I wasn't going to add another entry as I thought, well, I don't have anything in particular to add. However, I think it's also important to share with everyone when I have good news. I'm sure many of you are feeling like you're running out of options and consequently time. I'm not sure when you first discovered your kitty's cancer, but I now think that a combination of a few treatments, can at least stabilize the cat and perhaps give you the chance to see them live at least another year..maybe longer.
We've had great success with Naltrexone. Perhaps on its own, it's enough to maintain Weasel's health, and possibly shrink the tumor; however, I don't take my chances using only one remedy so he also receives 3 times a day, Schuessler tissue salts - #10 and #11 - one tablet of each in his meals/snacks. He also receives 1 tablespoon of Essiac Tea and 5 drops of Life Gold. In his main meals we add the HMF Powder for digestion and 1/3 of a dropper of the concoction the vet made for him. I'm not entirely sure what is in it. Although he seems to be off the Amino B-Plex, he is still thriving and hasn't lost any weight! This is great news, as a side effect of pancreatic cancer is weight loss.
Weasel still eats all of his food and now enjoys his snacks. I've discovered that if I get several different flavours in the small tins of wet cat food from the pet store, he stays pretty enthusiastic about eating his treat. He'll only eat chicken and turkey so we run the risk of him becoming bored if we stay with one brand for his treats. He's off on Tuna these days as we overdid it a month ago. What I also do is about once every week or so, I'll make a roast chicken in the oven and keep the carcass which has bits of meat all over it. The flavours from the roasting process soak into the chicken and I'll take bits of it off the bones and spread it across the top of his treat. He devours it. It's just the extra bit of incentive that's needed as the cat food alone isn't enough.
The only side effect we're seeing is a constant discharge from Weasel's right eye..it's a rather unappealing substance, dark coloured and oozy. Since he doesn't have an eye infection, I'm going to assume it's his body detoxifying.
Someone was kind enough to post on this blog a suggestion that I'm going to investigate, and that's to use MMS. They've had great success using it to battle swollen lymph nodes.
Weasel
Friday, 31 May 2013
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Still Going Fairly Strong
So, I haven't posted in a while as I haven't had too much to report on and in this case, no news is definitely good news!
A few weeks ago, I had to be away, leaving Weasel in the care of others. He reacted quite harshly to that and left vomit all over the house. I thought that they may have administered things incorrectly to him but since then, I've discovered that stress seems to be the trigger. We had company over on Mother's Day and once again he started vomiting. I believe that when his stomach tenses, it places pressure on the tumor and causes him to be ill. As long as I'm home and there isn't commotion, he remains in good spirits.
Due to Weasel's stubborn and extremely finicky nature, I've had to change his food from Halo to an inferior product line, but at this point I just want him to eat. He's off on the taste of the Amino B-Plex so he hasn't had it in weeks. I can only administer 5 drops of the Life Gold. Occasionally I can get the Essiac Tea down him but it's rare. The only stuff keeping him alive is the Naltrexone at this point. He still gets his cell salts and HMF powder which helps digestion. In addition to this, he receives his drops from the vet.
I grew two flats of wheatgrass which I thought would be a huge success. Instead, both cats ambivalently chew on a few blades here and there, and walk away. I now have wayyyy too much wheatgrass to put through my juicer. I imagine it will go bad before I even get through a quarter of it. At least my husband and I will be healthy but the entire point was to fight the cancer.
I can unfortunately no longer afford to go to the Holistic Vet which is a shame as he's been extremely helpful and an integral part of Weasel's progress. I'll continue to purchase Weasel's remedies but due to tight financial times, some compromises must be made.
A few weeks ago, I had to be away, leaving Weasel in the care of others. He reacted quite harshly to that and left vomit all over the house. I thought that they may have administered things incorrectly to him but since then, I've discovered that stress seems to be the trigger. We had company over on Mother's Day and once again he started vomiting. I believe that when his stomach tenses, it places pressure on the tumor and causes him to be ill. As long as I'm home and there isn't commotion, he remains in good spirits.
