Hope for Liver Shunt Cats

Victory Song (and Dance)

Thank everyone for the singing – Pingu has rallied yet again! Never underestimate the power of love, Hope and healing energies from friends

Normal day in Newtopia yesterday, lots of evening snuggles and demands for extra snackies and nibbles. A bit of fridge climbing today for a great start to hopefully another wonderful day.

Still trying to figure out what was going on with him Thursday night. He was showing many of his typical signs of an HE episode, but without the major drool that usually accompanies a medium to strong ep for him. Not all cats with liver shunts show the same signs of an oncoming/existing HE episode, but we’ve gotten to know Newt’s signs all too well. Having things change in the middle of the game is a bit worrisome, and we will continue to monitor closely and track, to see if we can identify any possible new triggers.

Otherwise, today we will be singing our Victory song, and doing the Happy Butt Wiggle Dance, to celebrate another day of normalcy – for our little Newt and for his courageous friend Pingu.

Come on friends, join with us and shake your tails in joy!

Sing With Me

Your favorite Spotted Schnookums is back to normal after a really odd night last night. He went on a food strike and wasn’t drinking either – both of which usually happen when he’s in the middle of a medium to strong episode, complete with full drool.

However, aside from a minor bit of drool early in the evening, no other drooling. Several of his other ep signs were presenting, but NO DROOL. Weird. And frustrating. Long night spent alternating Lactulose and water via direct dosing. Finally, this morning, after 15 blippy hours, within a half hour time span, he made a 180 and was on the counter gobbling snacks, and drinking deeply.

Perhaps you heard that deep sigh of relief I uttered?

So, Newt is back to normal, but now his friend Pingu has had a bit of a crisis. You’ve read about Pingu on here before, and so many of you responded that you were joining us in a song heard round the globe. Your singing worked, and Pingu rallied wonderfully and was doing much better! However, he had another crisis earlier today, and as singing a song of healing seems to have quickly become a tradition for our cat liver shunt support group, am asking you again to Sing for Ping.

With love and Hope, and painfully off-key,

Newt’s Mum (and Scribe)

Drool

After this past week of me being back on-site, working a new contract, and Cat Daddy taking his usual, excellent care of the Great Spotted Newt, it would appear that he’s gone episodic today.

Was it my cooking?

As much as I hate to take pictures of Schnookie when he’s sickly, today I decided to try and grab a quick snap to show you what a medium drool day looks like for him.

Never in my life did I ever imagine I would have accumulated such a diverse knowledge of the various degrees of drool and progressions of poo!

But, living with a liver shunt cat can do that. As Lactulose can be such a critical aspect of medical management, and its dosing can be as much an art as a science, determining the exact dosage is based upon careful observation and monitoring of kitty’s litterbox (assuming you are able to beat the dog to the scat snacks, that is!) For those kitties who have drool as one of their symptoms, you learn to gauge how bad the drool is, how long the episode will probably last, and how much Lactulose to administer, in order to help minimize the episode.

Here’s the pic of Newt’s medium drooly day today. And don’t worry, no poo pics, as the Dog beat me to it

Sing for Ping!

Newt’s friends around the world continue to sing a song of healing to support our friend, Pingu.

Cats, dogs, mums, dads – so many people are pulling together in song, showing love and Hope for Pingu, the senior shunt cat who has been providing Hope for so many young shunt cats.

I humbly ask Newt’s friends, loved ones, and family to continue to raise your voices in a song so loud that Pingu’s family can hear it, all the way over in jolly olde England. Loudly, softly, perfect pitch, or off-key – with prayers, healing vibes, or simple good wishes, let us raise our voices in a glorious chorus of Hope.

Newt’s Newest Careers, Continued

After successfully defending The Dog from his unjust incarceration for excessive early morning barking, (what, he was just doing his WATCHDOG JOB!!!), the Magistrate (aka Cat Daddy) commented that Newt should hang out his shingle for future
lawyering business endeavors.

Newt the Cat, Esquire,
Attorney at Claw

You like it? It made me snort coffee through my nose. Cat Daddy is quite the comedic entertainer, as well as being an awesome musician and singer.

Speaking of which, I also think that Newt may be adding “Singer” to his resume. Another liver shunt cat parent mentioned today on Newt’s Support Group that in the Siamese cat tradition, they sometimes refer to sending prayers, healing vibes, etc, as “singing.” Apparently Siamese kitties can be *quite* vocal, unlike our quiet little spotted weasel cat.

So, I shall gently tweak Newt’s little iguana tail and make him “sing” for his friend Pingu, who is feeling poorly.

You may recall we’ve mentioned Pingu on here in the past. Pingu is a sexy, senior shunt cat who has served as a beacon of Hope for young shunt cats around the globe, showing that shunt kitties can not only survive, but thrive. Under the careful love and attention of his owners, Pingu has beaten the odds many, many times.

Many of Newt’s Group members are sending their well wishes to Pingu today. Will you join Newt and me in “singing” to Pingu?

I’ll get my accordion, and we can REALLY make a joyful noise!

Newt’s Newest Careers

The Great Spotted Schnookums is currently having a fabulous run of good days, after a spate of ups and downs. Not content with being the self-proclaimed, international poster cat for liver shunt awareness, he seems to have decided to branch out in new career directions – most recently that of Moving Man and Legal Eagle.

Yesterday, he closely supervised the installation of a new door, and helped with moving the old sofa. His assistance included attacking, ripping, flipping, gnawing, chewing, and writhing on it, and then, riding at the helm it as it was moved across the floor – repeatedly, so as to try and obtain video footage of his superior supervisory skills.

