Vet visit today for status update on Mackenzie. She’s stable and status quo at this point… no worse, but no better either. We’re visualizing her eating on her own and willing the medication to work but for now, at least she’s home, safe and loved.

Thanks to everyone sending the well-wishes and love. She, and we, didn’t know so many people cared!
Thank you.

xoxo
Christina

So we have our Mack Mack home, since Thursday night and as much as we are happy to have her home… we also now know how much love and effort it will take to get her through this disease.

On Thursday night we got our first taste of syringe feeding a kitty. WOW! Who knew a sick little kitty could muster up and possess that much strength?!? I’ve seen glimpses of it in the past with minor antibiotic treatments [which is just ONE syringe], but magnify it by between 6-8 syringes and it can be a bit of a fight.  Not to mention, messy LOL! We got through it ok, did two feedings and let her sleep the night through.

Friday I asked my supervisor if I could work at home, Marcus compassionate man that he is agreed, and so I was head feeder and cleaner-upper all day, on my own. The first feeding was in the morning and Terry helped before I dropped him off at work. The next three were solo efforts, and it took a whole lot of misfiring [me and Mack wearing much of the squishy cat food!] during the first one to figure out a trap and inject technique that was both quick and accurate. I was quite proud of myself. Terry was my co-pilot for the evening feeds which was great!

Today, Saturday she got more feedings… Terry tried one on his own and as with my first foray into syringe feeding - a lot hit the floor, table and the side of Mack’s face. We did the bulk of them together for the rest of the day. He’ll be doing another solo feeding flight tomorrow, since I’ll be back to work on Tuesday and he’ll be at home for a few days.

She seems to be ok for the most part. Taking the feedings relatively well; has peed numerous times and pooped too [this is a very good thing!]; her hydration seems ok [I’m doing the back-twist test]; she’s pretty tired and still quite lethargic and has taken to hiding out under one of our living chairs in the relative darkness [but that could be because every 3-4 hours were trying to feed her - I’d be hiding out too!]; and her belly fluid hasn’t increased since last night.  We’re trying to be optimistic and are praying that the meds do their job, loving her and doing what we must to make her well. Yes, even if that means getting squishy cat food under my finger nails, in my hair and on my clothes [note to self: wear CRAPPY t-shirt for feedings!]… We’re doing this for the greater good of Baby Mack’s health.

Anyways… that is the update for now. 

There will be more non-kitty stuff tomorrow related to Christmas crafts and decorating ideas. Just too tired to take a decent photograph LOL. The projects are easy, not too expensive and can be tailored to any color scheme. Catch you tomorrow! For now, I leave you with this…

I’m just waiting for terry to leave his office, I’m sitting in the lot waiting for him… Then we’re off to bring home the furgirl! Yay!

I went to one of our pet superstores today and picked up some welcome home treaties for mackenzie… Two fun and colorful catnap toys and a tiny pink “preppy” sweater. Truth be told I was hoping for argyle… But preppy fit the bill just fine! It’s pink with blue and white stripes on the “waistband” and sleeve cuffs. So cute!

I got cause she’s all shaved and I don’t want her to get cold… Plus it may be the only time I can her to wear it LOL! I will have camera at the ready once it is on her and will take some quick snaps in case it comes off as quickly as it went on. I’ll post those later tonight.

In the meantime, it will be a cozy cuddly evening on the couch with my mack mack and the family Lazar-Schuler will be complete again.

Christina Lazar-Schuler Lazar Studiowerx Inc.

The dreaded test results have finally come in… the abnormal liver and kidney cells tested negatively for lymphoma so that means no cancer in her body. The Titer test for FIP showed a very high level of antibodies for the disease and based on the range of antibody levels, as accepted by veterinary  pathologists, there is a 90% probility that my sweet furry girl has FIP.

I just wanted to post a quick update about Mack’s condition for all of you who have been caring enough to ask. So, FIP… here’s what that means:

• She will be medicated with aggressive antibiotics for a period of time to see if there is any change in diagnosis
• If there is no change in her condition, we will move into pallative care scenerio and will keep her comfortable and happy as long as possible [could be 4 weeks up to 1 year] until she starts to shows signs of suffering

The good thing is that we get to bring my sweet girl home tomorrow, she’ll be with us through the holidays, there is still a 10% chance that she doesn’t have FIP and that the aggressive antibiotics WILL destroy the disease that is slowly consuming my Mackenzie. While I will hold that 10% chance in my heart and have faith that she will be one of the lucky few and survive this illness, I can also begin preparinge myself in case the unthinkable happens.

Thank you again my friends, who have shown us such love and support, we ALL appreciate your kindness and encouragement. 

I’m generally not the most patient person in the world… always wondering what’s in the box, what the test results show, when are we going and when can I leave? So today, as I not-so-patiently wait for Baby Mack’s ultrasound and additional blood test results, my legs are vibrating under my desk like a caffeine addict, my fingers are nervously drumming on the desk and mouse and my stomach is in knots. I hate waiting… particularly when it comes to the health and well-being of my sweet furbaby Mackenzie.

I expect a phone call this afternoon with 1 of 3 results…

1. Mackie has a blockage [definitely the preferred news and a treatable health issue!] and there will be a surgery in the next few days for her
2. Mack has cancer and there may be surgery with chemo to follow [2nd choice in news and also treatable we believe]
3. Mack has FIP [NOT what I want to hear at all…] which is terminal illness and basically we will have to choose palative treatment options.

Edited: THE phone call came while I was typing this…
Mackie was tested and the mass found on the ultra sound in in the lining of the gut between her abdominal wall and tummy. So the vet performed a aspirated [needle] biopsy and removed some abnormal cells from the tummy mass, her kidneys and liver. It is looking more like a lymphoma situation then FIP and if that is the case it is treatable with medication - YAY! FIP tests are due back tonight or early tomorrow, so we’ll be able to rule that out once and for all tomorrow morning.

