Sorry for the delay in this weeks newsletter, it has been a squirrely week. My computer got a virus (yes I had a virus program on there, apparently not enough :( ) so that put me behind on everything. Finally got that taken care of, now playing catch up. I hope everyone’s weather has improved! Our has been so confused. It was 70 degrees, and in 5 minutes a cold front came in and the temperature literally dropped by 30 degrees and it started sleeting. Crazy weather! Next weekend is open house! It will be a busy week with lots of visitors coming in from out of state. We are having a special award banquet after open house so it should be a fun day!
Newsletter 3/7/2015
Here is our open house schedule for the next few months. We do have the guest house available for visitors. Just email alana@blindcatrescue.com for info.
Operation Bald
Fiona & Jill had their heads shaved bald last Saturday for the cats. They have raised $3600 so far for the cats! That will spay/neuter 72 homeless cats! There is still time for you help by donating: http://blindcatrescue.org/fundraise.htm?/operationbald Alana will get hers done live on Ustream during open house. Hope you can watch, if not, a video and pictures will appear on Facebook a day or 2 after. Video of Fiona Getting shaved.
Jill having it shaved off
Brave ladies!! You will get to see me (Alana) get mine taken off during open house. We hope if you have not donated yet, you will here is the link: http://blindcatrescue.org/fundraise.htm?/operationbald
Cat Updates
Jake has his endoscopy done. It did not find any cancers or anything like that. That is the good news, the bad news is his chronic kidney failure is progressing and he is now on sub-q fluid therapy to keep him comfortable. He also got another feeding tube. The doctor felt that it would be easier on him and us for giving him meds and I would not have to do sub-q on him while he has the feeding tube. We will see how long he tolerates the feeding tube. He usually tries his hardest to get it out after 10 days or so. The bill was $1724. I am going to put an article about kidney disease farther down in the newsletter so you know what to watch for with your cats.
Carrot is having a heck of a time with swelling in the eye socket. We are draining it with a needle every day and he is such a sweet baby and tolerates it. The swelling has gotten worse and we got the eye specialist in Raleigh to move up his appointment to 3/13. I hope they can figure out what our vets have missed. He has had THREE surgeries on his eyes!
You can see some of the swelling on his left eye. Mack had his radiation treatment and is doing well. We have gotten past the worst of the handling part and he will be safe for all to love on during open house.
CONTEST NEWS
Eagle Rare Life has told me the winner will be posted on their website first thing in the morning on Tuesday 3/10 http://www.eaglerarelife.com/ They will also have a video regarding the winner on their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/EagleRareBourbon I will shoot you a fast email about the new contest and the results of this one on Tuesday, keep an eye out for it :)
NEW CONTEST
Petplan Pet Insurance has an annual Tournament of Tails Challenge and the winning shelter wins $5,000 That would help cover a few weeks of medical care. Pet Plan insurance looks like it might be some thing you might want to look at for your pets https://www.facebook.com/petplan Here is a link to their website http://gopetplan.com I wonder if I could get insurance on the cats for cheaper than the $100,000 a year we spend on vet bills for them? I will have to look at their policies :)
ANY WAY, about the contest... It apparently works like a sports tournament. They put everyone in a “play off” against another player. The player with the most votes advances to the next level and so long as you keep getting more votes against another player, you will keep going to the top. The player with the most votes at the end will win $5,000 which will help with lots of vet bills.
It does look like all team players do win something so that is nice for everyone. Watch for a fast email from me on Tuesday telling you how to vote and about Eagle.
Feline Kidney Disease
There are 2 kinds of kidney disease. One is acute which is caused by trauma, toxins, those kinds of things. The other is chronic which is more common and that is the one that most cats have. Let me throw a comment in here before I give you the symptoms. When you take your cat to the vet (heck, dogs too) Insist they take your pets blood pressure. It is not like humans, they do not do it automatically. If you catch hypertension soon enough you may save your pet from serious organ damage or blindness. If your cat shows any of these symptoms, please take them to your vet for a full check up including blood work and urinalysis. (Remember, the blood work from Mack’s checkup caught his hyperthyroid before he even showed symptoms so it is important :) Appetite Loss/decrease, Weight loss (both are symptoms that Jake has, it is like he is slowly wasting away)(And before you ask about quality of life, he is still eating, and playing some, and is not telling us that he is ready to go, when he says it is time, we will kiss him goodbye and send him back to his maker, we will not allow him to suffer) Vomiting or diarrhea (they do not mean 1 time) Litter box aversion Mouth ulcers Bad breath Constipation Bloody or cloudy urine Pain when urinating Stumbling, acting drunk Dehydration Change in water consumption pain in the kidney area
Here is where they are located.
There is so much information about kidney disease, I am going to give you a few links so you can continue reading, This one is really excellent: http://www.2ndchance.info/kidneycat.htm and another one: http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/cat-care/kidney-disease With Jake, we are giving fluids, adding supplements and keeping him comfortable for the time he has with us He is approx 13 years old, is FIV+ and had a very hard life before he came to us. X-rays show he has several bullet pellets.
We are very grateful to all of our eBay sellers and buyers! We try to feature one seller a day on our Facebook page. You may see all of the eBay auctions benefiting the cats by clicking HERE
This seller has lots of catnip toys for sale and a portion of the auction benefits the cats:
You can watch the cats LIVE every day on ROKU (you will find us in the channel store under special interest) or on Ustream We do a live tour at noon EST every day but Sunday A live tour also at 3 pm EST. Thur-Mon we also do a tour at 10 pm EST. We do live chat Thursday night-Monday at 6 pm and open boxes from our Amazon Wish list Thursday - Monday at 6:30 pm We hope you will drop in and watch!
The camera changes room each day and starts over on Sunday. You see a different group each day. The shelter is actually 2 buildings do the tours are of the building the camera is in. House 1 is Wed-Sat, House 2 is Sun-Tues.
The cats say thank you so much for all you do for the cats!
Pepper - Blind & FELV+
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Colonel - FIV+