Akira 01 Acupuncture Protocol (4)

Today I went to the needle doctor. He said he has never seen a kitty who was so quiet and still when he puts in the needles. I was quite pleased to hear him saying that about me. San was pleased as well.

 This morning she had extra needles on her head. She allowed the doctor to put in the 4 needles but didn't want the 5 th one. 

                 She also had additional electrodes- 2 more than before. 

             She sat quite still as usual 

                    Napping at home. 

We are coming back on Saturday for her treatment. She is getting used to being outside the whole day which means I have to keep a close eye on Tanaka. He was outside with her and I saw him sitting quietly but before I knew it he was creeping up on her. It was a good thing she was vigilant and meowed. He knew then that the game was up and wanted to hide out but I told him it was time-out time. 

I am encouraged that she had decided that outside is a good place that is safe as well. I feel that if she is inside the room she will be away from people and the goings-on in the house and it might make her depressed later. Poppy gives her a wide berth and she does not interfere with whatever Poppy decides to do as well. So the one kitty that I have still to convince or re-train is just Tanaka. It will be a long time still I think before Tanaka gets over his obsession with Akira though. 

Just Because

I fink I hav been a furry good boy all these manymanymany days. I helped my sisfur Akira to get better and san said she was furry proud offur my contributions to the family - teamwork she said. It was at first furry boring. I thought "isn't it the little gurl's room? Why am I in it huh? Huh?" But then san came to play and she gave me treats so now its ok....although not too long ok cos I get fever if I stay alone too long in the 'gurl's' room.

Just Because

She is feeling so much better and seem to blossom very well. She is still over-grooming but we have seen some fuzz over her hind legs although her abdomen is as clean and unfuzzy-like as ever. She is more able to stand up to the boys (at a safe distance and always under supervision). I was also quite pleased that this morning, when Tanaka was trying to put his paw into her cage, she made a clever move of jumping down onto the bottom of her cage, away from him and then she yawned widely. Before this, she would have screamed at him loudly, which in turn would make Tanaka even more excited. So this morning, both of them we relaxed.

The best thing is that she has started to play and would climb over the boxes with great confidence and last night, she made a loud request to go out for a night walk along the corridor, after a whole month of just putting on her harness and then having to take it off again in a few seconds.

Although this is the second month she is on Revolution and a fish diet, I think the arrangement of letting her out in the afternoons while Tanaka and Megat are sequestered has been very helpful for her recovery.

Breakthrough...maybe

Apologies for the very grainy pics today. I was very surprised that finally...the Tanaka and Ms Akira managed to eat side by side, even if there was still the gate dividing them. I had to snap the pic quickly as the kitties would just as quickly finish eating. They take just a a few minutes to finish dinner.

Of course Tanaka looked at her a few times but she was not perturbed and ate her dinner calmly throughout the almost 5-minute process. Then after dinner she moved away quietly and he just sat there calmly as well. I hope this is a start to them being friendlier to each other.

I had tried putting the flower essences in the food and water but in the case of Tanaka, I decided after several months, to give it to him directly. It is possible to do this as he is not afraid of new things but these days, we have to play catch before anything can happen. It is not possible with Ms Akira as the struggle and stress would undo much of what progress we have made. 

Here, Tanaka was rewarded with a walk outside and of cos he always gets his own pot of grass.

PS Tonight tanaka decided to take a flying leap and hurled himself onto the gate. Oh dear... The road is still much too Rocky

Off with the steroids!

Dr Ly saw Ms Akira this evening for her over-grooming issues. He gave her the once over and scrutinized her limbs and tummy. "No inflammation anymore. No lesions on her gums. Fur is growing well but there are still some bald patches. Cat looks happier. No need for anymore medication. She is going to do better without the Ovarid now. Recovered."

Dr Ly asked about her sessions with the osteopath and was pleased that it took only 3 sessions for her spine to be re-aligned. He said she does not need anymore meds and we should continue with the Bach as well as music. The Ovarid was just to re-wire her brain and now she is perfectly ok to go on this journey by herself.

We are all so pleased for her !

Ms Akira

 Nowadays Ms Akira spends more time outside ...

 She likes watching the corridor and sometimes the neighbours pass by. But she sticks to her guns and hardly ever runs away, unlike Bujang.

