I first heard about Ziggy from a co-worker’s wife, whose friend had to sell her farm and she had a barn cat that needed to find a home because she didn’t want to leave him behind and also some wildlife was coming and eating the cats.
I told them if they needed help finding a home I would be glad to help. In April 2010, I was contacted by my co-worker’s wife who told me that the situation was a little worse than she thought.
She said the cat needed vet attention and that he was estimated to be around 10 years old. So not knowing his condition or how bad of a shape he was in, I told them I would take him in and foster him till we found a home. The owner who had Ziggy from the time he was a baby agreed to pay for the vetting expenses.
On April 18th I met Ziggy, the owner came to my workplace and dropped him off for me. Ziggy could barley open his eyes. I was honestly shocked at the condition he was in. He had some battle wounds it looked like and the tips of his ears were frostbitten. Ziggy’s coat was in terrible shape as well.
Ziggy was taken to the vet on April 20th. The vet told me Ziggy had the following: skin infection (Ziggy had a wound around his front paw and back leg that were pretty big sores, but the vet said that the antibiotic shot should help those heal and it did), ear mites, round worms, tape worms, upper respiratory infection, and eye infections. He tested negative for FIV/FELV.
The vet gave him a dose of revolution, de-wormer, eye drops, and a Convenia shot. The vet checked his blood work and he’s in great shape considering his outward appearance.
The vet fixed him 2 weeks later and he did just fine. Ziggy’s lower lid on his right eye kept flipping inwards and the tiny hairs were poking him in the eye every time he would blink. The vet said that we will keep an eye on him to see if he needs to have surgery but at this time she wanted him to gain some weight.
Ziggy’s eye didn’t get much better so on July 2nd Ziggy was taken to the vets to have his lower eye fixed. Ziggy has now recovered from surgery and he is able to open both of his eyes. Ziggy has such amazing blue eyes.
Ziggy was taken to the vets on August 18, 2010 because my husband and I started noticing Ziggy losing some weight and his mid-section seemed rather large than before. He always had a little roundness to him but this was more than usual. We also noticed that he wasn’t coming out and hanging out on the couch with me like he used to but we honestly thought it was just because Hercules (the kitten) came into the house and he didn’t really want to bother with the kitten even though in mid-July we caught Ziggy sleeping with the kitten in the same bed. It was adorable.
I went to pick up Ziggy at 11:10 a.m. to take him to his vet appointment at 11:20 a.m. and I got him in the cat carrier, he hates the cat carrier but did very well, I petted him the whole ride. Sadly, when I stopped at a stop sign I noticed Ziggy wasn’t looking good and he had some yellowish color to his skin on the top of his head and when he meowed I saw that his gums were yellow. I knew right away that this wasn’t going to be good and that he was jaundice.
We got the vets and I told the vet tech that I believed Ziggy was jaundice and when the vet came in she confirmed that. We did a blood test on Ziggy first off so we could tell what his levels were like and she was talking about getting a sample of Ziggy’s abdomen, since she believed there was fluid building up. After waiting about 30 minutes for the results, the vet came in and said that most of his blood worked looked pretty good except there were a few things that were high and some were low. She did take some fluid from his abdomen and it was bright yellow. She said she believes it wasn’t his bladder exploded or anything because it was still intact. She believed that he had FIP. There was a test we could run and have him wait 5 days but Ziggy hates the car so much I couldn’t see bringing him back in knowing I was going to put him down. So we are running the test on the yellow fluid she pulled out just to see if it was FIP or if it was his kidney and liver failing.
Either way I guess it doesn’t matter too much now…Ziggy was put to rest shortly before 1 p.m. today. I’m going to miss him so much. They came in after I decided that we should put him to sleep and gave him a sedative so that he would get sleepy and he did. It didn’t take long at all. I sat there and held him in my arms, crying, and just telling him how much I loved him and that his daddy loved him so much and that he was such a good boy. I also told him how happy I was that he came into our lives.
I miss him so much. I told dear sweet Ziggy to look for Anika and Milo and Annie would take good care of you. They gave him one shot and within a minute he was gone. I kissed him over and over and just cried. I said my goodbyes to him. Oh Ziggy I hope I did everything that was right for you. I love you and miss you so much. Bye Ziggy Z
Love your mom
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