Yancy2 ~ Medical Care for Felines

So much has happened in the life of this little nine month old kitty. Yancy has spent quite a bit of time under the care of doctors since she was first brought to the rescue home. We thought her followers would like to know how she's doing.Our little "Yum Yum" has adapted well to her femoral head ostectomy (hip) surgery and gets around like a big girl running, jumping and climbing. However another problem has surfaced for this feisty kitten, one that has two local veterinarians and a few at the University scratching their heads.

We noticed Yancy's breathing sounded as if she was congested. Holding her and looking closely at her nose we saw that her nostrils, particularly her left one, were partially blocked. They seemed to be continually crusting over causing a respiratory problem. We would clean them out as best we could but before long they were crusted over again, which made her breathing difficult.

Yancy fought this tooth and nail (if you get my meaning). She wasnt going to have anyone picking her nose without putting up a good fight. Yes, it is gross, but what else can we do?

As I'm writing this it is my hope that some veterinarian will contact us with a solution for this little bundle of love.

Photo by Favored1

Copyrighted Material by Favored1. Do not copy. Photo credit by Favored1 or Amazon unless otherwise noted. This artwork is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

We bought this scratching toy for one of our cats. It's funny that the one we bought it for doesn't get to use it, because all the other kitties have claimed it as their own.

They do play and scratch on it, but mostly they fall asleep in the funniest positions. Not much time goes by before another car takes their place on this two surfaced scratching toy.

Yes, it does have a catnip feather toy that is attached by a spring. Yancy attacks it from underneath!

Yancy - Little Yum Yum Update

Who would think a little 6 pound kitten would cause such a fuss? Well, if you had been to the doctor's as much as Yancy has, maybe you'd be on the snippy side also.Off to the vet and a round of antibiotics, Clavamox. The general opinion at the time was that she had a URI (upper respiratory infection).

A few weeks went by with no noticeable change, and a different antibiotic, Clindamycin was prescribed, with the same results as the first. Then the third and more potent, Azithromicin was given with again no change. Finally an anti-viral medication, Famciclovir was given. As of this writing she has been taken off all medication.

Her nose continued to crust over and her breathing still sounded as if she was congested.

Keeping Yancy's mind off her medical problems isn't difficult when you provide her with fun "distractions" like these. Catit toys help to develop a cat's mind as well as providing them with many hours of fun.Look for the entire line of Catit Sense products designed to stimulate the mind and life of your pet.

The doctor recommended a sinus flush. (See photos below). This procedure was performed on Yancy where she had a small amount of air injected into her sinus passages in the back of her throat and exiting through her nose. Then a sterile solution was flushed through the same way. Everything came out clear and clean.An x-ray was also taken of her head at this time. The x-ray didn't show anything out of the ordinary. Her nose and nostrils were cleaned up. But within a day, her condition was the same as before.

This view shows the nasal passages from the side (they are so tiny and narrow). Notice how the intubation tubing shows up on the film.Photo by Favored1

This view was taken while Yancy was lying on her back. The Doctor said that both x-rays look normal.Photo by Favored1

Her nose was cleared of the crusting as much as possible without causing the passages to become "raw". The next day it began to crust over again, and still does.Yancy's frame is very small, but she does not seem to have development issues.

Photo by Favored1

Back to the Vet Clinic

Our Veterinarian called the University and spoke to a Doctor there. They recommended blood, throat and nasal passage samples be gathered and tested.Once again she was anesthetized, the cultures taken and blood samples drawn. The results all came back normal. No Herpes, which is often found in street or feral cats and passed down from mother to litter, and no viruses of any kind. Nothing to show what is going on or to even send up a flag that something might be wrong.

Photo by Favored1

These are the tests recommended by the University, and the results. As you can see, the results all came back negative. We were certainly glad to hear that, but now what?

Photo by Favored1

As of today (March 30th, 2013) Yancy doesn't have a fever, although this little one has come into "heat." Having her fixed is another thing we have postponed several times, because of her health and all the medication she was taking at the time the surgery was scheduled.It has been recommended that Yancy have an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Image) performed on her head area. The MRI images are taken in "slices". Each image is taken progressively from start to finish. So in theory, you can see the beginning, middle and end of any abnormality. The closest facility for an MRI for a cat is at the University which is a 400 mile round trip. The cost of an MRI for a cat ranges in price from $700-$1,500.00, depending on how far up the medical chain the reading of the results goes. Once again the pet needs to be anesthetized so that they will remain still during the imaging process. This along with pre and post procedure care runs the cost up.

Another suggestion is that of doing a sort of ream job on her nasal passages hoping to enlarge them. This is similar to what they do on humans. I have talked to people who have had this procedure done and was told that it was very painful and a majority of them said that if they had it to do over again, they wouldn't.

Allergies may still be an issue but we can't tell. Yancy has her own bed, eats dry kitten food and since the beginning uses corn cob litter. She doesn't eat meat or any treats (she won't I should say). She didn't develop this until a few months ago, so I don't know how it could be the litter. We just don't know at this point, but will keep testing until we find some answers for her.

Photo by Favored1 (Yancy March 16th, 2013)

So this is where we stand. We are still researching to see what Yancy's medical problem is, and daily clean her nose as much as she'll allow before resisting. She tends to let me do it for her more, I guess because I have smaller hands. We cannot use any gel to soothe the soreness, because it adds to the clogging of her passages.Yancy still has needs to have her nose "decrusted" as I call it, every few days. The good thing is that we have learned how to do it ... the bad things is that Yancy sees it coming and it takes both of us to hold her down.

If you know of another feline that has had this problem or are a vet and have any recommendations as to treatment for Yancy, please let us know. Everyone else, keep on praying for her. She is so precious and it's hard listening to her try to breathe through the congestion.

As of January 25th, 2014 Yancy still had to have a "de-crusting" in the nose on a regular basis. This photo was taken right after it was done. She has gotten stronger and faster at swatting us when we do it, but who can blame her.

It's now June, and Yancy still gets regular de-crusting done every few days, but now she is a lot faster and swats us when we do it. She does whimper some, because it is painful. Think of it as pulling a Band-Aid off quickly and you'll get the gist of it.

Her back leg has is more tender since gaining weight, because it puts more pressure on the muscle. Even with all she is experiencing, Yancy is coming up with new ways to get into a heap of trouble.