I suppose this is an update on both of the Kittyboys. They were very patient and mostly tolerant of all the activity involved in prepping for a hurricane such as: being shoved into carriers (against their will), long (for them) car rides to strange places and then getting accustomed to a strange place only to be wrestled back into carriers (once again very much against their will), long (same length) car rides back home and then getting used to being home again but with no AC and a fur coat they cannot remove. Oh dear, poor babies. But they seem to have muddled through, as you can see. As the boys have gotten to their full growth (18 months old now) we see that while we used to struggle to tell them apart, it's much easier now. And it's not just their very different personalities. Wyatt is much bigger than Brysco. He is taller, longer, broader across the shoulders, heavier and just feels like a more solid presence. Brysco on the other hand, is shorter, much lighter, smaller boned and just feels more fragile in general. Don't let that fool you though, he can be a menace if he chooses too :) Poor little baby Brysco had to have dental surgery recently. Awwwww :( We noticed about 3 weeks ago that he didn't have his usual appetite. He became, what we interpreted as, very fussy about his food. Persnickety, picky, Diva-ish, particular, whatever you would like to call it. And since cats are reknowned for such behaviour, we didn't think much of it until we realized that he was losing weight. That's a concern. Most cats, while they certainly can and do snub meals now and again, will not willingly starve themselves. So we made it a mission to seek out and find food that he would eat. We tried so many flavours, brands and textures with varying degrees of success. And then his behaviour began to change. He slept more, which frankly is hard to measure since cats sleep a lot anyway, but he stopped engaging in play. Uhoh. He was always an absolute fool for a butterfly on a string but now suddenly, if presented with said butterfly, he would walk away. Hmmmmm. I think I would have been more worried, earlier, but he would have several off days and then one day when he was more like his old silly self. He would eat and play and wrestle with his brother and we'd think, well, whatever it was, he is over it now. Good. And move on. But you know how mom's are, we listen to our instincts and my instincts said that something was wrong. So I made the vet appointment and took him (over his very vocal objections) in. The vet determined very quickly that he had dental issues which is odd for such a young cat, especially since his brother does not have these problems. Hmmmm. So the doctor gave us a dental rinse to give him once a day. He showed us how it was done. Brysco was not well pleased. Not with the vet or the tech or, considering that I just stood there and observed it happening, not with me either. But with all good intentions, we went back home, medication in hand and the very first application went extremely poorly. The second one fared no better. By the third one, he had taken to hiding under the bed all day and not coming out for anything or anyone. I explained what was going on to him, I begged, I demanded, I cajoled, I pleaded and eventually I cried. He needed this medication and what the heck was wrong with me that I couldn't get him to take it. Every time I dragged him out from under the bed to give him his medicine, he fought me, I tried to manhandle him (he is an absolute Houdini by the way when it comes to getting out of towels and blankets as purritos) We were both absolutely traumatized. Eventually I called the vet, told them what was going on and explained that no matter how we tried, he wasn't getting the medicine he needed and asked, did they have any other suggestions. The doctor said stop. it's not doing either of you any good. Leave him alone. Completely alone. Eventually he will come out from under the bed. This kind of stress is not good for him. Give it a few days and we will see how it goes. The vet tech called a few days later to check in. I reported that he was eating even less but at least he came out from under the bed and stopped running away whenever I came into the room. I suppose that's progress of a sort. We decided that I should bring him in once again. This time the doctor took some blood to test and he talked about what a mess Brysco's mouth was in general. No wonder he isn't eating. He has some really bad teeth, bad gums, mouth ulcers everywhere. The poor baby was an absolute mess, dentally. The doctor said, it may come to doing surgery. Awwwww :( When the test results came back we learned that he had something called, Feline Stomatitis. Basically it means he has terrible teeth and wrose, he has an allergy or hyper sensitivity to the bacteria that results from such bad teeth. Everything in his mouth was inflammed, sore, painful, ulcerated (and if untreated, would get even worse). Sometimes it's related to other cat diseases such as feline leukemia but he tested negative (twice) for all of those. Other times this disease is particular to certain breeds such as Himalyans, Burmese and Abyssinians. Well Brysco was a feral kitty. Nobody knows his parents or grandparents, but it seems that there were some fancy arsed ancestors in his past. And this is the legacy they left behind. He was kind of born with terrible teeth. The only thing to be done for it was to remove the bad teeth and do a super good gingivitis cleaning with injections for any infections. It's scary to consider but absolutely necessary. I felt terrible for him but we knew it was the right thing to do. The appointment for his surgery was made for, what ultimately turned out to be, the day before Hurricane Milton came to call. Dang. The vet changed to appointment to one week out. Doesn't sound like much but when a kitty is a fragile as Brysco was becoming you begin to worry, Is he going to survive another week? By the way throughout all of this, other than the hiding under the bed phased, he never once growled, hissed, scratched or bit us. Even though he was in terrible pain, his nature was just a sweet and loving as ever. What a little kitty rockstar! We bought pate and babyfood and those squeezey cat treats that we in this house refer to as LickySticks. The food I would have to literally hand feed to him. I would put a little on my finger, offer it to him and he would sometimes lick it off. And on good days, he would eat all or most of the serving. It was a slow process but encouraging when he ate well. On bad days he might give it one test lick and then close his eyes and go back to sleep. It broke my heart. The LickySticks he would almost always eat and while they are intended as a treat not a meal, apparently if you eat enough of them in one sitting, it can serve as a make shift sort of a meal because he survived and made it through to his surgery day. He sailed through surgery like a champ, came home a little loopy but every since surgery he has been eating like Joey Chestnut. It's as if he cannot get enough food. It's not unusual for him to have 3 servings of breakfast. And I'm happy to give it to him. He has a way to go to fill up and out. He is participating more in normal kitty shenanigans now though not as much as before and I have to remind myself that his surgery was just one week ago and it's going to take a bit for him to have his old energy. But it's wonderful to see him jumping up, wrestling with his brother, checking birds out the window and asking for endless pets. He is back to waking me up in the morning to remind me to feed the cats, snuggling with us in the night sometimes when he's a little chilly and playing, just a little bit, like he used to. His brother by the way, has been so sweet with him. A little more gentle than normal, very attentive, giving up his own food for Brysco to eat and checking on him all the time. Wyatt is an awesome brother. That's the good news. The bad news is that usually, eventually all but his canine teeth will have to be pulled so we need to be on the lookout for his old, "dental related" behaviours and get him back to the vet ASAP if they return. The vet said, he has never seen a cat NOT need to have all the teeth removed. However, he's also never seen a cat as young as Brysco with this issue so perhaps we can beat this. That's the plan anyway. So here is sweet baby Brysco starting to feel a bit like his old self. If you think of it and you have a minute, please send positive thoughts that from here forward, he just gets better and better :) We both thank you!
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AuthorYup, this is me. Some people said, "Sam, you should write a Blog". "Well, there's a thought", I thought to myself. And so here it is. Archives
February 2025
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