Fly High Popsicle Poppy

Poppy came home today, a little later in the afternoon (27 Dec 2021). The house was quiet. The house has always been quiet but now it was quite empty. Now I have 3 male cats and they seem to disappear into their own separate spaces, without Popps or Akira to bring them together.

Popp's last message to me (via Chris) on 24 December 2021. She had many more that we would share but for now, only this.

"The living is more important than the one that has passed by your life. Focus on them. We will always be around you, watching you."

Poppy had severe anemia and even though  she went through 4 injections of  Aranesp (manmade erythropoietin). Her red blood cells did not increase but rather decreased. Then last Wednesday (22 Dec) she didn't eat and threw up twice. Her vet was full so I brought her to the vet hospital where we found her red blood cell count to be considerably lower and her liver values elevated. She was in respiratory distress early Friday (24 Dec) morning and the cpr did not revive her. She passed in the early hours of that morning. 

My Indoor Garden

Since so much of my time is now spent indoors, I wanted to create a small green space for us, the cats and me. We don't get out much as Bujang has IVD (Idiopathic Vestibular Disease)  now and eventhough he is coping with it well, its a challenge for me to persuade him that there are some places he should not go to at this time. Even with IVD, he is really strong in will. The kitties have taken to our very small green space well and everyone has they favourite 'munch'. Bujang likes the Calathea Rattle Snake (beside the spider plant), Rez likes his own pot of spider plant (which is now in care due to some serious chomping) and Tanaka just likes wheatgrass. Popps does not like anything at all. She hardly visits the garden. I had to read up and figure out what plants are safe for cats as well and all the plants here are, except the one at the window. The Tradescantia is not safe for cats but they won't get awfully sick on it. My Tradescantia will always be beyond them. 

After several weeks of worrying about the Calathea, I decided to just get on with it and this is my propagation centre. Here I have to see if I have the family green thumb or perhaps I'm the only one without. The cats are made of clay and come from Nepal. Since I bought a few of them when I was looking for something for Rainbow Akira. I decided to put them out. I'm sure Akira would not mind it. 

 This is my favourite kitty made of clay from Nepal. I think the red fish made it for me.

Red Clay cat on pillow in sleeping with the pepperomia. My pepperomina ruby (the one next to the kitty) is not doing well. Its very young from the online seller, and is now losing all the leaves. Possibly the roots are not yet firm and strong before the seller sells it online. Its probably better to go to a plant centre to get another one. 

My propagation station. Rez's spider plant is the one on the extreme right. He likes this pot I think because the plants are at 2 different heights and its easier for him to make decisions as to which blade he wants at any one time. I had this plant on my corridor garden and didn't know that it was also cat safe. Its only when I decided to make a green space inside that I found this out. I gave him 2 new pots but he has a 'take it or leave it attitude' to them though. 

Sunpuddle Saturday

 Sometimes a picture does tell 1000 words. 

Manly Mayhem

…not

It is quite a sight to see these 3 boys sitting so calmly together. Rezki's favourite place is next to the trolley as he can see the goings on in the kitchen easily from there. He also has a good view of the territory and he thinks he is hidden from view. Tanaka's favourite if of course by the door for the birds and the breeze. It is Bujang who has now taken up a new position in the centre. Usually he is somewhere else, hidden from view but watchful. I think it is his message that even with IVD, I am still THE BOSS.

 

Just Because ...

san thinks one of these days she will wake up and see that I am actually a white kitty. 

 

Just Because…

I am handsome san says…and I agree 

 

Bujang and IVD Day 21

This morning I went to the park with san. It was early so the grass was cool and I sat about for some time.

I showed san that I was much stronger now and could walk very well. I even walked over some dried  branches. A little stumble was ok san said. I had a good time at the park and I hope we come here again soon. I am not sneezing much anymore and have not been using the nebuliser ever since I had IVD. Possibly the antibiotics helped with that as well. 

I'm going for my review this Friday at specialist vet.  I hope the fluid in my ears are gone. san knows that surgery may be a possibility but we don't know anything until the review. I am also going back to my physiotherapist tomorow and he may be bale to help me with my neck a little more.

