Some Good News, Some Bad

Yesterday I visited the Holistic Vet in Newmarket - Dr Sasan Haghighat.  He was obviously someone who cares about the wellbeing of animals and was extremely friendly and gentle toward both cats (I took my second one as he has suffered from Cystitis).  The examination was an hour and a half in total for both cats.  I showed Dr. Haghighat the remedies I was administering and he approved of them but there were some quantity adjustments to be made:

The vitman A drop should be once a week
Since Life Gold, which arrived yesterday contains burdock root, I've adjusted the pure burdock root to 5 drops

I'm in a quandary of a situation though.  Weasel has been completely put off of his food due to the amount of fowl tasting substances he's encountered.  The gel caps don't work as he bites through and tastes what I was trying to hide.  He hasn't had Milk Thistle in two days - one of the more important substances for him to consume.  Now we're adding an extremely vital remedy called Yunnan Baiyao which could actually contribute toward shrinking the tumor.  It's very potent and of course the cat dislikes it.  The vet gave me Amino B-Plex to administer with it as it has a mushroom flavour that most cats quite enjoy.  Unfortunately because it's combined with the bad tasting item, the association has been made and it's impossible to get him to touch it - even only one day later.

Aside from the Yunnan Baiyao, and Amino B-Plex, we've added:

Lypo-Spheric Vitamin C which is the oral version of a vitamin C drip - a very effective cancer fighting agent.
HMF Powder - basically good bacteria
A remedy the vet created - liquid form called Heel 4

In addition to having new herbal concoctions, Weasel received an acupuncture treatment with essential herbal mixtures injected into key points.

The visit at the vet gave me so much hope, I was on cloud 9 yesterday.  He shared stories of pets who have gone on to live for years with terminally ill cancers or many more months at least, pain free.  Some of course didn't respond to the treatments, but many did and that's what's important.

What I didn't realize until last night when I tried to feed Weasel the Yunnan Baiyao is that even though I have the tools in my hand to potentially even cure him (on the positive extreme), with evidence of success already occurring, as his cyst has shrunk, he is literally his own worst enemy.  For a cat to walk away from one of the best quality wet foods on the market - Halo, and to snub his nose at fresh chicken, means that I have a battle that may not be one I can fight and for me to admit that takes a lot as I have a very stubborn disposition and refuse to give up 9 times out of 10.  I haven't given up yet but he leaves me very little choice but to start shoving gel caps down his throat - an also impossible feat which has failed previously.  If he stops eating altogether, I have another potentially bigger issue to contend with as then his liver will start failing.

This morning I took drastic measures and put the amino B-Plex and Yunnan Baiyao in natural peanut butter and smeared it on his paw.  Most of it fell off - didn't stick to the fur so I placed it just above his tail.  It's been hours since this was done and he's made no attempt to groom himself.  He would rather just have this substance sit on him all day.  I'm so incredibly stressed out about this whole thing.  I can't imagine what other owners must go through but it's a horrible experience to endure.  I've lost my own appetite over the worry I'm feeling and feel short toward others.

I really wish people were allowed to use needles to inject these remedies, as a diabetic patient might for his regular insuline requirements.  It would make a world of difference.

My next mission is to track down the smallest gel caps on the market - ideally chicken flavoured and order them to house the Milk Thistle and Yunnan Baiyao.  Unfortunately that's another week of waiting.

Today I'm purchasing Chicken giblets and neck - rare meat that's healthy for cats and dogs. I'm also buying a fresh salmon and cooking that for him.  Sometimes I'll feed him without adding herbal remedies in the hope that he's at least still eating a lot as we don't want the weight loss issues to take over - a side effect of cancer.

I'll wrap this post up with some wise advice that the vet shared with me - two things:

Don't inoculate your pets more than once or twice in their lifetime tops.  It's quite dangerous and not required.  These little guys are designed to have a higher resistance to external viruses and 'dangerous' germs, due to the fact that they're supposed to hunt critters out there that may have all sorts of illnesses.  Their systems are designed to handle that, yet we keep administering the same antibody building concoctions,  sometimes annually, as though it somehow just vanishes from their systems.  It doesn't, they keep it like we can keep resistence to small-pox and other diseases after one needle.

Don't feed your pets dry food.  Dry food is full of fats, salts, preservatives and many other harmful ingredients that do not provide anything beneficial per say to your pet.  It's somewhat like eating chips and white bread all day.  They need to have lots of moisture in their diets so a pure wet food diet is essential.  It's actually not natural for a cat to drink a lot of water.  They don't need to when they're eating properly.  If you notice that your cat drinks a lot, it's probably because of the dry food you're feeding them. Seek out high quality wet food - no by-product ingredients and add raw meat such as chicken giblets and neck.  Avoid beef and lamb in cat food.  Serve the occasional fish flavour but not all the time and treat them occasionally with cooked fish too.