Due to Weasel's stubborn and extremely finicky nature, I've had to change his food from Halo to an inferior product line, but at this point I just want him to eat. He's off on the taste of the Amino B-Plex so he hasn't had it in weeks. I can only administer 5 drops of the Life Gold. Occasionally I can get the Essiac Tea down him but it's rare. The only stuff keeping him alive is the Naltrexone at this point. He still gets his cell salts and HMF powder which helps digestion. In addition to this, he receives his drops from the vet.
I grew two flats of wheatgrass which I thought would be a huge success. Instead, both cats ambivalently chew on a few blades here and there, and walk away. I now have wayyyy too much wheatgrass to put through my juicer. I imagine it will go bad before I even get through a quarter of it. At least my husband and I will be healthy but the entire point was to fight the cancer.
I can unfortunately no longer afford to go to the Holistic Vet which is a shame as he's been extremely helpful and an integral part of Weasel's progress. I'll continue to purchase Weasel's remedies but due to tight financial times, some compromises must be made.
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
A Visit To The Holistic Vet Today
Today Weasel and I headed to the Holistic Vet in Newmarket. I unfortunately have a very smart kitty who recalls getting poked with needles 4 weeks ago and therefore was incredibly difficult to work with today. Luckily Dr.Haghighat has the patience of a saint and a calm demeanour so we eventually had success.
On a plus note, the vet was very happy to see how healthy looking Weasel is and he hasn't lost a single bit of weight since our last visit which is remarkable. I know that the different treatments we give him each day have been quite effective but of course, being the type of cat he is, it's becoming increasingly challenging to administer them. Just this evening he snuck upstairs and stole chicken from the tenant we rent to. He seemed thoroughly excited to have such delicious food so I grabbed it from him, inserted a capsule of Yunnan, wrapped in cream cheese, cut open macaroni noodles (from a macaroni salad that he liked the smell of), coated it with liverwurst and wrapped that in the chicken he snagged. The Yunnan had 4 layers around it! Do you think he touched it? Heck no. These are all foods he loves but he knows what's in the middle. I've tried pork based pâté and every sticky substance known to mankind. Nothing works anymore. It's frustrating beyond belief when we've made so much progress to date. His intelligence is infuriating and I never thought I would say that.
I may have to prepare these treats and intentionally leave them on our tenant's counter so that he 'thinks' he stole food which he thoroughly enjoys doing. Maybe then he'll eat it.
One unusual 'ailment' I'll call it, although it may not be one, is that 4 days ago, Weasel's eyes started discharging pus. He doesn't have an inflamed iris or any other symptoms that would fall under one of the eye diseases cats can get, nor is this really a consequence of the cancer, just based on the fact that the eyes look clear. The vet stated that it's his body detoxing which would make sense based on how much stuff he ingests each day. It's quite the peculiar thing to see and unfortunately has irritated the corners of his eyes. We picked up natural based eye drops today. I can't literally drop them in his eyes unfortunately so I put the drops on a cotton ball and rub that on his eye, hoping it achieves something.
And on a side note, the Cothivet arrived in just one week from the UK! Not bad! Shipping was just over $1 which blew my mind to begin with. I assumed it would be over a month before it arrived.
On a plus note, the vet was very happy to see how healthy looking Weasel is and he hasn't lost a single bit of weight since our last visit which is remarkable. I know that the different treatments we give him each day have been quite effective but of course, being the type of cat he is, it's becoming increasingly challenging to administer them. Just this evening he snuck upstairs and stole chicken from the tenant we rent to. He seemed thoroughly excited to have such delicious food so I grabbed it from him, inserted a capsule of Yunnan, wrapped in cream cheese, cut open macaroni noodles (from a macaroni salad that he liked the smell of), coated it with liverwurst and wrapped that in the chicken he snagged. The Yunnan had 4 layers around it! Do you think he touched it? Heck no. These are all foods he loves but he knows what's in the middle. I've tried pork based pâté and every sticky substance known to mankind. Nothing works anymore. It's frustrating beyond belief when we've made so much progress to date. His intelligence is infuriating and I never thought I would say that.
I may have to prepare these treats and intentionally leave them on our tenant's counter so that he 'thinks' he stole food which he thoroughly enjoys doing. Maybe then he'll eat it.