Yesterday she spent the some time outside. Her fuzz is growing quite nicely now although it would be a long time yet for her limbs to be covered by fur

Her confidence has grown quite alot and she is now able to sit in the middle of the living room unfazed. Of cos Megat and Tanaka are in the bedroom whenever she does this. She is still troubled by them and last week Tanaka flung himself onto the gates and shocked her. Megat on the other hand had tried once or twice to challenge her to a fight when she was in her night cage. Fern said that Megat finds her 'irritating' but she knows that Megat is old and finds many things disorienting. 

Taking a breather in the quiet of the bedroom in the afternoons...

At 16, Megat is the oldest of the amigos. He is now vocalising more often and sleeps most of the day away. Many things irritate him but I am glad he still finds the time to indulge Bujang in a game of 'catch' and would be the first to heed Bujang's calls for play at night. He sometimes goes in and out of rooms yelling loudly and we have to call his name. Fern is still working with him for Reiki and sometimes he tells her that he is more tired these days and sometimes gets 'headaches'. THAT is when he usually vocalises. We think its a sign of old age and he gets a little disoriented sometimes. So the calling of his name is quite helpful as he would hasten to see what was up. 

One of the curious things I have heard him say and this is to Laura Stinchfield whom I had spoken to about the amigos was when he asked her about dying. He asked her when he went to be with Toro (the Bridge) where would his body be? Would it be with him? She told him that only his spirit would be with Toro but is body would be with us. 

TGIF

Ms Akira was not happy on the way to the osteopath today as I forgot to put her soft toy in the carrier with her. She made alot of noise for the 40 minute journey but there was nothing that I could have done about that. But she was happier when Dr AL saw her and he said her leg was not as bad as before and there were no more spasms in her left leg. We spoke about her usual behaviours and the improvements in her behaviour. I told Dr AL about her night walks and showed him the video of her walking. He was pleased that she was beginning to be curious about the outside world as this would make her less 'inward-looking' and OCD. He advised that I try to wipe her down every day with warm water and sea salt as this would calm her down and wipe away the sweat on her legs. This may help her to overgroom less. He also recommended that she has the air-con on as this would make her more comfortable but that would mean I have to remove the child gates. I realised when I came home that she had a thick blanket. I had forgotten all about this and so I removed that and gave her a lighter one in cotton. This would make her less hot I hope and she would not have to lick her legs to make herself feel more comfortable. Dr AL said that she seemed to have eczema and advised that I get a cream that would not encourage her to lick her hind leg. When we came home, I managed to take a picture of her as she jumped onto the table and indeed there was a 3 inch patch that looked redder than the rest. There are many things for us to think about.

On a lighter note, I thought I would show off the hardworking cats at the vet's :) 

This one is very beautiful and would greet clients :)

This one is much more shy and likes sitting on the counter :) She greets only some clients and I was glad that I was one of the privileged ones :)

She works pretty hard looking after the dog food ;)

The vet also looks after a little dog whose owner was not able to look after. They are nice people here :)

Ms Akira's Adventures

 Ms Akira wondering if she could pounce on a bug but she was too late :)

 Where did the bug go to san?

Our night walks. It has been 3 nights now that we have gone out for a short time along the corridor. She is wearing Toro's harness as I could not find her old one with the psychedelic  pattern. She was very brave and curious. So she got much praise about her courage and bravery. She told Laura that she is not such a brave kitty but i thought after 4 years  and then going outside for 3 nights is such a great feat. 

This morning she heard me walking outside with Bujang and decided to join is by going out through her opened window. She has never done this before as she would be too afraid but NOT this morning and so I had to put the mesh. It is a pity as she now doesn't have a full view of the small garden I had planted for her to look at but I am afraid she would really try get out. The boys do not do this at their window though so I guess she is really getting her courage back again.

This is Ms akira walking down the steps. Dr AL wanted me to video her walking :)

Ms Akira and the Osteopath

Yes, if I had not been there to see it, I would not have believed it. Ms Akira did many things today and was very brave as well. She actually walked along the corridor with san! I was very proud of her and so was san 

 Ms Akira is looking quite kittenish in this picture :) The osteopath did her a lot of good.

