Monday, March 20, 2017

Finally, a little good news



Remember Tippy, the cat I fostered for a weekend who was refusing to eat?

Well, Tippy went to the vet's and stayed there for ... quite awhile, as the vet worked to find out what was going on.  They were syringe feeding her, which she started to fight after a few days, so then they were tube feeding her.  Then one of the vet techs got her to start licking small amounts of canned food from a spoon.  Because she had been caged for so long at that point, the vet decided let her out among the other cats who live at the vet's office, so she could get out of the cage and explore her environment.

And ... she blossomed.  Being out among the other cats and the office staff seemed to improve Tippy's spirits quite a bit, and she started eating a bit more, although she still needed encouragement and supplemental feedings.  A diagnosis of hepatic lipidosis was made, which is also called "fatty liver disease". The vet still is unsure of why Tippy stopped eating in the first place, although we're pretty sure that losing her home may have had something to do with it. And thank goodness the rescue decided to have a vet check her, because the mortality rate from untreated hepatic lipidosis is extremely high.  

The vet decided to take Tippy home with her for a few days, to give her some R&R from the vet's office.  And Tippy did great!  She was eating, the diarrhea had stopped, she made friends with the vet's cats, and started to come out of her shell some more. She started to play with toys, and let people fuss over her. 

The vet couldn't bear to uproot Tippy's life yet again by returning her to the rescue, and so a decision was made.  The vet is going to keep Tippy!  Tippy now has a permanent home with a loving family who will never, ever let her go.

*sniff*  Gotta love a happy ending.

2 comments:

Portia said...

That's wonderful. What a great person the vet is. I'm so glad for some good news.

Connie - Tails from the Foster Kittens said...

seriously, her not eating was probably the best thing that could have happened :) Congratulations to them both.