Preparing for the death of my beautiful Neo...
What I would have done differenty, if I had known.
Dear readers: This is going to be a short post. I am preparing to administer IV fluids to my beautiful, amazing, incredible sixteen-year-old cat, Neo. Sixteen is considered very old for a cat living in the United States. He’s about 80 in human years. I’ve never had a cat, or any other four-legged family member this long. Knowing what I know now, I understand better why my other cats have all died before the age of fourteen.
Vaccines definitely played a part. So did diet. And the quality of veterinary care.
Neo was vaccinated as a kitten because our vet in Indiana refused to neuter him unless he was completely “up-to-date” on vaccinations. Just as many children have negative reactions to vaccines, Neo had negative reactions to those shots. His gut was messed up for months, with very stinky diarrhea. The diarrhea eventually subsided. Probiotics and organic pumpkin helped. I never gave him another vaccine.
He was the most adorable kitten, and he grew to be a gorgeous adult feline…
… with the absolute best resting bitch face.
We have loved him. And he has loved us. Completely and unconditionally. This is so hard. The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster of emotion. There have been multiple times when we thought, “This is it.” And then he rallies. And we breathe again and say a prayer of thanks that we have a little more time.
The first time we thought it was “the end” was on a weekend. Friday afternoon at 4:30, to be exact. I was scheduled to leave the following morning to spend a few days with my friend, Sherry, who lost her son to the COVID vaccine. I canceled my visit and sat vigil with Neo for the next several days and nights. We took turns sitting with him overnight. We have all been exhausted and grieving, so you might be able to imagine the atmosphere here. One thing we (three of us) agree on is that we don’t want Neo to suffer. And cats are not the best at communicating when they are in pain. That first weekend was tough. He wasn’t eating much and was extremely lethargic. We almost took him to the emergency vet clinic, where they would have almost certainly recommended euthanasia. I was not convinced he was ready, and I knew that I was not ready. I advocated waiting for our holistic vet. I messaged her on Sunday (we’re friends on Facebook) and she responded, letting me know they would work him in on Monday, if he made it that long. He did. And I’m so glad we didn’t give up on him too soon.
Dr. Broadfoot checked him over. She recommended IV fluids and rectal ozone. He was very dry, she said. He was constipated - we knew he had not had a BM for several days. The fluids and the ozone should help, she said. They did. He had a BM almost immediately when we got home. She also put him on lactulose and a tablet for constipation. The next several days, he was so much better. He walked better. His appetite returned. We hoped we might have another year, or even two, with him. As I am sitting here typing, he just walked down the three steps into the sunroom and positioned himself on the rug beneath the pool table. It’s become his favorite spot - when he’s not in my lap.
Last week, we returned to see Dr. Broadfoot and she gave him another IV, adding in B-vitamins and something called “Jessie’s”- a solution with a mix of nutrients and homeopathics she originally developed for an aged canine. It helps Neo, too. He also got another ozone treatment, and once again, he had a BM as soon as we got home. This time, she hooked me up with a bag of fluids and showed me how to administer at home. Which is what we are going to do as soon as I close this post.
Over the years, I have learned a lot about what I would do differently.
I would find a holistic veterinarian. - The American Holistic Veterinary Association can help you do that here.
I would feed a homemade raw diet from the get-go. I highly recommend Dr. Lisa Pierson’s website: Catinfo.org. This is a great resource for learning all you need to learn about why dry food is killing our cats. Dr. Pierson includes all you need to know about how to feed your cat(s) a biologically appropriate diet (for pennies a day). I learned late about how damaging dry food is for cats. It was only after Neo developed alopecia (he lost the hair on his back and looked like he had a reverse mohawk), diabetes, and seizures that I really started looking at making his food from scratch. Once I did, his autoimmune diseases reversed. No more alopecia. No more diabetes. And seizures greatly decreased, to the point where I cannot remember the last time he had one.
