 Purred: Tue Jun 26, '12 7:40am PST |
 | |  | | We are on our last...I don't even know what to call it, with our CH cat Fiddle.
We've had her for 2 1/2 years now, since she was a tiny 2week old kitten. The problems began from almost day one- she had diarrhea & had to be treated for coccidia, wasn't learning to walk properly and got diagnosed from a very expensive ER vet as having CH, and in her adulthood, suffers from constant eye infections.
She was tested for herpes virus and for cysts in her eye, both of which came back negative, and was finally given steroid eye cream (to no avail). Teramycin seemed to do the trick, and recently we switched her to Tobramycin when the local feed store stopped carrying the former. It keeps the inflamation at bay, but it seems the tissue remains slightly inflamed even when we're extremely rigorous about applying it day and night. The instant we stop applying it- we have a squinty, weepy-eyed blind cat.
We had her declawed (on our vet's reccomendation, please don't flame me for this) because he initially suspected the eye issues were being caused by her scratching her own eyes up. I waited nearly 3 whole months of constant eye medication with relapses as soon as we stopped treating her before I gave in. It was not an easy decision, as her agility was already limited by CH and I was scared of what might happen if we damaged her feet like that, but I didn't know what else to do. Fiddle seems to be a first everything for our vet, so I have a feeling he was out of his element as well. Needless to say, the problem persists, and now I've got a declawed CH cat with even more limited mobility than before.
My husband hates her, and I can't blame him. This is because she has the less than charming tendency to defecate outside of her litterbox. We clean her box nearly every day, and yet she will still go behind the fish tank, in the middle of the hall, or on the floor right next to the box. We have been forced to keep her in the laundry room during the day, for fear of coming home to puddles of dried fecal matter. However, that doesn't seem to help, as often as soon as we let her out in the AM she runs off somewhere to leave a nice squishy present. It used to be light colored, almost like baby poo, but now it's dark and tacky- I think this has something to do with her food, as we've noticed our 'normal' cat also has darker stool.
We're feeding her Wellness canned grain-free turkey formula. Before that, she was on Blue Buffalo Limited Ingredient turkey and potato dry food. When she was on the dry food, she occasionally had loose stool, but I'm not certain it was as frequent as it is now.
I have no idea what we're doing wrong. The vet has made noises that we may have to take her to a veterinary optometrist about the eyes, and besides prescribing some truly foul Science Diet soy-protein based sensitive stomach food has largely been unable to help with her gastrointestinal problems either. I'm tired, and stressed, and my husband is sick of it, and quite frankly I'm sick of him complaining, as I don't really enjoy dealing with her constant issues either. I'm sorry if someone out there gets angry for me saying these things but I am on my last nerve. I can't keep dealing with this, and we've already poured thousands of dollars into medical care for this animal, seemingly to no avail. I feel like I can't even enjoy her company any more- she hates being held because she assumes she's going to be medicated, and when she's out I am usually cringing mentally and waiting for the next messy disaster.
I am pretty sure my husband wants to have her put down or try to find a rescue to take her (which is laughable given most rescues can barely find homes for NORMAL, HEALTHY cats, much less our little trainwreck), but he won't say anything because he knows I wouldn't let him. What on earth is wrong with our cat? She's UTD on shots, flea preventative, and has been tested for nearly every nasty under the sun and the results all came back clean. |  |  | |  |
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