Update On Me & My Furkids

[Russian Blue]

I'm really sorry you had to go through this! Unfortunately, I have lived through exactly what you went through - but 3 times.

First, it happened in the apartment building I grew up in. We had gone away for a long weekend in the summer and one of the pipes behind our bathroom wall broke and flooded everything - all the way down 3 floors. All 3 apartment units below me were not aware of the leaking because the owners were also away for the long weekend. When they came back, they saw the damage and then started moving up the floors and came to our unit. Our whole apartment had 6 inches of water in it. Lucky, though, we were able to stay at the cottage because it was summer and they had to rip everything out and start from scratch. It took a good month before everything was fixed properly.

Second time, was 7 years ago in a condo we purchased. We had water dripping from our bathroom light fixture one day. It turns out the owner above us was trying to fix his toilet, but he didn't turn his water off before hand. Trying to deal with the insurance over this was crazy, and we ended up selling our unit since this happened two more times. We didn't want to deal with this crazy guy above us who had no idea how to fix things - namely plumbing without recking everything around him.

Third time, we purchase our current historical home. As fate would have it, we had a sewer back up within 3 months of moving in. Old tree roots had broken through some old pipes. Of course, we had placed everything in the basement, since we were renovating the main floor and lost everything in the flood. All my old photos, clothes, paintings, furniture were damaged or destroyed.

So, yes, I can totally relate (maybe too much) to water problems! Life is full of surprises, you just have to throw your hands up in the air and go on. But going through these events makes you not really care for materialistic objects. Since, in a blink of eye, they can be taken from you.

He also had mold damage due to my dishwasher leaking into his condo because it was vacant for about 6 months and no one let me know that there was a problem. The President of AquaTek told me that they'd take care of everything for him including his previous water damage. His estimate for all of his repairs is a little above $10,000.

Tracey,

Wow!! Please be careful of any mold that forms, especially black mold. It's very toxic and can aggravate any breathing problems (i.e., asthma, etc.) you may already have.

Yes, be very, very careful of the mold issue. I would have an independent mold specialist come out to check out your unit. That's a nasty thing to deal with and can seriously affect your health.

[Edwina's Secretary]

Oh Tracey! What a mess. We had water damage in Chicago....flash flood backed up the water into our basement -- I lost all my photos, Christmas ornaments, furniture, clothes. And then...just as the repairs were finished...it happened again!

I feel your pain and hope all gets back to some semblance of normal soon!

[Felicia's Mom]

Tracey, sorry you had so much trouble. I hope things get back to normal soon!

[lvpets2002]

OMG Tracey I knew something was wrong.. Hey as they say when it rains it pours.. I feel for you bad.. I had water prob about 5 yrs ago & clean & blowing fans all over to dry stuff out.. It can all be so mental trying & just a mess.. Well glad to hear from you & that things are mending to the positive side now..

[Emeraldgreen]

You have sure been through alot in the past few months! What an ordeal!!
It's good to see you back on PT!

[krazyaboutkatz]

Thanks again everyone. I know that things can only get better at this point but now my Starr is having diarrhea problems again. I just don't know what more I can do for him except to try putting him back on a higher doseage of pred. I've even considered possibly rehoming him but I don't even know if he'd be able to survive without me. He's not the most social cat and he will bite when scared. I've contacted my holistic vet but I haven't heard back from her yet. Does anyone have any suggestions about this?

[rg_girlca]

Oh Tracey, I am so sorry to hear that Starr is having bowel problems again.

When any of my boys or rescues had problems with diarrhea, my vet gave me an oral paste called "Diarsanyl". It's a Nutritional supplement as an Aid in coating the intestinal Mucosa. You administer it morning and evening for 3 days only. It has always worked very well with them. Ask your vet about it and see what he thinks.

I still have quite a bit of it left and if you want, I can send it to you in a heartbeat.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Thanks Lorraine. I've never heard of this. I think that Starr most likely needs something more regularly. I just e-mailed my regular vet since I still haven't heard back from my holistic vet yet. I got very emotional when I read about Rutherford's passing and now I can't stop crying thinking about my Starr and how I've tried everything under the sun to try help him and nothing has ever seemed to help him for very long.

I just feel so frustrated and helpless right now. I worked so hard to try to get him off his pred and now that he's finally off of it, he's having yet another diarrhea episode. I feel like I'm back at square one. I know that I shouldn't be so materialistic but since I'm going to be getting new carpet throughout my condo soon, I really need a solution to this problems asap.

I can't have regular accidents like this and my parents co-own the condo with me and they won't put up with it. I know that their solution will be to either have him put to sleep or to be rehomed. They've been trying to get me to down size my cat numbers for quite some time now. I also can't confine him to a cage because I feel that this is cruel and not a good quality of life. Putting diapers on him I think would make things worse.

I hope to hear back from both of my vets soon. Any other suggestions are also welcome. Thanks again.

[krazyaboutkatz]

Second time, was 7 years ago in a condo we purchased. We had water dripping from our bathroom light fixture one day. It turns out the owner above us was trying to fix his toilet, but he didn't turn his water off before hand. Trying to deal with the insurance over this was crazy, and we ended up selling our unit since this happened two more times. We didn't want to deal with this crazy guy above us who had no idea how to fix things - namely plumbing without recking everything around him.

Well something like this has already happened me to me earlier this year. I went to use my toilet in the master bathroom and I noticed that water was dripping out of the fire alarm heat sensor unit which is above my toilet. It was after 10pm on a Mon. night so I called our emergency number but only got an answering machine so I left a message.

I went upstairs to talk to the people living above me and later I heard a bunch of noise and water was dripping out even faster now. The man upstairs decided to move his full toilet into the shower for the night. This caused all of the toilet water to then leak into my bathroom below. It also set off our fire alarm.

I learned that he rents from his sister who owns the unit and she doesn't even have home owners insurance. I also learned that he had noticed something leaking earlier that day and he called his sister but she never did anything about it. I cleaned up the mess and waited a good 2 weeks to see if my ceiling would dry out on it's own. It didn't.

I then had to wait several more weeks for it to be finally fixed because the owner wanted to use our maintenance man and he was still on vacation. Luckily there weren't any mold issues to worry about. So this year hasn't been a good year for me or my condo.

Thanks again for all of the nice replies. I hope that I'll never have to go through anything like this again.

[DJFyrewolf36]

*HUGS* to you! It sounds like you've had quite the couple of months! I'm glad your kitties are doing better though.

Prayers on the way that things start looking up!

[Vermontcat]

I'm sorry to hear that you are going through a rough time.
I'm sure it's been very stressful for both you and your kitties.
I hope things get better for you soon.