No RW?

The v-e-t called today; my culture for rinworm is still negative. She's going to give it until Thursday- if it doesn't grow, that means we don't have ringworm! That's good news.

The bad news is, if it's not ringworm, what the heck is it? The vet thinks it might be a really bad bacterial infection with the acne. If the culture is negative, Leo and I will go to the vet on Friday and get antibiotic shots. Hopefully that will work! Paws crossed!

love,
Lucy

Hiding

Well, I'm officially hiding from Mommy. I'm not happy about her pilling me every day and I'm especially unhappy when she washes my chin and puts medicine on it. Even sweet little Leo is mad at Mommy; his chin is in bad shape and he *really* doesn't want any more medicated chin baths. *whispers* If his chin doesn't start looking better in a couple of days, Leo is going to have to go to the v-e-t and get his chin and ALL of his floof shaved off. Uh-oh!

I'm living upstairs, under the bed. I sneak downstairs to eat but I stick close to the walls and crouch down so Mommy doesn't see me. If Mommy makes any movement, I dart back up the stairs. Luckily Mommy doesn't fit under the bed so I'm pretty safe (although Mommy did move furniture around to vacuum and clean- I did NOT like that, either!).

When Mommy falls asleep, that's when I get my cuddle time. I like to sleep by her head. She's doesn't give me pills or clean my chin when she's sleeping. Right now, Sleeping Mommy is my favorite kind of mommy.

love,
Lucy

P.S. My dog has her very own Facebook fanpage! If you or your parent are on FB, check out Sophie ~ Sweet Senior Dog Fanpage and join me in celebrating Sophie's senior years!

Smart Girl

I hate ringworm! I have to take a pill everyday. The boys are taking their pills inside treats but I'm too smart for that. In fact, I'm so smart that as soon as I see Mommy wash her hands, I run upstairs and hide. But Mommy keeps finding me :(

Because of the likely ringworm, I can't take my allergy medicine anymore. My allergy medicine makes my immune system weak and I need a strong immune system to fight off the fungus. Unfortunately, without my allergy medicine I am very likely to start developing lesions from my allergies. The vet said that it's going to be hard to tell what is from my allergies and what is from my ringworm. So I am going to still take 1 allergy pill a week to try and help hold off the allergy lesions.

The vet shaved the fur off my chin because of my acne. My acne is really bad and likely related to the ringworm. Now my chin is nekkid and Mommy has to clean it everyday with special medicine. I'm a good girl and I let her do it but I'm not happy about it. Leo has the same problem and he has to get special chin baths, too. If his doesn't start getting better, he's going to have to get his chin shaved, too. Then we'll both have nekkid, pointy kitty chins.

Oh kitties, ringworm stinks. We don't have any culture results yet but at this point, Mommy hopes that it is ringworm because it's definitely something and at least we know how to fight the ringworm battle and win! We don't want it to be something else that might be harder to diagnosis and treat.

Charlie's chin looks good but he has ringworm on his ear. He's been very twitchy and uncomfortable. It doesn't feel good to have ringworm in your furs- it's itchy and icky. But Mommy is trying really hard to take care of us and help ease the itchy ickiness. Thank you for all your purrs, we need them. The vet said that fighting ringworm is a marathon, not a sprint. We are trying to take it one day at a time.

love,
Lucy

Ringworm.

First of all, thank you all SO much for the birthday wishes, gifts, and pmails! I am truly in awe of how many caring friends I have in Catsterland. Thank you!

In other news, I'm mad at my mommy. She gave me the worst b-day present ever. A trip to the v-e-t and a ringworm culture. And even though the ringworm culture will take up to 2 weeks, the vet and Mommy are 99% sure that Leo, Charlie, and I ALL HAVE RINGWORM.

What kind of crappy birthday is this? So you can see that all of your wonderful birthday wishes were extra special to me today because today was a rough day. Thank you so much friends!

love,
Lucy

From Lucy's mom:

It's been awhile since I've hijacked Lucy's diary and written an emotional rant so here goes:

Ugh. I HATE ringworm. Lucy and Sally got it 6 years ago. It was awful. Absolutely awful. We got rid of it. Then they both got it again, 4 years ago. Still awful. It's so hard to get rid of!

And now, ringworm again. Except this time I have 3 cats instead of two. And I cannot even imagine pilling Charlie- I might lose an arm or an eye!

I feel sorry for all the kitties and for myself. But I'm trying to not freak out about it. It's a fungus that causes a rash. It's not the end of the world. And two blessings- both Sophie and I appear to be immune to it (based on previous experiences).

The vet shaved Lucy's chin and treated her poor chin. Lucy was a sweet girl and tolerated evcerything so well. The vet wants all 3 cats to go on daily Itraconazole (anti-fungal) for the next month and then we will taper it down for 2-3 months (or longer, if needed).

