Blazer's close call...

UPDATE 7/8/09-- About 2 weeks ago, Blazer was rubbing up against one of Boston's toys and pulled out his feeding tube!! We patched it up and brought him in and they sewed up the hole. He was eating regularly at that point, so we all just figured the timing was natural. And he's doing FABULOUS!! He has soooo much energy and is back up to 13 pounds!! He has made a complete turn around and we are just thrilled; especially Matt since he no longer has to worry about crushing pills or doing tube feedings 3 times a day!!

As I posted earlier, our kitty, Pepsi was diagnosed with feline diabetes in March. Since then, we switched him (and therefore both of our kitties) from dry food to canned cat food, since the dry food is so high in carbs and most probably caused the diabetes in the first place. Pepsi took well to it and his blood glucose stabilized to a normal range within a month and a half and we were able to completely wean him off of the insulin! But in the meantime, Blazer was slowly eating less and less dry food which we hadn't noticed until about 3 weeks ago; he was protesting by starving himself. He was losing weight like crazy and was acting super lethargic and vomiting bile. So we finally took him in when he almost on his deathbed and they told us he had a fatty liver which had started to fail. So he spent several days in the vet hospital, had a complicated (& super expensive ultrasound) and then had a feeding tube inserted into his neck. This all happened right as the boys & I were leaving for our 2+ week trip to NOLA. Matt really stepped it up and took charge in order to save Blazer's life. He fed him 4 times a day in the tube, crushing up many different pills and adding water, etc. It is such a complicated procedure and I am very proud of him for taking responsibility for this and committing his time & energy for our 4 legged family member. It was such a strange thing to see Blazer with the tube and a little t-shirt on when we got back home. I was so scared that when I left I may never have seen him again and that I never had a chance to say goodbye. I remember going with Matt to the Oregon Humane Society in Dec of 2000 and picking Blazer out because of his cute little black goatee and his adorable over sized ears. I am thrilled to report that he is making quite a come back, is now eating solid foods willingly, is gaining weight and is purring up a storm! We will have to eventually have to figure out how to get Blazer to either eat canned food or how to separate Pepsi so he is not ingesting the high carb stuff. But that will come, in the meantime, we are just happy to have both of our kitties with us so that Benz & Boston can grow up with them.