Back from the Holidays!

Hi everyone!! It's good to be back from the holidays. I missed PT and everyone here a lot! I even got so far behind in my Christmas card mailings that some of you will still be receiving them this month! :o
I have so much catch up reading to do here, so I'll probably be lurking for awhile, just in case any of you have missed me! LOL ;)

The holidays were a nice break from work, but pretty stressful as they usually seem to be. I went back to Indiana like always, but this year we had an extra stress point. Some of you may have read in the Cat Health about our old family cat Socks, who lives with my parents, was diagnosed with diabetes recently. Mom and I took that one hard, but were determined to go through with any treatment that he might need. The vet started us off with a special diabetic wet food to see if that could stabilize him, but unfortunately we had to start with the insulin shots a few weeks after trying the special food.
The day we flew home (and we always bring Socks home for the holidays), he got violently ill. He was fine for the first leg of our trip (San Jose to Denver), but on the second leg of our flight, I could smell that he had an accident. When we got to the Indianapolis airport, mom and I took him into the bathroom to see if we could clean everything up a bit. He had had diarrhea and vomited. He was such a mess!! Poor thing! When we finally got to my parent's house in Columbus, IN the first thing we did was give Socks a bath. What a great way to begin the holiday! It seemed to go down from there. Socks was not eating anything, and if he doesn't eat, he can't get his shots, and if he can't get his shots...he can't improve. We tried everything. The vet basically said at this point...getting him to eat anything would be good. We tried everything, wet food, dry food, people food...everything and he only seemed to drink up skim milk, so I thought maybe he would drink kitten formula because I figured that it would have nutrients in it. Of course, many cats are lactose intolerant, so that just made the diarrhea worse. There were a few days there that I thought for sure we'd have to take him in to be put down. I could hear my mom crying downstairs several mornings. We did keep trying, however. After that we tried human baby food. He seemed to lap that up ok, so he seemed to improve a little with some food at least. We took him to our vet there in Indiana a few times and he suggested a tooth cleaning. I thought it strange, given the condition he was in, but mom and dad ended up going for it when he started to look a little better. He came through just fine and he has even started eating canned wet kitten food, which is good. We need to get him off of the human baby food onto the animal food, so at least he is starting to eat it more. He is so emaciated, so he just needs to eat.
My dad and I came back to Cali and mom had to stay back a couple of weeks because we couldn't get Socks all the way through to San Jose on the day we had originally planned. So, I've been calling mom and keeping tabs on Socks' condition. She said that he has been nibbling on some of the Iams hard kibble along with the canned wet kitten food, so that is a big improvement. She said he was even moving around the different levels of the house, which is very good. He hardly moved at all while I was home. There were other factors added, but I won't bore you all with those here. Needless to say, it was a pretty hi-stress holiday for everyone. I hope Socks continues to improve and I'll keep anyone who is interested posted on his condition in the Cat Health section under Older Cats and Diabetes.

Thanks for reading! Sorry about my tardiness with the Christmas cards, but they are coming! I missed you all and I wish you all a very Happy New Year 2003!! I will be doing lots of catch-up reading, but hope to post a lot more soon!

Many **hugs** and much love to you and your fur-families! :D
Karen

Wow! I knew you had some challenges and came back sick, but I had NO IDEA how sick little Socks got.

So glad to have you back. Are you feeling better yet?

{{{hugs!}}}

Karen,Welcome back. I sure hope that Socks will continue to get better each day and that he'll be able to return with your Mom back to California. How old is Socks? I also hope that you're over your cold by now too. All fingers and paws are crossed for Socks here. Good luck.

Bless your heart, you really have had alot to deal with! I sure hope things are looking better for you soon!!! Take care and keep us posted!

Hi Karen, welcome back!

I'm sorry about Socks, what a stressful time for all of you. I'm so glad he's eating a little bit and hope his condition improves :)

I got your Christmas card the other day, thank you very much. The card was hilarious and the update was wonderful :)

Thanks Amber, KAK, Kim and Miss Meow!

How was the cat show Amber and KAK?? I really hope I can make the next one with you guys! :o KAK, Socks is 14 years old. He is one the the stray cats I brought home when I was really young and is now a much beloved member of our family! ;)
I started feeling better, but am starting to feel worse again. Yesterday was really bad, so I think I'm just going to take it easy over the weekend!

I hope the 4 of you are well and be sure to give your 'kids' scritchies for me! :D
**hugs**
Karen

Yay Karen! It's good to see you are back safe and sound! We missed you! We are all rooting for Socks and will follow his story and hope and pray for the best! Did you happen to see the post from Krazy About Kats regarding her Storm (it's Storm's birthday today). He used to belong to a shoe salesman! I thought of Marius immediately! LOL! Do you think Marius also used to be owned by a shoe salesman?! LOL! I know you have a lot of reading to catch up on so we look forward to hearing more when you get through it all! ;)

Oh Karen - [[[hugs}}} coming across the miles - what a time you all had! Poor Socks what an awful ordeal for him. But with all that special nursing he sounds as if he's pulling through. Anyway he's in my prayers and thoughts xxx Sorry you're not feeling up to par - hopefully a quiet weekend will help you feel a whole lot better.

Lynne

Karen, welcome back - you were missed!

I am really sorry to hear about Socks, but it sounds as though he couldn't be receiving better care between you and your Mom.

And now you are sick, I hope you will relax this weekend and try to fight it off. I know that several of my friends have had a very serious cold/flu that kept one friend in bed for a week.

Don't try to rush it.........just get better!

Hugs from Gini and Rascal too.

So sorry to hear poor Socks is having such a rough time of it. :( And you're sick too. :( Hopefully the new year will start treating both of you better soon.

We'll keep you, and especially Socks in our prayers.

Oh Karen, I'm so sorry Socks is having such a hard time. I'll be praying that little guy gets better soon and eats so he can get better with the shots. Poor little thing.

I hope you, Aaron, and your family still had a nice time being together.

I'm glad you are back! I missed you, Scooter and Marius.

Talk to you soon. :)