Amigos

san was just lookin at our sidebar and saw this png. So she has placed it here in case the png disappears or something goes wrong with san's blog labels. It makes san smile to see all of us here in this picture. Now we have Popsicle Poppy and Rezki. It has been close to 8 years that Totoro left us and 7 for Megat. Akira went to the bridge only in March this year. 

But we are fortunate we see them everyday from our window. san's sisters were surprised when she told them about us sleeping outside the house. None of the neighbours has asked san about these cats though and she is grateful that none of us has been stolen or broken by careless neighbours as well. 

Walking at the park

Here I was just taking a quick rest. San allowed me to walk on some grass after a long while - three years to be exact. She thought I had caught a bug at the park which caused my respiratory problems. It was cool to sit on the grass. I realised I got tired after a short walk and since san did not allow me to walk along the corridor I thought I should I just take a break right there. 

San wanted to show my physiotherapist how well I was walking and how much better I was at making turns. I still stumble a bit but san told me this was a vast improvement from the 1st very scary day. She also wanted to show the specialist vet when she sees him this Friday. The vet told us he wanted to see me in 3 weeks for a review. This is my 20th day and tomorrow will be 3 weeks that I have this condition. The specialist said we may be looking at 3 to 6 weeks for me. Most literature says that usually cats get out of it in about 2 weeks or so. We are still hoping that I would get a wider range of motion for my head so I can walk a little better. 

Super Sunday Morning

I had a good night’s sleep and so did san. I used the bin in the bathroom and didn’t need the peepad. I woke san up at 5.43 exactly for breakfast by singing her a loud rock anthem. She had no choice. This is my 19th day with IVD and I think I can take care of myself pretty well…except I tried to jump up the coffee table and fell breaking San’s fav coffee cup. But she told me that it was only a thing and didn’t matter. She brought me outside as she knew I wanted some attention and wanted to see the morning after the rain. 

This is me outside my neighbour’s house. The man is a good gardener. The cabbage (san thinks its cabbage but it can be something totally different) is magnificent so I sat under it. San allowed to sit only for a bit. She told me we didn’t have permission so we couldn’t sit for long. 

I am doing well and didn’t vomit like the day before yesterday so san thinks it’s not part of the IVD. She knew from reading about it that nausea and vomiting can also be part of this puzzling illness. Thank you for always having me in your thoughts. 

Bujang and IVD Day 16

 

This was me waiting for dinner at 5ish pm. I just had meds and was resting. san was talking to me and taking my picture (as usual)

This was me in the morning. My head tilt is not so obvious here though but it is still there (see pic above)

I hesitate to say that things are looking up. Even though I would like to think this, there is still a small part of me that worries. The worry is that the reason why his head is tilted to the right when there is fluid in his left ear. The literature states that if the fluid is in the left ear, the head tilt should be on the left as well. 

He had his last antibiotic pill yesterday and I hope it would have resolved the fluid problem although it may not. We may still have to drain the fluid out which means he would have to undergo surgery for that. 

But the encouraging thing is that his life is gradually returning to normal. He can use his bins, he can jump up and down from the bed, walk about the house without too much problem, eat as much as he wants (he eats small amounts but several times a day) and drinks water. His head tilt does not seem to bother him too much except it does get in the way of eating and drinking a little. Of course if he misses a step when he needs to turn, he would have to make a bigger sweep to return to the beginning. 

I am thankful that he has no nausea and neither is he vomitting. Needless to say I am also thankful that there are no polyps or tumours in his brain or spine, which could also cause Vestibular Disease. (IVD)

Bujang and Idiopathic Vestibular Disease

 

He has the characteristic  head tilt of sufferers of this disease. This was taken on the day that he had physiotherapy with Dr Lalani 4 June.

This was Bujang yesterday 8 June 2021. 

Here he was able to walk. Although he stumbled a bit, his legs did not collapse from under him. He was stronger as well and did not have to make wide circles when he needed to turn. He did decide to pee in front of my cupboard but that was an accident. This morning 9 June, he went to his bins twice and did everything well. 

This is my record of his progress. Usually I would do a blog but I think this would also suffice for me to keep a record. This was the advice given to me by Dr Ly when my cat Megat had lymphoma. He said many people with pets search for information and all notes would be useful. When Bujang was diagnosed with this, I also looked for information about cats with this disease but there were few. It seemed this disease would affect mostly dogs and there were a few that I found on FB but no one has managed to give me new information about cats. So I thought I should begin but have not decided if I should do up a separate blog just for this or just to write the progress here. But I should begin from the beginning.