So a little relief on the horizon and I am visualizing a funny, shaved Mackenzie sleeping in my lap at home by the weekend. She WILL be home, happy and on the road to healthy by Christmas…

To all who have sent in their well-wishes, prayers and love for this truly sweet, furry girl - thank you! It has bolstered my spirits and has helped tremendously in dealing with our family health crisis. Love to all of you from Me, Terry, Kodiak and most of all Mackenzie!

Edited 10:45pm: We visited Baby Girl at the vet’s this evening for a while. She was a little dopey from the gas she received during the ultrasound and biopsy… but otherwise she’s stable. She is now shaved in three spots on her body and the patches of naked kitty are getting larger LOL!

Her front leg is shaved where the IV was placed; there is a patch about 2"x2" on her neck that was shaved for blood tests; and yesterday there was a 4" wide shaved strip across her belly for the pain patch she’s wearing. The pain patch is a great thing! Basically, instead of having an IV and receiving the drugs/pain meds by needle, the pain patch is like the Nicoderm patch and Mack can receive her meds subcutaneously. Brilliant! Although she does look hilarious with a tensor wrapped around her tummy and a shaved belly peeking out, it’s a great thing.

Today  we visited for a while, gave her a good rub and saw her in all her nudie, shaved glory LOL! For the ultrasound and subsequent biopsy, Mack’s entire belly, from stem to stern, was shaved. She looked a little embarassed showing us her tummy and all it’s velvety smooth, fuzzlessness - gotta admit, it was a bit odd and wrinkly looking LOL!  So, since we expect to have her home by this weekend, I’m going to try to pick up a cute little sweater for her to wear until the fur grows back in, so she’s not cold [and so I can take photos of her in the sweater!]

It’s  also sounding like Miss Mackenzie will be coming home on the weekend… and we’ll be taking over the feeding and hydration until she starts feeding on her own. That means syringe feedings every 3-4 hours round the clock, along and monitoring her hydration. It’s a big responsibility, but were just thrilled at the idea of having her at home finally and getting her on the road to recovery!

That’s it for now… will post again once we get the final results and prognosis.

Have just spoken with the vet…

Mack’s temp is down, her hydration level is up, she taken food by syringe a few times today. We still don’t have definitive test results yet so, we’re still not 100 percent sure about what the problem is… At least there has been some improvement.

Edited 9:00pm: Just returned from the Emergency Vet Hospital and things are a little better as mentioned before, but we still haven’t received the lab results yet since it’s Sunday. We anticipate getting something at some point this evening, but unfortunately because it’s the weekend, we have to wait on the lab.  Troubling is that her white blood cell count is quite high and red blood cells lower than normal - plus with the mass in her abdomen, cancer is now in the picture.

So… the visualizing has begun. I visualize Mackenzie at HOME, happy, healthy and glowing with love and life. I WILL bring her home. She WILL be healthy. She WILL beat whatever is making her ill and she WILL grow to be an old, geriatric cat of 16 years old. I will accept no less and she WILL be well again soon.

Please keep this wee, love muffin of mine in your prayers. She’s an animal yes, but she’s also my fur baby and we love her dearly.

Many of you know that we are parents to two furkids - British Shorthair Kitties named Kodiak and Mackenzie… well, for the last little while Mackenzie [aka Baby Mack] has been showing a lack of interest in food and has been lethargic.

We noticed a major change in her behaviour this week since we’d come home from Toronto. She was eating very little, except the chicken breast that I cooked for them earlier this week and a few mouthfuls of her dry food. She’d be pretty lethargic in the evenings when we got home from work, so we started getting a little concerned. Yesterday she did something that was the clearest indicator there was a problem… she laid in my lap, on the couch, for 6 hours! It’s hard to tell with Mack Mack that something is wrong, because she isn’t a complainer and is a very quiet sweet girl; it’s also hard to track the kitties’ behaviour during the day because we both work outside the house… but Mack is also NOT a lap cat, so this 6 hour cuddling raised up all kinds of red flags!

Mack Mack was due into the vet on Monday for a dental cleaning and I was going to wait to take her in for a check-up until then, but by around 8:30pm she was so sluggish that I started to get very worried… I called the 24 Hour Vancouver Emergency Vet Clinic and spoke to the technician. They recommended we bring her in, and boy am I glad we did! She had a fever, was very lethargic, was showing signs of jaundice and you could tell that she felt crappy. They found a small lump in her abdomen that could be a block and could be the source of the problem; however, the signs of jaundice lead the vet to suggest a more serious, but treatable problem Fatty Liver Syndrome/Disease [FLS].

FLS is a problem that occurs only in cats, not in humans or dogs and it happens when a kitty hasn’t been eating enough food for it’s caloric requirements, the feline body begins processing stored fat cells for energy causing liver distress. What happens is that as the processed fat goes through the liver [cats don’t have a liver enzyme capable of breaking down the fat] it starts forming fat pockets in the liver and starts shutting it down. If caught early enough the liver disease can be stopped and reversed, but it will required a lot of nutrional supervision and work on our part to make sure she gets what she needs to improve. If left too late, it can be fatal. We hope and believe that at this point it was early enough to save my baby girl.

Whatever the problem, we just want our Baby Mack to come home and be well! We were at the vet clinic from 9:45pm - 1am last night, so I’m pretty tired, and very worried about my sweet girl. I’m now waiting to speak to the vet about the diagnosis of her condition and what else may need to be done. The vet bills are pretty steep, but for my 3.5 year furbaby, anything is worth her health and homecoming! Please keep her in your thoughts, we love her so much…