Rufus is in the hospital

[coontuffy]

I brought him in early this morning.

He had liquid feces pouring out of his bottom.

He then vomited fecal matter while the liquid poured out the other end.

He lost a pound in 2 days.

The vet tried to take blood.

His pressure was so low and dropping in front of her eyes.

Until they get his pressure up, they can not get any blood.

The vet said it is really bad.

If and when she gets blood, he will be tested for zinc toxicosis in addition to a myriad of other things.

Please say a prayer if you have an extra one.

Thank you from Rufus.........Peg          

[coontuffy]

Just called the vet.

She is still not able to get blood.

When and if she does, he will be tested for zinc toxicosis.

Maybe that will let us know who the supplier is for Wellness canned................

[Bonkers]

 I am so very very sorry to hear this ct. Do you know what brought all this on? Please keep us posted as to how your Rufus is doing.

[Perseus]

Oh no, sorry to hear this CT.  Hoping he's stabilized by this morning.  Are you saying he's on Wellness canned?  Please let us know how things progress.  Keeping you in our prayers.

[GreyGhost]

Oh no... Please keep us posted on how he is doing.

Can't the vet treat for zinc toxicity and do the blood test later?

[sherrylynne]

Oh, no! We'll keep you all in our thoughts and prayers. Please let us know what happens!

[kaffe]

OMG!

I'll be praying for Rufus, Peg!  Please update us on any developments, K?

[Therese]

Know that I'll be keeping Rufus in my prayers as well!

[coontuffy]

I got a call this morning that they needed me over there.
He wasn't eating.

I took my meowmie smelly t-shirt that I slept in with me.
The big dope was scrunched down in his teeny litterbox.
I put my t-shirt in the little bed they have for him and he went right in.

When I started singing "Smelly Cat"  he got up and looked at me.
I love the look of recognition..........kinda like "doink" That's my meowmie!!!

I asked him why he wasn't eating.
I held up the food bowl and said "Pretend I'm your raised feeder" and he ate with gusto.

I am so very blessed to have Angel vet.
She said he was very close to death when I brought him in.

The techs are just gems.
Rufus has one that he particularly loves

I have some of the blood work back.
I am still spitting nails.

On 5/11/09 Rufus had pre op bloods for dental work.
All was beautiful..........AST was 36
Lymphocytes were 1275

On 5/30/09 (19 days later) stat bloods had AST of 106 with no hemolysis
Lymphocytes at 292

Angel Vet and I will be discussing if she, as a vet, can get food tested.

Five other cats, plus basement kitty, were hauled in today at AV's request for blood work.  Those results will be back tomorrow.  They all had good heart rates.

Rufus and I are so very blessed by all your prayers and good wishes.
Thank you all

[Bonkers]

  Poor Rufus, he has been thru so much. What a relief it must be for you that he is doing so much better and eating well. He sure does love his Meowmie.  ct, would you please go into more details as to what you think may have brought all this on? Was he eating Wellness exclusively?

[Frosty]

I'm so glad to read that Rufus pulled through like this! Whatever food caused this to happen should be posted wherever it can be.

Sending prayers to all of your dear fur-babies.

[5CatMom]

Peg,

Glad he made it.  Thought about Rufus all night while I was tweet blasting Nutro.

Peg, can you keep the food?  Maybe freeze it, or something?  

Damn food.  What was it?

Blood pressure rising, here.

[5CatMom]

Please let us know how that zinc test turns out.

I have name and phone number of FDA Recall Coordinator in New Orleans.  She's "handling" the Nutro recall, whatever that means.

Don't believe I'll be buying any new food, at least for a while.

Anyone sees reports of strange cat sickness/death on other sites, and it's NOT Nutro, raise up the red flag.  OK?

[coontuffy]

75% of what my cats have eaten over the last 3 months has been Wellness.
I switched from the 5.5 and 12.5 oz cans to the 3 oz cans after I realized I was throwing away more than they were eating.  The 3 oz cans are the most consistent out of all the sizes.  The only flavors I give them are the Beef and Chicken, Turkey and Chicken.  Once a month for one meal they get Chicken and Herring.  They eat 4 times a day.

20 % is home cooked.......this number is going much higher.  I have had enough.

The other 5% were different manufacturers which I was trying in order to get some variety.

On Thursday I opened 3 3oz cans of NB Duck and Green Pea and found the dark ugly blobs like Frosty posted the link to at Itchmo.  Thank you Frosty.

Before I could take them off the counter and bag and freeze them, Pugsley and Rufus both jumped up and ate some out of the opened cans.  Pugs threw up all over the place and Rufus ran and hid.  His horrid diarrhea started later that night and continued all day Friday with the vomitting starting Friday afternoon and going all night long.  

I have the desire to test Wellness, NB and the effin Newman's Organic Beef that those fools keep ignoring me about.

The reason I asked for the Zinc toxicity test is because Wellness uses the smae premix distributor as Nutro if I am understanding this correctly.

ETA-5Cat, the minute I get the Zinc test results, you guys get them right after.

[Perseus]

CT, I'm thrilled to hear that Rufus is eating and doing better.  The tests results are worrisome.  Did AV give you any clue, or are you waiting for the rest of the tests?  Is he still in the hospital?

I stopped feeding the Wellness last week after I found out about the premix situation from Wellness just to be precautionary (okay, I'm paranoid).

But, I have to tell you that little Athena has had some tiny little bits of diarrhea found on her long back fur (okay, around the butt hole) but the rest of the stool was fine.  This was right up to when I stopped feeding it.  Since she only has about 20% of her diet from Wellness, maybe that's why only a little bit at the end was affected.  This was on and off for about 3 weeks until last week.

Good thing I rotate foods, and always will.  I tried to get info on pet food testing at UCDavis, but they only did testing after the recalls in '07.  Does anyone have a lab recommendation as I would like to get the Wellness canned I have tested?

Keeping you and Rufus in my thoughts.