It's "My Kitty's Feeling Better" Thursday,

[unionjill30]

About two years ago my kitten Sid Vicious (aka Sidney) was diagnosed with feline leukemia. Two of her sisters also acquired the disease and one died. Her brother did not acquire it. All of them live with my oldest sister, and through a constant regiment of doctor visits and experimental therapies, Sidney and Corona (the other sick one) have remained relatively healthy. Recently, Sidney wasn't acting well, as she wouldn't eat and threw up frequently. After a doctor visit, it was discovered she also has myelodysplasia, which was reducing her number of healthy red blood cells. Medication didn't seem to help out, and she kept dropping in her blood count as well as weight. Eventually, her brother, Kahlua, was brought to the vet with her and they did a blood transfusion. For a month she's had weekly blood transfusions from him, and it appears to be helping out a lot. She's maintaining cells and gaining some weight back. My sister and I (mainly my sister because I'm poor) are on our way to maxing out a credit card or two on doctor visits. To us though, it seems worth it to see my baby to healthy.

So, my question of the day is, what lengths do you think Willow and Tara would go to for Miss Kitty Fantastico if there was a problem?

[Mrs Vertigo]

First of all - I hope your kitty makes it . Those precious little things... when they get sick it always seems we can do so little to help.

I bet Tara would get Miss Kitty some homeopathic medicine. But, y'know, if Miss Kitty developed a catnip addiction or something, I bet she'd also be willing to sit there and hold her sweaty little paw during cold turkey. And I can totally see Willow wiping a runny nose for Miss Kitty and then crying onto Buffys shoulder about how sick her baby is. *sniffles*

And I bet that at least once upon a whim, Willows considered getting her a haircut. Or a little clip-on tie.

[Repost Moderator]

originally posted by dykeleen

OT sort of
I was going through this really awsome website and I stumbled upon ths really interesting fact! Thought You all would love to know! I was all excited when I saw this

"The Cauldron was a symbol of rebirth and knowledge. On the Gundestrup Cauldron, an ancient Celtic artifact found in Himmerland, Denmark, 1891, shows a number of dead warriors waiting in line to be dipped into the cauldron and brought back to life. It is also a symbol of the Earth Goddess Cerridwen. She is the goddess of transformation. In the cauldron, divine knowledge and inspiration are brewed."

Isn't that cool!!
Blessed be
Dykeleen

[BBOvenGuy]

Good morning!

Feline leukemia, yikes. I lost a cat to feline AIDS a little over ten years ago, and I still think about her sometimes. My ex-wife and I nursed her through an extra ten months of life, helped by an experimental drug our vet got from some buddies of his at Oklahoma State University.

As I've mentioned before, my cat Eugenie has a terminal kidney condition, brought on by old age (she's around 15). I've been able to keep her stable for a couple of months now, thanks to a change of diet and subcutaneous hydration. Five times a week, I poke a needle under her skin and put 75 to 100 ml of fluids into her, and that makes up for some of the dehydration caused by her weakened kidneys. It's something that takes a little getting used to, but it can be done. I think Willow and Tara would do at least that much if Miss Kitty needed it.

Have a great day, everybody!

[mscheckmate]

I think Willow and Tara would do whatever it takes to keep MKF around, as long as her quality of life is good.

My sister and I have each had cats with kidney problems who ran up $10,000 worth of medical bills. My cat's bills, fortunately, added up over the course of three and a half years. My sister was not so fortunate. Neither of us regret the expense, or the time spent administering subcutaneous fluids and epogen injections. If an animal's quality of life is still good, you do what you can to extend that life, assuming that doing so won't cause you to end up in debtor's prison. My current cat, though, has pet health insurance, so that if she needs extensive treatment some day it will be less of a financial hit.

My sister-in-law is a veterinarian. (Too bad she was still in school when my cat was sick ). She has, so far, adopted several animals with easily treatable conditions, whose well-to-do owners wanted to euthanize them rather than pay for their treatment.

Maybe some people would be better off with virtual pets, rather than the real thing.