One unusual 'ailment' I'll call it, although it may not be one, is that 4 days ago, Weasel's eyes started discharging pus. He doesn't have an inflamed iris or any other symptoms that would fall under one of the eye diseases cats can get, nor is this really a consequence of the cancer, just based on the fact that the eyes look clear. The vet stated that it's his body detoxing which would make sense based on how much stuff he ingests each day. It's quite the peculiar thing to see and unfortunately has irritated the corners of his eyes. We picked up natural based eye drops today. I can't literally drop them in his eyes unfortunately so I put the drops on a cotton ball and rub that on his eye, hoping it achieves something.
And on a side note, the Cothivet arrived in just one week from the UK! Not bad! Shipping was just over $1 which blew my mind to begin with. I assumed it would be over a month before it arrived.
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Showing Signs of Improvement
I didn't think it was possible but Weasel is showing signs of improvement. For 4 days now he's had amazing energy and is back to how he was prior to the cancer developing. He doesn't sit in a little ball, crouched up in pain with this tail twitching anymore. His tail still twitches almost non-stop every day but he's alert, energetic, has a great appetite and looks good. His eyes are a bright green and haven't turned yellow; however there are small dark orange veins in them around the edges. This could have always been there though. I wasn't paying attention previously.
Another good sign is that the skin in his ears are still a healthy pink so I believe he remains jaundice free.
We've been applying the Naltrexone every night in his ears and I believe that's the source of this unusual improvement. He still eats a treat each day that consists of Essiac Tea, Amino B-Plex, Life Gold and Omega-3. In his regular meals he receives Schuessler tissue salts - #10 (Natrum Phos 6x) and #11 (Natrum Sulph 6x) as well as the drops that the vet provided.
We've had to give up on providing the Lypo-spheric Vitamin C as he became miserable with it on his fur and refused to groom. It caused a few dreadlocks in his long fur as well. I'm really disappointed about this as Vitamin C is a powerful agent against cancer.
Weasel has also discovered that if he chews persistently, he will break through any hidden capsules so no matter how tasty the treat, he seems to inevitably discover the Yunnan Baiyao. We've had to give up on this as well but it may not be an issue as he doesn't appear to be in pain. This was almost serving as a natural pain killer. I'm sure there were other unseen benefits as well.
I'm not sure if anyone reading this post, who is facing a similar ordeal, may have noticed this on their kitty but Weasel has removed all of the fur on his stomach. I believe it was fragile to begin with but his licking ensures that it can't return. He grooms fastidiously to the point where he's created wounds around his hind legs - where they meet the stomach. My impression was that he was attempting to remove the tumor; however, in researching this topic it seems to be a specific disorder that one vet described on a site I came across. I wish I had kept a link to it as it may be useful for others. At the bottom of the page a lady remarked that all she did was change the litter and her cat stopped licking, so it turned out to be an allergy. In the event that this is the same issue with Weasel we purchased a dust free newspaper based litter and are crossing our fingers that that does the trick. I suspect he's irritated by the tumor though as the type of fur that was growing there wasn't thick, likely affected by his condition.
As for treating the small wounds that he's creating. The holistic vet recommended a product called Cothivet. It's an all-natural wound spray that aids in the formation of connective tissue on healing wounds and chronic sores. I was able to save some money and purchased it from the UK for $20 CDN (which includes shipping). The only downside is the length of time it takes to arrive here.
Another good sign is that the skin in his ears are still a healthy pink so I believe he remains jaundice free.
We've been applying the Naltrexone every night in his ears and I believe that's the source of this unusual improvement. He still eats a treat each day that consists of Essiac Tea, Amino B-Plex, Life Gold and Omega-3. In his regular meals he receives Schuessler tissue salts - #10 (Natrum Phos 6x) and #11 (Natrum Sulph 6x) as well as the drops that the vet provided.
We've had to give up on providing the Lypo-spheric Vitamin C as he became miserable with it on his fur and refused to groom. It caused a few dreadlocks in his long fur as well. I'm really disappointed about this as Vitamin C is a powerful agent against cancer.