The vet also wants to shave Leo's floof off; we compromised- Leo keeps his floof for another month and if there are still ringworm symptoms, he will get a lion cut. I'm conflicted about this for a million reasons, not the least of which is that my precious Sally went into cardiac arrest at the groomer's while being shaved in a lion's cut. She died later that evening at the ER vet hospital. The vet offered to shave Leo for me at the hospital if it needs to be done and I'm a bit more comfortable with that. Hopefully things will be better in a month and Leo will be able to keep his beautiful floof!

Thanks for listening/reading. 3rd time's the charm, right? Here's to hoping that this is our LAST battle with the dreaded ringworm.

Take care,
Molly

Oh no!

Bad news, friends. Remember how when I first started developing acne on my chin a couple of weeks ago and then it spread to Charlie and Leo? Mommy had an uneasy feeling that it might be more than just acne. She thought it might be ringworm. It didn't look anything like ringworm but the last time I had ringworm, one of the first symptoms was acne.

So Mommy called the vet- they said not to worry, it was probably just acne. Wash kitty chins daily and it will go away. We've been getting lots of chin baths and the acne got worse but then looked like it was getting better.

Two days ago, Mommy noticed a sore on Charlie's ear. It looked like ringworm but she decided to keep an eye on it for a day or two to make sure it wasn't a scratch or something else. She's trying not to be ringworm-paranoid b/c after the Ringworm Epidemic of 2005, she's had me cultured at least 10 more times. The vet said, following the last negative culture, "She doesn't have ringworm anymore. No more cultures! Any skin conditions are from her allergies, NOT ringworm!" That was a couple of years ago.

This afternoon, Mommy saw me licking my back paw. That uneasy feeling returned b/c when I first had ringworm, it started with acne and with a sore between my toes. She cornered me and checked out my paw. Icky sore between my toes. If I keep licking, I'm going to have to go back in an e-collar.

Mommy is 99% positive that we all have ringworm. My vet is closed today so I will have to wait until Monday to get cultured and start on medication. I will have to go off my allergy medication b/c it will suppress my immune system and I won't be able to fight off the ringworm. That is bad news, my allergy skin problems are likely to return, too.

Leo and Charlie will have to be treated. It's going to be a nightmare. May have to shave Leo's floof off, depending on how bad the ringworm is. Sophie's cultures have always been negative so we're not going to worry about her. The biggest battle is environmental cleaning. Because I am so susceptible to ringworm and it affects me so badly, everything in our house will need to be bleached every other day or so.

It's not good news- ringworm is a long, frustrating battle. Sure, there's a 1% chance this isn't ringworm, but Mommy's not going to bury her head in the sand anymore. We've fought this enemy before and Mommy knows what it looks like when I have it. Dang. If you could spare a few purrs for our family, that it isn't ringworm and if it is, that is still a mild case, we'd appreciate it.

love,
Lucy

Bizarro-World!

Mommy was gone all day and I finally had a chance to visit Catsterland this evening. What in the world is going on? Major fleas on diaries and diary comments! Of course things like this tend to happen on a Friday, right? Hopefully HQ can fix it soon as it's pretty confusing to figure out who wrote which diary!

Everything is good here. My mommy is still having bad problems with her toe and foot- she saw a podiatrist today and goes back on Wednesday. Hopefully things will be better by then!

My acne is clearing up but it's been a real battle! Mommy felt like bashing that stupid plastic fountain with a hammer but she just threw it away instead. Interesting FYI- kitty acne stains towels! Mommy's going to bleach our towels this weekend to see if that will get rid of the stains. Yuck!

Charlie still bugs me. Mommy thought I totally hated him but she did discover something that may indicate I don't *totally* hate him. She heard Charlie meowing like a little baby. She ran upstairs and found me and Charlie playing pawsies- not fighting but playing! We couldn't let her know that sometimes we like each other, so we made sure to make a big, hissing ruckus with each other later!


love,
Lucy

Sending lots of love to Sugar and her family. Purring for a peaceful crossing and comfort for her loving family.

Bad Boys!

Bad, bad boys! My brothers are double trouble tonight! First of all, my mommy has a bad toe. It's wrapped in all kinds of gauze and craziness. She has to soak it in hydrogen peroxide 3 times a day. She spends most of that time trying to keep the boys out of the bowl of hydrogen peroxide! Crazy boys.

Then, when she wraps it in gauze, she has to defend the gauze from Charlie's paws and Leo's teeth; they both think it's a new cat-dancer type toy!

But tonight, Charlie took it a step further. After Mommy's toe was wrapped, Charlie walked right up to her foot and tried to chomp on it! Yeeeooowwwch! No damage done, but it was close.

Charlie's not the only turkey in this house. Tonight my sweet, geriatric, deaf and almost blind doggie was attempting to walk down the hallway. Leo was on the right and Charlie was on the left. Sophie can't see very well and she has arthritis so she's not the best at moving around, either.