I would research vaccines and I would NOT just do as I am told. If you are not familiar with the Purdue Vaccination Studies, please check out this article. The article, published in Dogs Naturally Magazine, reports on the findings of vaccination studies in dogs, and the association between vaccination and autoimmune disease and cancer. There are also references to studies finding similar issues in cats. From the article:
…the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force initiated several studies to find out why 160,000 cats each year in the USA develop terminal cancer at their vaccine injection sites.(3) The fact that cats can get vaccine-induced cancer has been acknowledged by veterinary bodies around the world, and even the British Government acknowledged it through its Working Group charged with the task of looking into canine and feline vaccines(4) following pressure from Canine Health Concern. What do you imagine was the advice of the AVMA Task Force, veterinary bodies and governments? “Carry on vaccinating until we find out why vaccines are killing cats, and which cats are most likely to die.”
In America, in an attempt to mitigate the problem, they’re vaccinating cats in the tail or leg so they can amputate when cancer appears. Great advice if it’s not your cat amongst the hundreds of thousands on the “oops” list.
As for now… Neo is going to have some magical IV fluids. And I am going to love him, and hold him, and cherish every day he has left with us.
And next time, I will do better. Because now, I know better.
Marcella, this is amazing and my heart is with you and Neo. I have written often about the benefit of holistic (truly, not just by name) vets, a species-appropriate diet, raising healthy pets, and even (dare I say it) purchasing a pure blooded animal, bred from a line who have not been injected for a couple of generations if possible. I was also a human society person -- or one who found litters outside our door because we lived on the outskirts of town and people thought it would be appropriate to drop their litters off in the country. So after my last 2 rescues suffered so much from who knows what trauma before they were taken to the shelter, then desexed, chipped, and vaccinated and fed kibble for who knows how long. After we brought them home, they had so many health issues for 10-12 years, I think mostly from vaccines and more vaccines and the most up to date vaccines, and food.
We are lucky in Marin to have some amazing holistic vets, and I studied online with Dr. Will Falconer - a holistic homeopathic vet. We have reversed some serious conditions in our older dog through working with two local vets, both aligned with our values about the whole agenda out there, and have brought home two unjabbed puppies who were naturally bred and reared. The pups are about a year and eat raw meaty bones and other raw food. The older beautiful pup who had so many health issues, does have cataracts, and a year ago the vet recommending removing all his teeth and one eye immediately. We collaborated with our two local holistic vets and he still has those teeth and his eye, and loves his daily walks and snuggles.
We did wind up with fluids for our elder kitty, about 16, who had lots of vaccinations and horrible food when we didn't know better. Neo is luck to have you as his people, and you to have him. Thank you and this time, I am doing better, because I know better. I was as mind-controlled about animal health as I was about my own health. Kudos to you, and beautiful article. With love, Marcia (I worked on SB277 when you were a major player) x
Catinfo.org, by the vet Lisa Pierson, is a great resource. She gives a lot of information about making a nutritionally complete raw food diet. She used to give her cats canned Wellness chicken or turkey food, so I did that as well, adding a few strips of raw chicken every night, then returning the Pyrex dish to the freezer.
The Natural Cat talks about the benefits of sub-cutaneous fluid infusion with Ringer’s Lactate. I gave our previous cat that several days a week for the last three years of his life, starting with the first symptoms of kidney failure when he was 18. He lived until nearly 21, when he got an inoperable oral cancer. He didn’t die of kidney disease.
Pierson gives a lot of information on minimizing vaccines, but thinks the feline distemper vaccine is necessary to prevent the horrible death of many cats. But only one dose for life, two if started before four months old. Jean Dodds also has a lot of good information. Merial Purevax vaccines are unadjuvanted and safer, but still cause some deaths, because all vaccines for any species cause often dangerous inflammation.
Homeo Animal, in Canada, makes amazingly effective homeopathic remedies for dozens of conditions. I can attest that its Heart remedy cured our parakeet Sprite’s heart failure and gave him three more years of healthy life. The testimonials from customers at its website are amazing. The company is under attack from the envious allopathic industry: I think it recently changed its name.