Weasel has also discovered that if he chews persistently, he will break through any hidden capsules so no matter how tasty the treat, he seems to inevitably discover the Yunnan Baiyao. We've had to give up on this as well but it may not be an issue as he doesn't appear to be in pain. This was almost serving as a natural pain killer. I'm sure there were other unseen benefits as well.
I'm not sure if anyone reading this post, who is facing a similar ordeal, may have noticed this on their kitty but Weasel has removed all of the fur on his stomach. I believe it was fragile to begin with but his licking ensures that it can't return. He grooms fastidiously to the point where he's created wounds around his hind legs - where they meet the stomach. My impression was that he was attempting to remove the tumor; however, in researching this topic it seems to be a specific disorder that one vet described on a site I came across. I wish I had kept a link to it as it may be useful for others. At the bottom of the page a lady remarked that all she did was change the litter and her cat stopped licking, so it turned out to be an allergy. In the event that this is the same issue with Weasel we purchased a dust free newspaper based litter and are crossing our fingers that that does the trick. I suspect he's irritated by the tumor though as the type of fur that was growing there wasn't thick, likely affected by his condition.
As for treating the small wounds that he's creating. The holistic vet recommended a product called Cothivet. It's an all-natural wound spray that aids in the formation of connective tissue on healing wounds and chronic sores. I was able to save some money and purchased it from the UK for $20 CDN (which includes shipping). The only downside is the length of time it takes to arrive here.
Thursday, 4 April 2013
Still Doing Well!
So although I have the most impossible cat to administer anything to, Weasel is still - cross our fingers, doing extremely well.
So far, we've had success putting the Naltrexone on his ear each night and up until today, he's taken his Yunnan treat (which morphed into a capsule wrapped in cream cheese within tasty cat food) and at night, the Amino B-Plex, the Life Gold, Omega-3 and Essiac Tea in a treat. BUT, since he is the most finicky and difficult cat, possibly in the universe, he's decided today that treats aren't worthy of his time. Food that only a week ago had him excited, he's sniffing at and walking away from. He doesn't appear to be in pain today, having not taken the Yunnan but with cats it's very hard to tell.
He also just walked away from his night time treat which even included a new type of tuna in a different canned sauce. I just finished cooking a strip of bacon and added bits of that to his food so he finally ate the treat but was still tentative so I can see that this may work two times - tops.
Weasel is the strangest kitty. He's no longer interested in pill pockets, cream cheese or sardines, salmon, cooked chicken, tuna, etc. etc. He still eats his normal meals that don't include any vitamins or herbal remedies but if we throw our hands up and let him 'win', it's the end of everything we've achieved so far. I have to say, I imagine that many people may just do that and quite possibly, we as well may hit that point, but for now I still have a very small amount of hope remaining. I love the little guy to death. I wish he knew why we did what we do.
On another note, I've discovered accidentally that wheatgrass is used to treat cancer. I recently bought a juicer and was excited about making myself health drinks each day. In my frustration of discovering that the wheatgrass simply shoots out into the disposal bin, after which I 'Googled' this issue, I came across not only 'wheatgrass juicers' but pages and pages about how wheatgrass treats cancer. Thankfully, cats enjoy eating grass so for the past two days, both kitties have had a bit of this on their plate that they don't mind chewing on. Weasel already is getting bored of it though but his brother will certainly be extremely healthy. My goal is to eventually purchase a wheatgrass juicer and add the juice of it to their food as I doubt it would be offensive in flavour.
So far, we've had success putting the Naltrexone on his ear each night and up until today, he's taken his Yunnan treat (which morphed into a capsule wrapped in cream cheese within tasty cat food) and at night, the Amino B-Plex, the Life Gold, Omega-3 and Essiac Tea in a treat. BUT, since he is the most finicky and difficult cat, possibly in the universe, he's decided today that treats aren't worthy of his time. Food that only a week ago had him excited, he's sniffing at and walking away from. He doesn't appear to be in pain today, having not taken the Yunnan but with cats it's very hard to tell.
He also just walked away from his night time treat which even included a new type of tuna in a different canned sauce. I just finished cooking a strip of bacon and added bits of that to his food so he finally ate the treat but was still tentative so I can see that this may work two times - tops.
