trying to cover his ass- but it is what it is.

Then the doctor who is seeing Mike called and he said that Mike is still having a rough time keeping food down, he is weak and sometimes disoriented, sometimes combative and “it will be a long slow period of recovery before Michael returns to me.”

I have stayed away, letting the professionals do what they are paid to do. I don’t wish to see Mike this way, I want things to settle down, so we text and call each other.

In all this madness, Chessa who is our 17 year old calico girl had vanished from outside over six months ago. She came home last night and she is in a really bad way. She left weighing 16 pounds and came back weighing 9. I don’t know where she has been, she is injured on her rear legs and her third eyelid almost covers both her eyes. I dropped her at the vet this morning and am waiting to hear about her results. So I guess I am on phone duty when all I want to do is just call my best friend Mo and take a cruise! 🙂

I guess I must be tired. This is Mike’s leg after the procedure and to me it looks like a marijuana leaf in the middle of his leg where the steri-strips were placed! I know, I need sleep! LOL

My old vet agreed with me that something was drastically wrong with Percy when he inserted a moist q-tip into the rectum and gave it a few turns. He looked at me and said :”Mary Anne, this does not feel right!” I agree. I told him that for me, it seemed like his rectum wasn’t in the right place if that makes sense, so he gave Purrcy some barium both orally and rectally and then after a brief wait, he did films.

On the x-rays you could see that Purrcy’s colon did not completely connect to his  rectum. There was just a narrow opening. Chances are, Purrcy was genetically inbred with no chance to survive and live a normal life. So he was euthanized.

I just laid him to rest in our field and thanked God that my old vet had enough faith in me to chase and test for answers, instead of just falling back on the excuse of parasites.

It just felt wrong for me from day three. He should have been pooping from one end to the next with the amount of food he was eating and that just wasn’t happening. No, I am not a vet, never have even played one on the Internet, but I know when something isn’t right with a cat or kitten. And something was definitely NOT right for this curly-haired fighter. He fought valiantly to the end and we are blessed that he entered our lives however brief that visit turned out to be.

Speaking of visit, today’s visit turned out to be $229.48 if anyone can help us to cover this cost- you would have my undying gratitude.

I am sitting here at the computer waiting for my old vet’s office to open so I can take Purrcy in to be seen. I stopped using this vet, although he is wonderful- he literally is better than Dr. Pohl because his accountant and I were clashing. Unlike my new vet who takes payments of any sorts, this one wants the money up front. I have 30 days to cover the payment or else. But I am taking him in anyway even though there is only $30.00 currently in the kitty.

Purrcy is not pooping with any authority. I have done all the tricks in the trade to help him: canned pumpkin, pureed cooked string beans, more water in the formula, aggressive stimulation, mineral oil, kitty enema- you name it, I have tried it. My vet just keeps telling me it is probably round worms and until he is old enough to de-worm there is nothing we can do. I am not accepting this. I can’t explain it, but it doesn’t feel right. This kitty is so full of food, he should be pooping from one end of the box to the next- because that is what kittens do. The Queen would come along behind her litter and eat the waste to keep the nest clean and free of predators. This little boy is incapable of pooping more than what I could put on the head of a straight pin! It’s crazy, tiny droplets of poop- that’s it and that’s not how this works.

So in 20 minutes, we will head out and I hope that someone reading this might send in a few dollars (again) to help with this new vet debt.

Also, Mike two days ago underwent a surgical procedure called an ablation. He is now in the hospital with a massive leg infection!  I had to rush him there early in the morning when everything here for him, went totally wrong. He spiked a 103.2 fever- his leg was so swollen it looked like it was going to pop. I unwrapped the outer lace bandage and he screamed bloody murder and told me some unpleasant things about myself (which is totally not him). I couldn’t even lower his sweat pant back down over his leg, that’s how painful his leg was for him. He doesn’t feel pain in his leg, ladies and gentlemen. I watched him years ago screw a lag bolt into his leg without feeling it! Don’t ask, that was a bad day as well. He thought the board was there (it wasn’t)

He wouldn’t go to the hospital but as luck would have it, one of his favorite home health nurse called. Whitney is an RN. I told Whit what was happening and off he went to the hospital on her say so! He was going septic.

So my two favorite boys in my life that I value highly are both fighting different health issues. One is totally dependent on me making all the right choices, while the other is under excellent care. One is covered by insurance, and one is not. And on that note, I need to go, the vet will see me at 9:00 this morning and take a look at Purrcy and we will go from there.

Thanks for popping in for the latest Poop- let’s hope both of these boys come out okay in the end.

Gender switch!  I had to laugh because when the kitten first arrived here, I thought it was a boy. But nine times out of ten, I am proven wrong, so I said it must be a girl. Nope, male parts coming in- it is a boy.

His temp is 89.1. I did take him back to the vet as the bloat was way out of control. They believe he is wormy but he is way to young to put chemicals on him so I was told to be more “aggressive” when I stimulate him. I don’t know how much more aggressive I can be.