She tried to make her way down the hall and between the boys. The boys didn't even try to get out of the way. Sophie accidently stepped on Charlie's paw. Charlie meowed and ran to Mommy for protection (we were all surprised by his mellow response). We were even more surprised to see Leo fluff up his floof and trot down the hallway after Sophie, as if he was a tough guy and he was going to confront her for stepping on Charlie!

Sweet Sophie didn't even really notice him. She justed wanted a drink of water. Tough guy Leo wasn't so tough when he caught up to her. He gave her some sniffs and then just walked away.

That's right, little brother, just walk away and keep on walking. Leave Sophie alone!

love,
Lucy

P.S. Mommy added a new photo of me to the World's Coolest contest. You may recognize it; it was taken on the way to the v-e-t. Scary! Please vote for me!

We're Baaack!

Yay! Our laptop was released from the laptop hospital and now it's back home on the ottoman where it belongs! And that means all kinds of things- Mommy can once again procrastinate from paperwork and housework and I can cruise through Catsterland at my leisure. All is right with the world.

And now that we have the laptop back, we were able to enter photos in the World's Coolest photo contest! And we've started voting, too- lots of great photos!

Please take a peek at the photo entries for me, Leo, Charlie, Sally, and Sophie. Please vote for me! My sibling's voting pages are linked on the bottom of my voting page. And I'm hoping to vote for all of you, too! Feel free to leave your voting page link in the comments if you'd like.


love,
Lucy

P.S. Paws crossed that we get zealies for voting!

A Special, Golden Day!

Catster has been very generous in honoring our kitty family with special days- Diary of the Day, DDP, COTD, and my very special Cat of the Week honor. Charlie, Leo, our angel Sally, and I have all enjoyed the fun of Catster honors. And today, it's Sophie's turn!

Sophie has received her very first Dogster honor ever ~ Dog of the Day! The email made Mommy's eyes leak because every day with Sophie is a special day but it's especially exciting to see her sweet face on Dogster's homepage.

Sophie is our golden girl; she's almost 16 years old and she's been a constant in all our lives for so long. She's so tolerant and loving with me and the boys and she and Mommy have a very special relationship. Mommy adopted Sophie from the Humane Society when Mommy was a 19 year old college student and Sophie was a 1 1/2 year old scared doggie, abandoned and alone. Mommy and Sophie have pretty much grown up together.

I was adopted from the same Humane Society as Sophie when I was only 3 months old- also abandoned and alone. I loved Sophie from the moment I met her (well, I might have been a little unsure of her the very first time we met, but I quickly fell in love with her!). It's hard to describe the way I feel about her- if she moves, I come running to her side. I like to snuggle with her. I love to groom her, especially her eyebrows and ears. And when I'm scared during storms, I hide with her in her doggie den. I started doing that when I was a kitten and she's always been so patient and loving with me.

Sophie's getting older. We are doing everything we can to make her golden years peaceful and filled with love. It's hard to see her age and at the same time, we are so very blessed to have her with us.

I love Sophie! And I'm so happy to see her as Dog of the Day. Thank you HQ for honoring our sweet golden girl!

love,
Lucy

Boooo!

I know it's almost Halloween but my "Booo!" isn't a festive one, it's a "Booo! Hiss!" kind of boo! Mommy's laptop is *still* in Texas at the computer hospital. I'm so far behind in reading diaries and playing in Catsterland that I may never catch up. And we haven't even been able to enter the World's Coolest contest OR vote!

That computer better get healthy and come home soon! Mommy says we can't complain because it's still under warranty so the repairs are free. But still, over a week without it is crazy-making!!! In the meantime, our house is pretty clean, laundry is done, and Mommy is on top of her paperwork. Guess that there are some benefits to being computerless.

There's a big battle going on at our house- it's a battle over kitty acne and Mommy feels confident in saying that the tide has finally turned and we are winning the battle! 3 kitties with icky acne is a lot of work. *Hisses at that cheapo plastic fountain*

Charlie's isn't as bad as mine and Leo's. He only has to get his chin washed every other day. Mine is icky and it spread all over my lips and chin. I have to get washed every day and I don't like. Mommy also upped my dose of Atopica (allergy medicine) to every other day to help fight my chin acne.

Maybe it's because he has the whitest chin, but Leo's acne is definitely the worst. It's not affecting as big an area as mine but his is pretty bad in the areas that he has it. He kind of has a longer muzzle than me and Charlie and he's got little dimples below his bottom lips. It's hard to clean and the acne is very happy in those little dimples. Ick. Leo is getting two chin baths a day! Poor little lovebug- he sure is mad at Mommy!

But as I mentioned, we are winning the acne-war and everycat's chin is looking better today! And Mommy has been appropriately punished for buying cheap instead of the high-quality that I deserve! MOL!

love,
Lucy

P.S. Hope to be back in Catsterland soon! Come home, computer!