[Fwd: My Cat Storm]

October 14, 2001

Can anyone help with this veterinary case? I think there may be blood

stasis, phlegm and dampheat. The strong appetite and high body weight

seem to rule out a severe deficiency. Also the cat is only 4 years old.

Elisa Kreth wrote:

Hi I appreciate you help in this

matter.....my kitty has been sick for a while and i can't seem to get her

better.A little over a year ago Storm got bit by something....we're not

sure what happened. She had a puncture wound to her hip butt area.

They did surgery on her and cut it open to clean it out and sewed it back

up......antibiotics....the whole nine yards. Well i noticed the skin

and sutters were coming apart and the would was not healing together.

Basically it got worse and the wound opened and the whole area started

to die....the skin died all down most of her tail and i guess she had a

pretty bad infection. They wanted to do more surgery and amputate

her tail. Basically i switched vets at this time. I went to Dr. bob

Smatt - graduate from PCOM actually, to get a second opinion. He

said the infection was so bad that it would have been a very bad idea to

try to do surgery on in like that so he did acupuncture and electric stimulation

on it for three weeks, along with regular antibiotics, lots of chinese

herbs. Immediately the wound started healing and closing up...all

of the flesh layers that were separating grew back together really fast.....the

skin grew back on her tail with the exception of about a 1 inch area all

around the middle of her tail....i can't seem to get that last bit of skin

to grow back. The growth seemed to have stopped and i am still trying

to get it to grow back.About a year ago a few months after the accident

she developed a cough....sounds similar to a hair ball but there

never is one. Around that time she got really bad diarrhea.......we

cleared that up in about a month and that is no longer a problem.The cough

still persists and is constant...about ten times a day. It is a hacking

sound and you can literally hear the phlegm......similar to one of us when

we have bronchitis....crunchy sounding. She coughs until she loosens

it up and i can hear the phlegm crackling on her inhale in between coughs.....she

never spits anything up not even hair ball.......her breathing seems off

too...if i watch her it looks like her stomach is squeezing inward on her

exhales. Dr. Smatt has seen her several times for this and x-rayed

her chest and saw no fluid in the lung or ANY abnormalities for that matter.About

a month ago she had a UTI for the first time and blood in the urine.

It is fine now though after antibiotics and some other vitamins and herbs.She

was taking Bu Fei Tang and Gejie Da Bu Wan for the cough and i didn't see

any improvement.She is a big cat ...17.5 lbs and seems to be hungry all

the time....i have them on a pretty good diet of raw meat and katzn flocken

dryThanks for any input you have ToddElisa

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November 14, 2001

Is food left out all day for Storm? If the cat is needy because

its owner is gone for long periods or even at work 9 to 5 every day, it

may be overeating just for something to do. Some indoor cats simply

accommodate to our absences by sleeping all day, while others eat themselves

into obesity. Just a consideration. My opinion--when we take

cats into our homes and make indoor pets of them, they sometimes take on

our human behavior, for better or for worse. As to diet, Katznflocken

is a good supplement-type food. I have used it as a tid-bit for my

cats, not a mainstay. Raw meat all the time can be a bit too rich

for indoor cats. Without knowing more and actually seeing Storm, I'm just

talking off the top of my head. Still, this car might do better on

a diet of homemade food. There are good recipes in Dr. Pitcairn's

Complete Guide to Natural Health in Dogs and Cats. I would suggest

homemade food until the weight goes down and the animal's health improves;

then a good quality dry food (Iam's, Science Diet, etc.) as a staple with

a little raw meat and katznflocken thrown in as treats a couple of times

a week. I hope this is helpful. I am not trained in veterinary

anything, speaking only as a lifelong cat 'mom.'

Frances

Can anyone help with this veterinary case?

I think there may be blood stasis, phlegm and dampheat. The strong

appetite and high body weight seem to rule out a severe deficiency. Also

the cat is only 4 years old.