Toby is a 6 year old Russian Blue. Toby came to me in July 2003 through Kitten Rescue when he was 4 months old.
Toby is an absolute sweet-heart ... loves to be cuddled ... loves to play ... loves to eat ... and loves to sleep. However, Toby is very shy around strangers and he runs for cover whenever anyone comes over.
I almost lost Toby in March of 2006 due to urinary crystals. The crystals had caused a blockage and he was not able to go potty. This caused the urine to back up into his blood stream and his blood became toxic. Fortunately, I caught it just in time and was able to save his life.
Toby is an absolute sweet-heart ... loves to be cuddled ... loves to play ... loves to eat ... and loves to sleep. However, Toby is very shy around strangers and he runs for cover whenever anyone comes over.
I almost lost Toby in March of 2006 due to urinary crystals. The crystals had caused a blockage and he was not able to go potty. This caused the urine to back up into his blood stream and his blood became toxic. Fortunately, I caught it just in time and was able to save his life.
Toby loves to play in a box of styrofoam popcorn balls.
Toby and my rainbow kitty, Willy
(Willy went to the bridge in Oct. 2004)
(Willy went to the bridge in Oct. 2004)
Toby and Jet
(Brotherly Love)
Jet went to the bridge on December 7, 2007
(Brotherly Love)
Jet went to the bridge on December 7, 2007
For more photos, CLICK HERE to go to the Photo Album
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Saturday, July 25, 2009: Farewell to Toby
Toby is gone. The fight to save his life from liver failure is over and he's gone to the bridge to run free out of pain.
I brought Toby into the vets this morning to have him put to sleep. Typically, I always stay with any of my animals through this process ... they deserve that. I couldn't do it with Toby. It took everything I had within me to just walk in there and drop him off. I feel like I have failed him.
Toby was an incredible kitty. He had such a layed-back personality. He was completely content in all circumstances. Because he had no fear of dogs, and was not dominant over them, he was always my cat-tester when a new dog would come to my house.
I am going to miss that boy terribly.
July 20, 2009
Toby is still with me. I am changing his feeding protocol a bit. I stopped by the pharmacy today and picked up some large syringes. I then went to the store and bought jarred baby food (turkey & veal) and some canned tuna so I can get the tuna water from it. I made a very watery paste of the baby food, and sucked it into the syringes. I am feeding him through the syringes, and it is so much cleaner and efficient. I think he was much more comfortable with that, and perhaps he even liked it better than the cat food.
July 19, 2009
Today is day 4 of fighting for Toby's life. He still won't eat anything on his own, so I am having to force feed him with a spoon. Most of the food gets down and stays down, but there has been a few meals that he threw up right away. He is drinking on his own and going potty on his own.
He appears to be a bit better and doesn't look as jaundiced as last Wednesday. I really don't know if my efforts are making any difference at all, but each morning when I awake and Toby is still alive, I celebrate.
I'll be bringing him back into the vet's office on Saturday morning to have more blood work done to see if he liver enzymes and glucose levels have lowered any.
July 16, 2009
My precious boy is very, very sick. His blood chemistry numbers are off the chart. He has a failing / diseased liver, and he has diabetes. Just last month, I had the same thing happen to another one of my cats (actually my Teresa's cat) Casey. Her liver went into failure mode too. The only thing I can think of as to what has caused this to happen is that the cats have decided they didn't like the food I was feeding them, and have stopped eating. One would think that when they got hungry enough they would eat ... not so with cats. Instead, they failure to eat has caused liver failure.
Fortunately for Casey's sake, I have been able to get her to eat canned food, and she appears to be recovering.
I'm not so sure if I'm going to be that fortunate with Toby though.
Here are Toby's numbers on his blood work:
Liver Enzymes:
Aklaline Phosphatase = 1848 (normal = 0-62)
ALT = 791 (normal = 28-100)
AST = 216 (normal = 5-55)
Bilirubin (measures Jaundice) = 15.2 (normal = 0.0-0.4)
Glucose = 323 (normal = 70-150)
As far as the diabetes though. I have always had a standing policy that is any of my animals gets an incurable disease, like cancer or diabetes, I am not going to put them through the meaningless, terrible treatment just to prolong their life for a few more years ... if I'm that lucky. So I am not going to treat Toby for the diabetes.
It is possible (slim) that the failure liver is causing the Glucose levels to elevate. Possibly, IF I can get his liver under control, maybe the diabetes will go away. But maybe not.
I really don't want to lose my boy ... he's so precious to me ... but I will also not let him suffer. If he doesn't get better, I'll have to let him go.
Toby is gone. The fight to save his life from liver failure is over and he's gone to the bridge to run free out of pain.
I brought Toby into the vets this morning to have him put to sleep. Typically, I always stay with any of my animals through this process ... they deserve that. I couldn't do it with Toby. It took everything I had within me to just walk in there and drop him off. I feel like I have failed him.
Toby was an incredible kitty. He had such a layed-back personality. He was completely content in all circumstances. Because he had no fear of dogs, and was not dominant over them, he was always my cat-tester when a new dog would come to my house.
I am going to miss that boy terribly.
July 20, 2009
Toby is still with me. I am changing his feeding protocol a bit. I stopped by the pharmacy today and picked up some large syringes. I then went to the store and bought jarred baby food (turkey & veal) and some canned tuna so I can get the tuna water from it. I made a very watery paste of the baby food, and sucked it into the syringes. I am feeding him through the syringes, and it is so much cleaner and efficient. I think he was much more comfortable with that, and perhaps he even liked it better than the cat food.
July 19, 2009
Today is day 4 of fighting for Toby's life. He still won't eat anything on his own, so I am having to force feed him with a spoon. Most of the food gets down and stays down, but there has been a few meals that he threw up right away. He is drinking on his own and going potty on his own.
He appears to be a bit better and doesn't look as jaundiced as last Wednesday. I really don't know if my efforts are making any difference at all, but each morning when I awake and Toby is still alive, I celebrate.
I'll be bringing him back into the vet's office on Saturday morning to have more blood work done to see if he liver enzymes and glucose levels have lowered any.
July 16, 2009
My precious boy is very, very sick. His blood chemistry numbers are off the chart. He has a failing / diseased liver, and he has diabetes. Just last month, I had the same thing happen to another one of my cats (actually my Teresa's cat) Casey. Her liver went into failure mode too. The only thing I can think of as to what has caused this to happen is that the cats have decided they didn't like the food I was feeding them, and have stopped eating. One would think that when they got hungry enough they would eat ... not so with cats. Instead, they failure to eat has caused liver failure.
Fortunately for Casey's sake, I have been able to get her to eat canned food, and she appears to be recovering.
I'm not so sure if I'm going to be that fortunate with Toby though.
Here are Toby's numbers on his blood work:
Liver Enzymes:
Aklaline Phosphatase = 1848 (normal = 0-62)
ALT = 791 (normal = 28-100)
AST = 216 (normal = 5-55)
Bilirubin (measures Jaundice) = 15.2 (normal = 0.0-0.4)
Glucose = 323 (normal = 70-150)
As far as the diabetes though. I have always had a standing policy that is any of my animals gets an incurable disease, like cancer or diabetes, I am not going to put them through the meaningless, terrible treatment just to prolong their life for a few more years ... if I'm that lucky. So I am not going to treat Toby for the diabetes.
It is possible (slim) that the failure liver is causing the Glucose levels to elevate. Possibly, IF I can get his liver under control, maybe the diabetes will go away. But maybe not.
I really don't want to lose my boy ... he's so precious to me ... but I will also not let him suffer. If he doesn't get better, I'll have to let him go.