Weasel is the strangest kitty. He's no longer interested in pill pockets, cream cheese or sardines, salmon, cooked chicken, tuna, etc. etc. He still eats his normal meals that don't include any vitamins or herbal remedies but if we throw our hands up and let him 'win', it's the end of everything we've achieved so far. I have to say, I imagine that many people may just do that and quite possibly, we as well may hit that point, but for now I still have a very small amount of hope remaining. I love the little guy to death. I wish he knew why we did what we do.
On another note, I've discovered accidentally that wheatgrass is used to treat cancer. I recently bought a juicer and was excited about making myself health drinks each day. In my frustration of discovering that the wheatgrass simply shoots out into the disposal bin, after which I 'Googled' this issue, I came across not only 'wheatgrass juicers' but pages and pages about how wheatgrass treats cancer. Thankfully, cats enjoy eating grass so for the past two days, both kitties have had a bit of this on their plate that they don't mind chewing on. Weasel already is getting bored of it though but his brother will certainly be extremely healthy. My goal is to eventually purchase a wheatgrass juicer and add the juice of it to their food as I doubt it would be offensive in flavour.
Sunday, 24 March 2013
How To Pill An Impossible Cat
So to start, I wanted to explain how one can pill a cat that will not, and I mean, will not take a pill with a pill popper, no matter how well you follow all of the so called tricks with towels, lifting the head up, etc. About 4 days ago or so, we just about gave up completely on any hope of getting pain relief capsules into Weasel, but then a miracle occurred in the guise of 'pill pockets' by Greenies. We purchased the chicken flavoured ones to start - as shown below:
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What you'll require next to have on hand is an empty #4 capsule, which can be purchased from Amazon or other online retailers such as 'Thriving Pets'.
Then you will need a dropper that looks like the one below (the back plunger piece has been pulled out).
Pour the powder from the Yunnan Baiyao capsule (or other pain relief substance) into the back of the dropper (you may want to block the hole with your palm or a counter surface). After this has been done, add one of the sides of the empty capsule over the end and gently tap the side so that the powder falls into the capsule that you're holding in place. If it's not falling through the hole, breath lightly into the back end of the dropper to push the powder through into the capsule. Try to not breath as you're doing that in case a puff of the Yunnan dust blows back out. It's harmless if it does but doesn't smell or taste very good (it's not as harmless though if it's medication you're blowing into). Once this end of the capsule has been filled, place it into a pair of tweezers as a holder. I used a pair that we no longer bother with that were sitting in the cupboard so that it can permanently stay next to the herbal remedies.
Repeat the above process for the other end of the empty capsule. Once both ends are filled, put them together and use a tissue to remove any of the dust off the outside.
Next, pull out two pill pockets and place the capsule into one of the ends.
As you can see, one isn't going to hold it so you'll need to jam the two ends together. Unfortunately they almost immediately start crumbling and falling apart when you do this, so what I've had to do is use a small amount of Omega 3 oil and water if necessary to smooth out the crumbly bits. I pinch any weak points to give spots of extra strength against chewing. Then I leave the pill to dry a bit - minimum 20 minutes, as it seems to strengthen it's walls by doing so.
Here is the end result:
The key to administering is making sure you have an eager cat awaiting his treat. He'll chew it quickly, frantically searching for the next delicious serving of it. I had about 4 days of heaven with this process and the cat was pain free. Although it's only half a capsule of Yunnan, it's still enough to get him through the day in good spirits.
Today, we encountered another issue though which I will write about as a warning to others. Weasel was having a really off day - took a massive decline and was vomiting. I could see he was in quite a bit of pain, sitting around in a ball so I wanted to help him. I thought I needed something far more potent than the Yunnan so I pulled out the Tramadol. I wrenched apart the two sides on the capsule, which although is a perfect #4 size, is too potent a dose for my kitty. The last time he had it, his eyes were dilated and he was acting a bit strange all day, so I halved the dosage and placed it in the empty capsules I have, following the regime outlined above. The issue was that his pain made it so that he wasn't interested in food, only curious at best. I went against my inner voice telling me, 'don't give him one of these in this state, you'll regret it!', as I was so worried about his discomfort. He bit in and slowly started chewing.
