Friday, March 30, 2012

Friends on Friday

Thank you for all the lovely messages about Freddie. He was a beautiful little boy, and we will always remember him.

I wanted to finish the week with some good news. About me!

                                           
 As most of you know I had some health problems last year. I had lots of testing done and while it kept showing that I had some problems going on, it couldn't pinpoint what it was that was actually causing the problems. After doing various food and medication trials, all of which made little to no difference, I was finally put on a high dose of steroids that made a big difference. It cleared up my problems, though it did make me pretty lethargic.
 Once we'd arrived in our new house and I was settled, we started the slow process of weaning me off the medication. We did it over a period of nearly 6 weeks until I was taking 0 tablets every day. I have been completely off the medication for several weeks now, and I have remained completely stable. My energy levels have bounced back! We had been warned that once we reached a threshold limit I might relapse, but that never happened. The vets had warned us that I might be a cat who needed to be on medication for the rest of my life, and there are some big drawbacks to being on steroids long term. So it's a huge, massive, wonderful thing that so far everything is going well.
I am still on my hypoallergenic food and will be for a little while yet. We wanted to have a very clear distinction between stopping the medication and weaning off the food so that if I did have a relapse we would know what it was related to. But to tell you a secret, I have stolen a couple of Suey and Lishy's crunchies a couple of times and shown no ill effect. I also pounced on a piece of tuna mum dropped, and my poop remained firm.

It's still a bit of a mystery about what kicked all this off. One development that my vet was very interested in was that just before we moved out of my old house, I found a bit of dog food in our garden. While that doesn't sound very interesting on it's own, we used to live next door to a barky dog. There were a couple of stories locally about someone throwing poisoned dog food into yards with so called nuisance dogs. According to my vet if that had been what happened it could have been enough to cause my rather dramatic early symptoms, and cause the long term irritation. It would also apparently explain why the biopsies showed blood and haemmoraging in my guts but showed no actual cause.

Regardless, we are very very happy that right now I am off all the medication and am completely symptom free. Have a happy weekend everyone :)

22 comments:

Barb said...

Well, first of all, lovely outside action shots of you, honey pie! And how marvelous that you've stabilized! Hopefully, that will be the end of all that!

Happy weekend, everybuddy!

Tama-Chan, Benny, Vidock, Violette, Ollie, Heloise, Momo, Ryu said...

You look absolutely fabulous, Fui! We are so glad you have successfully been weaned off the steroids and are doing so well. That poisoned dog food does sound likely, doesn't it?

Have a great weekend!

Purrs,
The Chans

Fuzzy Tales said...

What a fabulous good news post! We're thrilled that you're off the medication and doing just fine and hope you remain healthy and active from here on in!

Marilia said...

I really love the news!!!! Have a great weekend!

Random Felines said...

wow - you sound like you are doing great.....paws crossed it continues and you are back to 100% in no time!!

JC said...

I'm glad that you are doing so well. Love those photos of you. You look just like my Ashton and he loved to play outside. Now, being an indoor only boy, he only looks out windows.

Katnip Lounge said...

This IS a HUGE PIECE of wonderful news!

kleinwort said...

Super GREAT news, Fui!!! Sooooo glad you're off of those nasty steroids! We know what they do to you!

(Don't get me wrong, we are glad steroids are around - they have some great attributes, but they have some that are nasty.)

We finished weaning Buddy off of steroids for his allergies for the second time about a month ago (Doc said the same thing - not great long term, we'd once weaned him off and he did fine for a while but then the darn allergies came back, etc.).

We started a brand new med (new to the market) and he's almost healed!!! Only three more weeks on it and hopefully we will have licked it! But best of all, Buddy isn't grumpy all the time (boy, oh boy, did he get grumpy on the steroids) and he's slimming down, and he wants to play again! Yay!!

So we'll say a little prayer for you each night, Fui, right along side the one for Buddy, to stay stable and healthy!

Sparkle said...

I am so glad you are over that mystery illness, Fui, and back to your old self!

Cat and DOG Chat With Caren said...

Fui that is the BEST news EVER!!

xoxoxo

Mickey's Musings said...

Fui, you are looking SO fit and SO handsome !!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a purrfect way to end the week!!! The news of your "recovery" is the best!!! We purr that it lasts forever too :)
WOOT!!!!!!!!!
Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
Tiger,Treasure and JJ

Angel, Kirby and Max said...

Fui, we are so goad you are doing so well!

The Island Cats said...

That's such good news, Fui! We hope you continue to do well!!

Quill and Greyson said...

We are SOOOOO glad you are doing well!!

Sweet Purrfections said...

We hope you continue to be symptom free and off of the meds.

Truffle and Brulee

Milo and Alfie Marshall said...

We will purr that you remain symptom free sweet Fui. xx

meowmeowmans said...

Fui, you look fantastic, buddy! We are so glad you're doing so well. :)

Purrs and big hugs to you and your family!

(angel) Grrreta and Fam said...

What wonderful news! We are very glad you are doing so much better!

Lita and the boys in Melbourne said...

Hey Fui, looking good! keep it up, man. we are very glad you are well for we can well imagine how relieved your parents must be. may you have many years of excellent health ahead! you handsome devil, you!

rainbow said...

Dear Fui, what super news! Our paws are crossed that all will continue to improve and then you will be able to eat all your favourite foods again. Special purrs to you all.

Goldie, Shade and Banshee said...

You look great out there sharpening your claws!

So glad you are feeling better and are off the meds! Yippee Fui!!!!!!

Poppy Q said...

Aww Tabbyman we are glad to hear that your tummy is doing better and you are back to the firm poos.

Enjoy your scratching.

Love
Julie and Poppy Q
xxx