[theatremouse]

ok, not on the topic of ill kitties, but totally on top in terms of todayness, i just returned from an outing which was tres coffee kisses and gay love.
i mean, no actual gay love, but that coffee that willow and tara had that was the coffee that was the coffee that was the "cant just have coffee" but was also a result of the "have coffee sometime" why i am i being so (albeit idiotically confusingly) specific, i know you all know what i mean. anyway, i just had a one of those.
and that's uberhappy.
so yay! for today!
yay!
peace.
[img:8d8625c155]http://www.forum-smilies.com/fun_52.gif[/img:8d8625c155]

[darkmagicwillow]

Best wishes to your kitty, unionjill.

I'm happy my kitten is barely over 2 so I haven't had any health problems to deal with yet. I'm going to have to give him his first pill for an airplane ride next week and I'm so not looking forward to that, but if he's not tranked, he's completely capable of yowling at the top of his impressively loud voice for the entire flight.

[Spice Faerie]

I'm so sorry to hear about your kitty. I'm a huge cat person so I know if it was one of my kitties I'd do anything to help make him better.

As for Willow and Tara I think they'd do anything and everything if it was Miss Kitty Fantastico.

Spice

[Annecy]

Theatremouse, LOL. Your post made me smile. I've been separated from my honey for nearly 3 months (damn grad school), so I'm looking forward to a similar "coffee date" very soon (Tuesday! perfect excuse to give BtVS a miss).

And regarding kitties (the feline kind) with blood disorders, my hubby works for the company that makes Epogen -- and since he's a vet, I'll have to pass along that it's helping a kitty. That will make his day. And I'll tell him to give my kitty a special hug for me, 'cause I miss her Won't see her until 12/3, boo hiss!

Annecy

[relativegirl]

I don't have any kitties, but I do have a puppy who will be 14 next week. Earlier this year she was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer so the vet oncologist put her on a medication which caused her entire body to bloat up many sizes too big until her skin couldn't expand anymore and started tearing open in horrible sores everywhere. It was really awful and it took nearly 8 weeks for her to "deflate." In the mean time, the vets had to bandage all four legs from paw to shoulder and her tail from tip to base to protect the sores and promote healing. Poor puppy had to have her bandages changed twice a day and have her sores debrided each time.

Each time they covered her bandages with bright neon bandages in a variety of exciting and disturbing colors. We literally stopped traffic on our "walks" which mostly consisted of me helping her down to the sidewalk and her walking a few feet and resting for 10 minutes and so on. I was really unsure for awhile if I was doing the right thing putting her through that, but the vets were mystified about what was wrong and couldn't give me a prognosis like "she's got x amount of time left." Plus, she still got the biggest smiles on her face when she was laying in the sun and she still barked at the squirrels even though she couldn't chase them. Eventually she completely deflated and healed and her cancer is at a standstill. She runs and plays and chases squirrels and rolls around on her back in the sun and is a very happy puppy again.

I love her very much.

And this whole long story was really just an excuse for me to try out the board's new smilie -- a tribute to one of my all time favorite whores:

[xita]

ha ha ha . love it!

[DestruktorMel]

We have a cat, Pugsly, who has feline AIDS. He got diagnosed about a year ago, but so far, he hasn't had any problems. Unfortunately, we have to keep him outside, because I have two other cats, and if he bites one of them, they'll get it too. He is the greatest cat though. When my mom and I go out for walks, he stands at the end of the driveway, looks both ways, and walks us across the street. One time, he even started walking around the block with us. It took us 20 minutes to get him to stop following us .

We just lost another cat, Dolly, about a month ago. We don't know exactly what happened...but...we think she was eaten by something. I heard a big commotion outside my window one night, then a noise, like something was dying, and we haven't seen her since. We get a lot of coyotes down here, and we had lost Pugsly's mom in a simlilar way about 8 years ago. But, we take comfort in knowing that Dolly was about 16 years old, so she had a long, good life.

And because I don't want them to get upset, we have two other cats, Xena and Katie. Katie is pretty much my baby. She's just the cutest thing, all black with a little patch of white on her tummy, and the most amazing red/orange eyes. And for those wondering, Xena is not without a Gabrielle. I made my mom name her dog Gabby