Madiera

“Some people don't really know enough to make a pronouncement of doom” ― Norman Cousins, Anatomy Of An Illness

Madiera is a year old kitty who had spontaneous resolution of ascites. She was diagnosed with wet fip end of march 2012 around 12 weeks of age.

It is lovely to read about a genuine recovery that demonstrates the bodies natural healing compared to healing that is often termed 'spontaneous' but where the patient has worked jolly hard at repelling the problem. I am reminded of Remarkable recoveries - a speech by Ian Gawler - he recovered from osteogenic sarcoma and his story kickstarted a holistic cancer cure movement in Australia. i think i read in Ian Gawler's biography "the dragon's blessing" something like spontaneous remission - there was nothing spontaneous about it!

She lives with Nicole Griffin-MacKenzie who sent this picture in to the FIP fighters Facebook group (our correspondance copied with permission)

August 19 2012

This is a pic from now, 5 months later and the fluid is still completely gone. ( she loves showers ) we are very blessed. Just wanted to share because I feel there is hope

NICOLE: She's not on anything just takes pedialyte 3x a day for her stools to stay normal. The first time she was tested by the veterinarian it was with a sample from the fluid in her abdomen, then dr Legendre requested a second test to be done ( due to the fluid disappearing ) and again the tests pointed to FIP , we were going to do the PI and that's why we were speaking to Dr. L but he stated to let it be if she is doing so well
Still doing great ( knock on wood) October 8 2012

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  NICOLE: We got her in February, at 8 weeks so she will be a year next month. We didn't change her diet at all. We stuck with the same kitten food that she was on. The only thing we changed was giving her pedialyte. When we thought she had weeks to live I we were giving her a tablespoon of vanilla ice cream at night but that changed as soon as we noticed her abdomen going down. She was urinating a lot during this time ... Which I'm sure has nothing to do with it

  November 27, 2012
• ME: wow what brand vanilla icecream! who knows you may have stumbled onto THE CURE. i'm only half kidding. the urine was the fluid going out. what breed is she? there is 'spontaneous resolution' ie her immune system kicked in on its own; thymus gland is still there i think at 8 weeks, it is not so active in older cats. when did she get sick?

  November 28, 2012 at 12:09pm
   
• ME: i better explain my self about the vanilla icecream - if you read the anatomy of an illness as perceived by the patient by norman cousins and see what he did. i have been searching for the equivalent of funny things for a cat. icecream may be the thing.

  November 28, 2012 at 12:11pm
   
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  NICOLE: I think it was hood Boston vanilla bean

  November 28, 2012 at 1:03pm
  
  Madiera was still well and taking her 3xdaily pedialyte when Nicole sent me copies of the tests in December 2012.

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  open in a new window and use the zoom function of your browser

  otherwise download from here - Madiera's blood tests

  
  

and here is Madiera all grown up in Jan 2013 - a sleek young lady

UPDATE MAY 2015 - Madiera is still a happy healthy cat!

Mishka by Moonlight

"Do you believe in immortality? No, and one life is enough for me." - Albert Einstein

Mishka was two in September but in cat years she is 25 - what should be her prime. We took her home to LIVE, and not spend too much of that doing stuff she doesn't like. So emphasis noms, sleeping in the sun, trying to catch a bird.
or a frog - since the nights are warm Mishka was allowed her hearts desire to head out after her midnight snack and I found a little frog for her to play with. The little brown frogs who live in the water tray of my potplants hop about on the window cleaning up moths after dark. They are not fussed about being picked up - we took one to school for show and tell once. No danger of our fat furball catching it - always one bemused hop behind the frog.
Sometimes she doesn't want to hunt - she just listens to the wind and sniffs. The scent of the night garden is different and Mishka by moonlight is exquisite - it's her element. Such a shame i can't capture a picture of her luminous fur, shadow like a second cat spirit beside her under a strange dark bright sky, the fullmoon on the sea beyond and the southern stars above ... plainly I'm no poet; you had to be there. Just sitting.

So tick one off the bucket list. Cats are crepuscular (FIP expanding my vocab again) most active around dawn and dusk. Really I can't understand people who want a cat to give up being a cat to be on people time.
Now that Mishka has celebrated christmas with us our next goal is easter. I saw this while grocery shopping today - fresh baked just after boxing day and best before New Years day! Perhaps we should make the goal Valentines Day.

FIP makes you paranoid

"It is also useful to have the client remember a time when the cat was healthiest, and write down the cat’s 3 favourite activities. Then the cat cannot accomplish two of those activities, quality of life is compromised and euthanasia should be considered (Wright & Rogers, 2010)." ~ Dr Dianne  Addie wet FIP – case study 

eating - tick, sleeping on anything black and getting white fur all over it - tick, going outside and hunting (badly) - tick 

It's a few days after christmas. I was absolutely dreading having to be cheerful while surrounded by people who think "it's just a cat"  For a while I even had an awful idea playing in my head that I might be asked to euthanase the cat because it would be more convenient than having an awkward drama at Christmas. (yup FIP makes you paranoid) What would the cat hating grandfather make of my devotion to furball's care over cooking xmas dinner? Would there be A SCENE ... well guess who donated a massive cash injection to Mishka's fighting fund - one of only five people to do so.

The Christmas drama did indeed happen. On christmas eve she got some nasty reaction to the injection of sedative  - didn't wake up on schedule and then developed a nasty looking haemorhagic rash at the site ( we thought at first she was going to go into a hemorhagic crisis ) Turned out to just be she had scratched and licked the itchy spot to death. 

So we got to road test plantain herbal poultice - just mush ribwort plantain leaves up and bandage over the sore spot. Worked quite well - also on my itchy toe (bit by a jack jumper that morning) but she was still worrying the spot over the next few days and in danger of tearing out a lot of fur so we tried swaddling with a "Thunder shirt" (bad idea although it stopped her licking it really should have been introduced very very gradually. Wearing a weird t shirt made her anxious - more licking and scratching when she had it removed but this settled quickly.)

Not quite the christmas day we had hoped for Mishka but she's partying on.