15 days into idiopathic vestibular disease (26 May - 9 Jun 2021)

This is a very long post about his journey with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease. Still ongoing.

26 May (Wed) - fell off when he wanted to get to his cat seat that was about 1 foot off the floor. I heard a loud bang and it seemed that he had hit his head. He then fell off the cupboard where his carrier was. The cupboard was about 5 feet off the floor. He would usually get to the carrier by jumping on my bed. onto the headboard and then to his carrier.

27 May (Thur) - went to vet, unable to check thoroughly as B was angry and hissing. At home he could not walk and hid under chairs and finally camped in the study. He was upset and confused.

29 May (sat) - went to vet; did senior checkup for kidney and blood, X-rays done. X-ray showed deteriorating spine condition. Vet diagnosed inability to walk could be from a collapsed intervertebral disc space. However, Bujang was referred to a specialist vet Dr L. Still could not walk and stumbled his way , sometimes his legs would collapse under him. Still confused (both Bujang and me and his vet)

1 Jun (Tue) - MRI with Dr L. Diagnosed with Idiopathic Vestibular Disease as his head was tilted to the right and he tilted to the right when he walked. The vet said it could not be a spinal cause as he was walking in that way. Did MRI and found his head to be clear of tumours. His right ear canal was clear as well but his left ear was filled with fluids. Dr L said it could be from a previous infection but that fluid needed to be resolved as it was like a soup of infection. (‘Soup’ is my word, not Dr L’s but I understood it to be like that). The test had yet to be read and Dr L said I was to bring Bujang back in 2 weeks. The fluids in his left ear did not explain the right head tilt as there were no fluids in his right ear. He still walked poorly and had poor motor skills. Was miserable and confused.

4 Jun (Fri) - went to physiotherapy with Dr Lalani with all his reports from the 2 vets and his other tests. He said that we knew from 5 years ago that he had a back problem and so that was not new but the vestibular problem was the new one. He worked with Bujang for 30 minutes, manipulating his neck where the muscle had frozen. Dr L ( who had been working with him for almost 5 years to increase his mobility and decrease his back pain) massaged Bujang’s neck muscles and did a cranial manipulation to relieve the stress on the spine. I think it was more like your body being able to take deep relaxing breath.

When Bujang came home I was quite relieved that he was able to move his neck a little more. Dr L showed me how to massage his neck muscles to relax it and also how to put a cold compress on it. This I had done every day. I was also asked to take pictures of his progress so we can keep track of his walk.

8 June 2021

Bujang was a little better. His head tilt was a little gentler instead of that very sharp downward angle that he had in the 1st week. As a result of this, he was now able to do sharper turns and not have to do wide sweeping angles to go where he wanted. But if he missed his step, he still had to do the wide sweeps. But he was able to walk a little more quickly without falling.

The other cats were also less worried. Tanaka has stopped pulling his hair (from anxiety) as well. Rezki has turned from the gangsta boy to a sweet little brother.

We also like to thank everyone who has thought of Bujang kindly and given us support.

9 June 2021

He was able to go to the bins and we are keeping close watch. He still stumbles a little, if you see from the video, but he was quite able to maneuver himself without hitting things.

Medication:

• 1 week of antibiotics for ear infection (the only presciption meds from vet)
• pumpkin puree (for constipation) plus Turmeric from NHV
• daily neck massages (advice from Dr Lalani)
• a lot of care and attention and treats for antibiotics

Close-up of Akira's memorial stone

It quite delighted me that the Esty vendor lived at Shakespeare Road. I am sure Akira would be amused as well. This is the close-up. We decided on a monochromatic presentation with her sitting on the grass.

Memorial stone for Akira

 I am sorry to say that it is impossible to get her a kitty that she would approve of. COVID 19 has shut down a lot of ETSY artists. Finally I found her  a small one. After some discussion with the artist, we finally decided on this - of her sitting under a tree. During her last few moths with us, she became quite brave and did a lot of exploring of different spaces. I hope she likes this one. 

Fly High Akira

 

20 Feb 2005 - 8 March 2021