It began some time ago when san called Laura. That was on the 16th of November and Ms Akira told Laura this: 

Akira:  I would love it if you could help me cause I feel pain inside of my body.  I feel a pain in side of my body that feels like my neck is collapsing onto it self.  and my mouth feels like it does not line up straight.  And sometimes my eyes throb.  My belly constantly feels like it is expanding and there is tight rope in there.  Cause my legs get numb and they seize up.

I do want to tell the doctor something the medicine he gave me helps me but at night time I have a hard time sleeping and also my paws tingle.  They tingle at the tips and when I eat my food I get really dizzy at first and then it goes away.  I have a hard time with anxiety and the other cats cause my body starts to feel worse. My head starts to hurt and I feel like a weight on my neck that hurts my lower neck and my shoulder blades and then that hurts my back end.  

My mouth also hurts.  When I lick it hurts my mouth and jaw.

xxxxxxxxxx

Laura then said that Ms Akira would benefit from going to the chiropractor. I then asked our vet Dr L if this would be good but he instead directed us to an osteopath as he said it would be so much gentler and since Ms Akira is a gentle and timid kitty, it would be a better option. So we got the address and this morning, we went to see Dr AL, an osteopath and naturopath,  at the Biopolis. I was very nervous as the receptionist said I could not bring Ms Akira into the clinic as one of the other doctors was allergic to animals and we had to meet Dr AL at the garden. But I decided to just wait outside the office and when he came we had short discussion of what ailed her.

Dr AL put her soft carrier on his lap and just started to massage her head softly. I gave him the transcript of our session and he read it quite calmly and after that we discussed her medication and what our vet recommended. He said that he could 'see' her cranium and he agreed that she is under some stress. He added that he would try to re-wire her reactions and persuade her to perform alternative actions when she is unhappy or fearful and not lick her hind legs.

Then he massaged or 'flicked' her spine gently to realign her spinal column. Ms Akira was not very fearful and started to purr. Then she turned around and allowed him to massage her left hind leg and that was when Dr AL felt little spasms along the muscle. Dr AL had me place my fingers on there and I felt the muscle move quite rapidly. Dr AL said that she was very brave and well-behaved as he was giving her a deep massage and it must be painful for her. Dr AL said that she must have been hurt more than once for her muscle to be in that state and she must be hurting quite a lot! She even purred when he was massaging her hurt leg! I was very impressed and also horrified that she truly had hurt herself and this could be why she was not walking well or over-grooming as she was trying to make her legs hurt less! Dr Al said that we need to see him some more times so that he could further adjust her body and if she needs some long-term care then he would teach me how to do rehab for her at home.

After some time, Dr AL announced that he managed to un-knot her muscle some and he asked me to see her face. It was a surprise for me as yesterday she was looking pinched and thin and after the massage, her face looked much smoother and less pinched. Then Dr AL said that I should watch out for some changes, however small as with a change in the body, there would be a change in behaviour as well. 

And indeed I must report that the change was quite immediate. In the taxi  she was curious and wanted to see everything that was going on outside. She lay on her tummy, quite relaxed and spent the entire journey looking curiously about. This was a great change as before Ms Akira would curl herself up into a ball and hide under the blanket and she would meow throughout the whole journey. 

The greatest miracle was at about 8.30 ish, I had opened the gate to get her some grass. Ms Akira uncharacteristically walked out calmly!! WOAH! I then scooped her up and we walked together near the plants. before she would have struggled and meowed and clawed me so that she can go back inside! Then i decided to put her in Tanaka's harness and walk her with the leash. She walked at first quite nervously but then later she became quite confident and walked TWICE along the corridor! This was unprecedented  Before Megat came to live with us, she did walk out but only infront of our house but now, along the length of the corridor. I was so pleased that she was so brave tonight and praised her. I think the Dr AL performed a miracle when he managed to massage her hurt muscle this morning. I look forward to more night walks with Ms Akira when it is more quiet. HURRAH!

Ms Akira on Friday

 Hanging out with san at the computer...

 The faint fuzz of fur is quite apparent on her thigh and

inner legs as well.

Tomorrow would be on month that Ms Akira is on Ovarid. Next week she would be taking it twice a week instead of every alternate day. She is also much calmer as well. We will be seeing Dr Ly in November for a review.