He did poop for them BUT he had to travel with us this morning when I took Mike to the hospital for his procedure. I told the vet, the only way this kitten poops is after a car ride of at least 20 minutes!  They told me to keep him warm- I am- the bedroom is right at 90 degrees and he has three heaters inside his box.

Now he has a 60/40 chance of surviving.

Mike had his ablation. T hey put a liter of fluid into his leg to hydrate it and cauterized his non-working blood vessels closed (said this is to promote the other working vessels to work harder). No anesthetic beyond one diazapan so he is hurting right now and will soon be asleep- I hope. He’s wrapped from foot to thigh in ace bandages even though I told them this is not a good idea (But what do I know?) I’ve only been taking care of him for 8 years. As soon as his leg starts to swell, the ace is going to cut him wide open and here we go again. So I am hoping I am wrong as he has gone through enough pain and torture with this leg that he deserves a break.

Purrcilla is showing me that she wants to be here, but everything she attempts to do just drains her. She was screaming every time she tried to poop. I thought it might be because she was impacted, but instead, I found that her rear has been attacked by what looks like fire ant bites!  No wonder she stopped screaming after I put the Desitin on her.

Her temp went down overnight, so we made her two additional sock heaters and put them in the box with her. She immediately found her way to the warmth and snuggled on down into its comfort.

Come on little girl, your week birthday is two days away- you CAN do this!

On the way to the vet this morning, Priscilla left a big present in the box and cancelled the reason for the appointment in the first place. Monster poop- hmm babies fall asleep in cars and Purrcilla poops in one! Next time she is unsuccessful in pooping, perhaps I will drive her to Mt Hood!

Vet said she is under 5 days old, has a 50/50 chance of surviving, He is amazed she is still here (so am I) She is 2.6 ounces

She gave me her first big purr at last feeding, so I changed the spelling of her name. This feeding was the most successful of all, she fell asleep with the nipple still in her mouth. She is no way out of the woods yet and I won’t breathe easy for at least 30 days. But here, you might be able to tell how her coat is changing and getting oily. In my experience this is always something that precedes a bad illness in cats and kittens.

But she is a trooper and she is hanging in there for now. Praying she stays in the here-and-now.

This little one was discovered by the homeowner lying in his grass when he turned on the water to water his lawn. As the water started making this baby cold, she cried out in distress and that’s when she was found. She was stone cold, but she has been given a warm bath, a quick dry and she is a warming cage now. We had to bathe her, as she was crawling with fleas that were larger than her!

Her umbilical cord is still attached and she is fighting to stay in the here and now but she is suffering from mini-tremors from the cold. She has eaten, she has pooped and peed- all good signs. She will be fed round the clock every two hours and we are calling her Purrcilla and hoping she will be able to survive all she has gone through. It’s going to be a long night

I had to make a quick emergency run to the store for supplies for her, so if someone could shoot me $20.00 I won’t be so stressed out come Monday morning.

Stayed awake all night last night and was out every two hours looking for skunks. Only saw one baby at around 4:00 a.m. No more families or groups just one visitor  looking for new territory to set up camp. Our No Vacancy sign is out in clear view.

This morning, I used 15 bags of clay litter to seal up the entrances to the two dens. Once they were sealed, I ran chicken wire around the entrances and secured all the edges down tight. I buried the wire about 8 inches below the ground as skunks are excellent burrowers. We had some old bricks piled behind the shop, so I used those bricks to further anchor my handiwork and discourage the skunks from digging.

There are now three of our cat traps that sustained some substantial damage from the adult skunks. Mike said two are beyond repair.our fishing net that we used to help capture the babies became another victim, skunks,   being such excellent burrowers, their claws are extremely sharp. Two managed to escape out of the net by shredding it in a matter of seconds. These items have been added to our Wish List.

Kota (who usually has to stayin his pen when he is outside) gave me clear confirmation this morning that the skunks were gone. When I let him out of his pen (after I finished my work on the dens) instead of running up the back stairs of the house, he took off like a crazy dog and did wide laps all the way back to the creek! After he got sprayed- he wanted nothing to do with the areas where the skunks normally were found. He must have done 20 laps and it was just joyous to watch him be the happy, energetic puppy. He was telling me, Look Mom, they are gone, I can be free again!

Our property still smells like skunk every so often but within a week, I am hoping all that will go away. Gone with the wind, so to speak.

This has been a very sobering lesson for us here. What a senseless waste of wildlife. Food at the feral feeder at night is now non-existent. During the day, the food trays are set up on the highest platform that is five feet high. We are not even setting out the food on the shelves below. Isn’t going to happen any longer.No food on the ground now period.

We still have to solve two more problems. Chessa, our outdoor kitty we got from Meow Village three years ago who also has hyperthyroidism- how to feed her because she can’t jump due to early abuse, where and how do we feed her? And how to add another entrance/exit to the new 24 hr.feeding room because I have a kitty ambusher who guards the only entrance/exit and won’t let all the cats inside to eat. But once we figure these last two problems out, our property will definitely be a skunk-free zone.