This, I knew was the end of a wonderful situation and sure enough, not only did the walls of the pill pockets break apart, but the capsule opened up too. If the capsule had stayed closed, it would have been a non-issue. I could have grabbed it and let him finish the pill pocket. Ironically, the original capsule is built out of armour and would have stayed closed. Weasel's mouth filled with the fowl taste of Tramadol and he instantly started foaming, confused as to what just happened and looking at me with a bit of fear to top it off. My heart sank 100 feet or so. Although he received enough of the medication to remain partially pain free for the remainder of the day, the trust was broken.
Later this evening I tried feeding him his dinner and he barely touched it. He didn't touch his hard treats and he sure as heck didn't touch the other pill pocket I had put together with the Yunnan. I even covered it with a thick layer of delicious peanut butter and he sniffed and walked away. I'm beside myself as to what to do next. I fear that this is the beginning of the end. With the pain, he won't eat. If he doesn't eat, all of our efforts and hopes are gone.
On another note, yesterday we had a promising visit at the Holistic Vet in Newmarket. Dr. Haghighat gave Weasel his treatment using acupuncture points to administer beneficial remedies into his blood stream. We also received the good news that the mass is now soft, and not hard. Dr. H also gave us a package of Naltrexone which thankfully can be administered by rubbing it on the cat's ears. I've never felt so much relief in hearing that. Naltrexone has had some success in treating cancerous tumors. This website I came across was very interesting in a study that was conducted using Naltrexone for treating cancer:
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ldn_and_cancer.htm
Naltrexone may, just may, stop the growth of Weasel's tumor. Unfortunately, it's arriving a bit late in that Weasel is now in discomfort. If he's in pain, he won't eat. If he doesn't eat, we're going to lose him fast, not allowing the Naltrexone to work its magic. It's incredibly frustrating to have a cat that's so unnecessarily and absurdly difficult as well as suspicious, to give anything to.
http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ldn_and_cancer.htm
Naltrexone may, just may, stop the growth of Weasel's tumor. Unfortunately, it's arriving a bit late in that Weasel is now in discomfort. If he's in pain, he won't eat. If he doesn't eat, we're going to lose him fast, not allowing the Naltrexone to work its magic. It's incredibly frustrating to have a cat that's so unnecessarily and absurdly difficult as well as suspicious, to give anything to.
Today is also the first day that I wasn't able to give him the Essiac tea, Amino B-Plex and Life Gold remedies.
I'm down to smearing vitamin C on his paw which takes an entire day to clean off and gets everywhere, and applying the Naltrexone. Nothing else is holding up. If I could afford it, I would have a feeding tube inserted into Weasel to give all of these treatments a fighting chance. If we could stop the spread of the cancer and reduce the size of the tumor, that would be monumental.
Sunday, 17 March 2013
We've Had a Few Great Days
I'm happy to finally bring forward some good news. Weasel has been upbeat, happy and eating everything we give him for 3 straight days now. His energy levels seem to be high too which is wonderful.
The secret? Well the current regime is to feed him only his Halo wet food with no herbal remedies added during his regular meal times. Every night he receives a snack - either a small amount of a fresh salmon cooked for him and his brother or sardines which he loves and I add a tablespoon of Essiac Tea along with some Omega-3 which is almost unnecessary but he loves the flavour of it, his Amino B-Plex and 5 drops of the Life Gold. He eats it up very quickly thankfully. Today I tried to give him a similar snack - salmon based with sardines mixed in but I added the Milk Thistle drops and Black Cumin Seed Oil to see if he would finally take those remedies which are fairly important. He ate 1/4 of it and walked away so no luck there. Perhaps all I need to do is remove the milk thistle. The Black Cumin Seed Oil is more important anyway.
I've unfortunately had to give up on the tactic to spread the Vitamin C on his paws. I could see that it was causing him to become depressed. In addition, his ability to groom it off seemed haphazard at best. The Vitamin C was one of the most powerful 'tools' I had in my possession to fight the cancer so it's frustrating that I have hit a wall with it. I'll try experimenting with adding it it to some food but he really doesn't like the taste and probably now associates it with the grooming he disliked so much.
