New to site - Hello & Thank You!

[Cattal]

I stumbled upon this site earlier this week, and I am thoroughly hooked! My husband and I are the human's that are allowed to live in - what we refer to as - "Maximillian's Empire". Max , as he is also known, is an almost 3 y/o orange/ginger tabby and the light of our lives! Someday I hope to submit him for Cat of the Day, but for now, I just want to say THANK you for such an enjoyable site! I look forward to coming here and will pass the link along to all my pet loving friends

[zippy-kat]

Welcome to the site!

Max sounds handsome!

[Logan]

Hi! And welcome. We sure do love it here, and hope you will as well. Share pictures when you can. One of my favorite pasttimes is looking at all the beautiful pets!

I'm Logan, mom to my human daughter, Helen, as well as Lilly and Honey, Butter and Mimi, plus a few others. You will see all 4 dogs and cats in my signature.

[Cougie Wechsler]

Welcome! You will find that Pet of the Day/Pet Talk is a wonderful community of people who love and cherish pets! Look forward to hearing about Max!

[Karen]

Welcome to Max AND his humans!

[Catcrazed]

Welcome!

[AvaJoy]

Nice to meet you, and welcome!! Does Max resemble my boy Meeshe?

[Gio]

Welcome to both you and Max.

Beware though, a couple of days and you will be completely addicted to this site!

[Cattal]

Thank for the welcome's everyone!
Yes, AvaJoy, your baby looks a lot like Max -although Max is - um, "healthier" in weight (was that politically correct?!) and he has no white in him - more cream.

I am sorry to have to add that Max is not well at the moment. It is a LONG story, and I am hopeful that it is not life threatening or debilitating to him in any way, but it seems he has hurt his back or back end. Possible pinched nerve, pulled muscle or more serious with a ruptured disk or a growth. He has his usual "catitude" and has appetite and using box in "all ways" which is very positive. He seems to want to play and do things he loves, but he cries when he moves a certain way or gets up from laying down and then gives up trying to move at times. Other times he jumps on the bed, etc., we are mystified.

He is not even 3 and he is our joy. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers - he is at the vet again this morning.

Hug your kitties for us today!

[4 feline house]

Max's folks-

I had a cat that also was injured. She was an indoor cat but one day escaped, was gone two days, and came back limping, and dragging her tail, being unable to lift it. After a few hours back home I realized she was also incontinent. The emergency vet recommended I put her down because she would never recover, and even if I was willing to clean up after her she would begin to suffer recurrent bladder infections. So I took her home so we could say goodbye. I took her to my regulare vet the next Monday to have the deed done, but thankfully he examined her instead. After asking me extensive questions like "at first, did she do this" "did the other vet try this, and if so what was Boosie's reaction" and stuff. He finally determined that Boosie had already made considerable gains and would recover, the only question was to what degree. I took her home again, this time not to say goodbye but to do all I could for her. It wasn't hard cleaning up after her, because all she wanted to do at first was lay down, so I had her on an easily cleaned, water proof bed. When she did get up to walk around, it was to the litter box, but she dropped her poops behind her before she could make it. But eventually her rectal function returned, and I made little diapers for her. After while she needed the diapers during the day when she slept, or at night when I slept, or when I wasn't home, because she was beginning to be able to control her bladder enough that she would head for the litter box, I'd pick her up and run her in there. It was alot of work, but she did nearly recover. Sadly, I'll never know if she would have made a full recovery because she went to the rainbow bridge due to an illness unrelated to her accident. But I believe she would have.

The shorty story is, too many vets are all too quick to write off a cat who has nerve or paralysis problems. Don't let them make you think, if it is a nerve problem, that he won't recover!

I could tell an even more remarkable story about my mom's cat who recovered from complete paralysis, but this is alreayd too long a post!

Let us know what you find out.

[Cattal]

Spoke with the vet and we are THANKFUL to learn that after Xrays Max has nothing major going on. I neglected to mention earlier that our buddy took a swing at a big doggy that invaded Max's space just over a week ago, and his claw caught in a railroad tie (that lines our walkway) and came completely out. He goes outside *only* on a run or supervised walks and the dog was also on a leash, but it just came too close. We called the vet, "fixed him up" and were told to just watch for infection. When he started acting lethargic we took him right in and they put him on meds and gave him a pain killer injection. In a matter of an hour he was better, but then he got much worse Sat. Eve into yesterday. His symptoms no longer seemed related to the accidental "de-claw" because he would scream when he moved quickly and it seemed his back end bothered him. Because Max is so feisty (call it "cattitude", they still haven't been able to properly check him to see "where" it hurts, or to conclude it is a pinched nerve or pulled muscle, but we can live with that as long as there is no rupture or growth or worse. They said the "de-claw" is sure to be extremely painful for him because the quick is exposed, and it could be that the pain is travelling.

We look forward to having Max home again!

[wolflady]

Welcome to Pet Talk Max's human!! Glad to have you here! I sure hope Max is alright! Keep us posted!!

[aly]

I'm so glad its nothing serious with Max. I will pray for him though that his pain will ease asap.

[AvaJoy]

Yes, AvaJoy, your baby looks a lot like Max -although Max is - um, "healthier" in weight (was that politically correct?!) and he has no white in him - more cream.

Meeshe appears to be under weight because, well . . . he is not healthy. He is FeLV+. But happily, he was just to the vet and gained 3 pounds so he is now 10 lbs. of solid, sinewy muscle . . . I refer to him as my little cheetah boy!

[Cattal]

Max is approx. 16 lbs. of not so sinewy, not so muscle! He is a big kitty with a baby face! But thankfully, he is a very healthy guy other than his current ailment - which we still haven't diagnosed for certain, but we are closer!

Since he won't let the vet examine him, we took video of Max at home and I am going to bring it to the vet later today. We now are 100% sure this has little to do with his accidental "de-claw" on his left front paw...it is his right back leg and we suspect it is fractured or sprained bad, but not bad enough to be conclusive. The poor guy has been suffering with terrible pain for over a week - I hope they'll be able to help him now.

Please continue to think good thoughts for Max! Thanks!