She's Back

I am happy to report that this little bit is back to her normal wild self.

Yes, that is my kitchen counter.  It's called failed pet parenting but the fact is, she was unfazed by any form of punishment we tried to dole out...

• Sprayed her with water - Phoebe loves water and welcomed the refreshing spritzer
• Put muffin tins and other objects on the edge of the counter - this resulted in the loud bang it was supposed to when they fell to the floor but the noise only seem to startle us and our other cat...Phoebe not so much
• Blow dryer - this is one thing she doesn't like but a solid 30 seconds later she's back for more
• Foil - most cats do not like the sound of walking on foil but Phoebe not only didn't mind the sound, she ate some of it and threw up
• Physically removing her after every jump - this resulted in 30 minute TV shows turning into 60 minute TV shows because I had to get up every 2 minutes.  Something had to give and it wasn't going to be TV!

Needless to say we sort of gave up but not to worry - I thoroughly clean before cooking, etc!  I hate admitting it but I'm happy to see her jumping on the counter again, she wasn't up to doing much for a couple of weeks there.  I'll tell you someone that is not happy about this new development and that is poor Tavia.

The week that Phoebe was at the vet, Tavia was the happiest I've ever seen her!  She was like a little kitten again, playing and loving on everyone.  She's really having a hard time acclimating to the reintroduction of Phoebe.  She's been much more aggressive this time around than when we first got Phoebe.  I just hope it doesn't take several months like it did the first time. 

I'm not sure where I left off with Phoebe other than mentioned my belief that the snow flocked tree had something to do with her sickness.  I still don't think it was a coincidence.  After a week at the vet partaking in IVs and force feedings her biopsy results came back.  The results weren't as conclusive as they had hoped but the vets were still leaning toward inflammatory bowel disease and decided to move forward with that treatment.  After her first steroid shot she started eating and was doing ok so they sent her home but when we would give her a prednisone pill at home she became sick again.  After a couple of goes at that, it was determined Phoebe was having negative side effects to the prednisone.  They wanted to put her on a different steroid but before switching, the vet consulted with a colleague at the Oklahoma State Vet School.  After reviewing her information OSU didn't think she had inflammatory bowel disease but rather had developed an aversion to eating.  They also said they had received several calls regarding fake snow.  I knew it!  Of course, the manufacturers claim it is not toxic and it may not be, but it is definitely an irritant to animals.  They thought the snow could have caused the inflammation and recommended we give Phoebe an appetite stimulant to get her to eat.  She instantly responded to the stimulant but the first night we gave it to her she became very lethargic, uncoordinated and disoriented.  The vet said 1 in 10 cats have that reaction so she said of course Phoebe would be the 1 - ha!  All it took was decreasing the dose and she was eating like Takeru Kobayashi.  Christmas Day she was really acting back to herself and eating well so we decreased the dose to once a day and today the vet told us we could stop giving it to her all together :)

It is such a relief to have Phoebe feeling good again!  Sorry to make a short story long!  Having a sick pet can be stressful at times due to the fact they can't communicate with you.  The cause of the illness can become a guessing game of sorts but we love our vet and know our four legged friends are always in good hands there. 

I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday!  I will blog more about my Holiday happenings and subsequent Holiday hangover later this week....