Spinal Cord Party Boy 2009, MRSA & Diabetes

 Feline Diabetes...

MRSA, imbedding in a bladder wall.

2 new kittens, Maggot and Jackal, and many letters from people who have found this website, asking for help with their paralyzed cats.

Pumpkin is diabetic. Go to his very own personal diabetic party time page for details and information of cutting edge monitoring for feline diabetics. 

Boogar spent a year on antibiotics because his bladder lining was home to a lovely infection of MRSA, the flesh eating staph infection that scares the crap out of people. More on that later...

But Pumpkin....It caught me off guard at first. I would get up in the morning to empty his bladder and it would be very full, and his bed would be wet. This is called 'overflow urination'. Pumpkin's fur began to look messy, dry and 'picky'. When i saw him with his head in the water bowl I knew...so off to work with Pumpkin in tow.

I think I swore creativly when the urine glucose test strip showed 'positive' for sugar spill over into his urine. Sure, i was glad there were no ketones, but the last thing I wanted was a diabetic cat.

Feline diabetes is difficult to control in some cats. Cats are 'obligate carnivoirs' which means in simple terms, they have to eat meat. Not vegtables, not grains, not fruits...meat.  Diabetic people need a different mix of protiens, carbs and fats- and funny, some of the dry cat foods out there seem allot like the perfect diabetic people food...

But not ideal for diabetic cats...

There are loads of websites of feline diabetes, and if you've crash landed here looking for help and info, please cruise the web and find some of the larger websites.

Pumpkin's diabetes is complicatred by his paralysis. Low blood sugar comes with difficulty walking, sort of a stagger walk, and that is all Pumpkin does. Oh yes, he walks, just not with any grace or speed.

Most diabetic cats go home on a standard dose of insulin, and simply deal with being poorly regulated. They have fructosamine tests done once a month to see how well they are regulated, and if they seem to feel well then everyone is happy.

I know too much.

One of the interesting things about feline diabetes is that some cats go into remission. So the goal is to get Pumpkin to no longer need insulin.

MRSA. Death by cooties. Methicillin Resistnt Staph Auriens. Simple, flesh eating staff that is resistant or immune to most antibiotics.

The veterinary field has been spared of it up until now. Now it is one of the emerging problems we are seeing.

Boogar, being ahead of his time got to be a test case for MRSA. Last year he had it imbedding into the wall of his bladder, and growing in a wound on his foot. This was at the time he got his new little friend, Maggot- a 6 week old kitten dropped off at the clinic who happened to have kidney stones that blocked the ureter from one kidney (the tube from one kidney to the bladder) and spend the first week of his life in my house on IV's and lots of drugs...

Yes, he was exposed to MRSA. All of my cats were. More on that later.

Bloody urine that stank of decaying liver. Lots of blood. The anibiotics and acidifyers did nothing, neither did the fluids I gave him. We wondered if he had a bladder tumor, and on ultrasound his bladder wall was thick, beaten up and tired, but no tumor.

The lab said somthing was growing in it, but refused to release the culture ID.  I had to yell at them. I never have to yell at the lab to release information.

So, over the fax machine comes the bad news...Boogar has MRSA. the lab said it was resistant to every antibiotic we had. So we called and asked for additional testing, and reluctantly they did so.

And we waited.

And waited.

Inital research suggested very strongly that Boogar be immediately euthanised, and cremated.  I had reports from the CDC, from Englands version of the CDC, and they all said the same thing. Put him to sleep and burn him.

I watched him leaking bloody urine and refused. Inital research talked of infecting hospitals, people, houses, pets.

So I brought home spray bottles, filled them with bleach, chlorhexadine, betadine solution and symphanol. I had several boxes of gloves, a 'biohazard' garbage can, and a playpen with disposable diapers in it. It was a bleach & gloves christmas. I nuked my house.

Euthanasia was not an option... and just for the record, Boogar is alive and well, free of MRSA.

It took 2 weeks for the lab to release the second set of mic's.  A list of viable antibiotics were given and I bought stock in doxycycline.

That stuff tastes nasty. It also ulcerates the feline throat if you don't chase it with water. As well, it causes diarreha, gas, bloating, vomiting and an assortment of other uncomfortable side effects.

Boogar, Maggot (top) and

Jackal....

Boogar tested negative for MRSA 1 month after the antibiots started. His foot ulcer heled after ening open for more than a year... and we spent a year on antibiotics, with monthy blood work and urine tests...

So here's the thing about MRSA. It is generaly passed from human to cat, not the other way. Where did he get it? Did we have it in our hospital? Did a friend have it in their skin and pass it on? I don't know. Reverse zoonosis. Human to animal rather than animal to human.

I did notice, all of my cats had transitory fevers within a month of Boogar testing positive. Research says exposed pets will in general develop a mild MRSA colonisation, run mild fevers and then retrun to normal. Thats exactly what happened in my house.