Much hilarity ensued. Never before have furniture moving and handyman efforts been so much fun!

This morning, The Dog was unceremoniously thrown in jail (time-out behind closed door) for excessive, very early morning barking. The family sat around, bleary-eyed and yawning, whilst debating The Dog’s fate, (and staying vewwy, vewwy quiet, so as not to share the same consequences!).

Lawyer Newt decided that He Had Had Enough and leaped into action! He pawed and meeped pathetically at the closed door, then trilled demandingly at the Magistrate (aka Cat Daddy). His closing arguments included frantic tail lashing, and pacing between the jail cell and the stern Magistrate’s office.

Who could resist such an emotional and demonstrative plea?

Needless to say, Newt successfully bargained for The Dog’s early release.

The Dog was happily (and much more quietly!) reunited with his BFF and lawyer extraordinaire, and the rest of us learned a valuable lesson – we will NOT bark at 5AM, at least not loud enough to annoy The Powers That Be!

Life is good

Whew!

Project completed – big sigh of relief!

Been frantically trying to wrap up a deadline before the momentous occasion of Newt’s third birthday week. Everything was going fantastically, even better than anticipated. Was on schedule to finish well ahead of the deadline, and enjoy a leisurely birthday celebration with Newt and Cat Daddy on Tuesday.

And then Murphy’s Law entered with a vengeance. Everything that could have gone wrong – did. Laid waste to the plan, the backup plan, and even wreaked havoc upon the backup to the backup to the backup plan. It was a total, unmitigated nightmare of epic proportions!

I was working round the clock, trying to regain some semblance of control, and all the while, Newt was right here with me. He’s been such a little trooper. We’ve talked before about how my little spotted Schnookums insists on being right by my side at all times – even during periods of high stress (such as deadline wraps). I truly believe that his episodes can be triggered / exacerbated by stress, so we are always really careful to maintain as stress-free an environment as possible. We’re successful, most of the time.

And then, there’s deadline time.

It’s one thing for me to have to miss meals and go without sleep while working; it’s quite another story for Newt. In spite of the chaos surrounding the deadline challenges, we managed to keep his food and meds on schedule; but I was really worried that the back-to-back all-nighters were going to trigger him, as they did the last time.

Nope, not this time! Either Newt is getting smarter in his “old age” (ha ha) or mummy’s bizarre schedule is not as interesting to him as it used to be.

He actually snoozed here beside me in his “Annex Box to the Annex Box to the Annex Box” (a.k.a. AB3). He did get a little manic at one point, and was leaping about and chasing the Dog around the house. Am pretty sure it was normal play behavior for him, but was holding my breath, desperately hoping that I wouldn’t have an ER visit to deal with, on top of everything else that had gone wrong with the project.

He got a lovely card from one of his friends in England, and numerous electronic birthday greetings from his friends all around the world. The Slasher Queen even deigned to permit him to sleep in her extra special, furry nest. Both of them took their duties as Quality Control Analysts quite seriously.

The deadline was met, the client was very pleased with the end result; and the Newt and I settled in for a long overdue nap.

Life is good.

Happy Birthday, Newt!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Newt! You are living proof that it is possible to not only survive, but thrive, when faced with seemingly insurmountable odds. Thank you for acting as the unofficial spokes-cat for your condition, (feline portosystemic shunt, aka “liver shunt”), and for being an inspiration to other kitties with severe health issues.

You are loved.

Prayers for SugarMint

SugarMint’s mum has asked for your healing energies, love, prayers, and whatever
support you’d care to send to Newt’s shunt friend Sugarmint. She’s had a rough prior 48
hours, and there may have been some seizure
activity involved. She is snowed in; unable to get out to a vet right now.

Latest
update seems to indicate that Sugarmint may be coming out of an
episode, but is still having impaired vision and wobbledies. She has been relatively stable for quite some time. This has been her
worst ep since her initial diagnosis.

Please send your Love, Hope and Healing Energies to Sugarmint and her mum.

Stress and Shunties

Have missed you guys! Sorry about not posting for a while. Have been pretty vigilant about doing Newt’s daily tweets ; am hoping that habit will soon develop into more frequent blogs from him.

Alas, have been slammed again with deadlines, so no time for fun writing (aka acting as Pookie’s social secretary!). Nothing major going on with your favorite little spotted Schnookums. Relatively stable overall, with a few minor blips on the radar.

Am convinced more than ever that stress exacerbates his condition (as if I didn’t already beleive that stress can affect our companion animals!). His last bad day was, I believe, triggered by me pulling two all-nighters in a row. Silly boy insisted on staying by my side the entire time. I know how sick *I* felt after that episode of non-existent sleep; it’s not really surprising to me that our fragile flower feline was also affected. Next time, I think he shall be safely confined away from my office – in his room with his favorite downie and his shunty toy, and forced to nap!

No huge stress going on right now, just the usual round of deadline stress and fatigue. Combine that with the recent spell of Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr cold weather, and Newt has been acting a bit out of sorts.

No drool, but fur feeling oily, intermittently inappetent and half-crouchy, a bit wobbledy. Was demanding snuggles and Reiki yesterday, and
yet, foraging for snacks!

Am hoping that since I wrapped one of the deadlines this morning, and should finish the other tomorrow, that whatever stress *I* may be experiencing, (thus affecting him), will cease. Yeah, yeah, students and clients, I hear you, it’s time to start practicing what I preach, and engage in some self-care, no? But it’s so much easier for me to tell YOU what to do, than it is to do it myself!

I think that I shall take a lesson from Newt, and join him on his “tanning bed,” where he is lounging in the sunbeams … and resting comfortably.