I can sense that Weasel's discomfort has increased so my vet prescribed Tramadol to ease his pain. The downside of this is that a) It's not available in a cream or liquid version and b) administering a pill to Weasel is pretty much impossible. In fact, I bet he would make the top 10 for 'hardest cat to give a pill to' category. I even recently purchased the 'Buster Pet Piller' which has a soft rubber end and allows you to shoot water behind the pill. It's the best piller on the market and even that didn't work. We've wrapped him in towels, held him in different positions, etc. It's stressful on us and him. I did however manage to get one of the capsules down yesterday (by sheer luck) but unfortunately it didn't generate the best outcome. Shortly after, Weasel's pupils became dilated and he was very quiet for the remainder of the day. On the label it states to administer 2 times a day but the one capsule was evidently an overdose. The other issue with Tramadol is that it's an addictive drug. The last thing we need is to give my cat an addiction while battling cancer. The only alternative liquid based drug I can give to him for pain is Metacam which, after researching online scared me completely. Supposedly cats can die on this.
My current concern is how I can control the fever he seems to have each day. His body is so warm and his ears are hot. The Tramadol cannot help with this. I may start giving him the Yunnan again which I stopped administering while attempting to give Tramadol as it was becoming too traumatic for the both of us. It's possible that the Yunnan will be an effective treatment for this. I'll call the holistic vet tomorrow to find out what our options are.
I've had to start taking a new perspective on this situation, enjoying each day we have together and not obsessing over the negative ending to this saga. It's really the only way one can stay sane in such a grave scenario.
The secret? Well the current regime is to feed him only his Halo wet food with no herbal remedies added during his regular meal times. Every night he receives a snack - either a small amount of a fresh salmon cooked for him and his brother or sardines which he loves and I add a tablespoon of Essiac Tea along with some Omega-3 which is almost unnecessary but he loves the flavour of it, his Amino B-Plex and 5 drops of the Life Gold. He eats it up very quickly thankfully. Today I tried to give him a similar snack - salmon based with sardines mixed in but I added the Milk Thistle drops and Black Cumin Seed Oil to see if he would finally take those remedies which are fairly important. He ate 1/4 of it and walked away so no luck there. Perhaps all I need to do is remove the milk thistle. The Black Cumin Seed Oil is more important anyway.
I've unfortunately had to give up on the tactic to spread the Vitamin C on his paws. I could see that it was causing him to become depressed. In addition, his ability to groom it off seemed haphazard at best. The Vitamin C was one of the most powerful 'tools' I had in my possession to fight the cancer so it's frustrating that I have hit a wall with it. I'll try experimenting with adding it it to some food but he really doesn't like the taste and probably now associates it with the grooming he disliked so much.
I can sense that Weasel's discomfort has increased so my vet prescribed Tramadol to ease his pain. The downside of this is that a) It's not available in a cream or liquid version and b) administering a pill to Weasel is pretty much impossible. In fact, I bet he would make the top 10 for 'hardest cat to give a pill to' category. I even recently purchased the 'Buster Pet Piller' which has a soft rubber end and allows you to shoot water behind the pill. It's the best piller on the market and even that didn't work. We've wrapped him in towels, held him in different positions, etc. It's stressful on us and him. I did however manage to get one of the capsules down yesterday (by sheer luck) but unfortunately it didn't generate the best outcome. Shortly after, Weasel's pupils became dilated and he was very quiet for the remainder of the day. On the label it states to administer 2 times a day but the one capsule was evidently an overdose. The other issue with Tramadol is that it's an addictive drug. The last thing we need is to give my cat an addiction while battling cancer. The only alternative liquid based drug I can give to him for pain is Metacam which, after researching online scared me completely. Supposedly cats can die on this.
My current concern is how I can control the fever he seems to have each day. His body is so warm and his ears are hot. The Tramadol cannot help with this. I may start giving him the Yunnan again which I stopped administering while attempting to give Tramadol as it was becoming too traumatic for the both of us. It's possible that the Yunnan will be an effective treatment for this. I'll call the holistic vet tomorrow to find out what our options are.
I've had to start taking a new perspective on this situation, enjoying each day we have together and not obsessing over the negative ending to this saga. It's really the only way one can stay sane in such a grave scenario.
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