Luna's Story

 

 

Luna started out life with many things against her.  She was found abandoned and hungry.  When I first saw her at the animal shelter where I volunteer, I noticed her right away.  She was sitting at the front of her cage, had very large eyes and was half the size of her sister.  There were many synchronicities that occurred to bring Luna into my life and I now know that she has been with me many times before.  She came to me as a foster kitten in the summer of 2007.  I should have gotten a foster kitten (or two) a couple of months prior to getting her but after seven years of living together, my two cats started fighting and had to be separated for two months.  They miraculously started getting along a few weeks prior to Luna showing up at the shelter.

I was only supposed to keep her 2-3 weeks until she could gain enough weight to be adopted.  Kittens are required to weigh at least two pounds to be put up for adoption and to be spayed.  At the time she was estimated to be about 8-10 weeks old and only weighed 1 pound 5 oz.  Originally, she was found as a stray and was clearly the runt of the litter!  Within a couple of days of taking her home she fell ill with an upper respiratory infection which can be especially dangerous in very small kittens.  She lost a bit of weight (a couple of ounces) and when she stabilized, it took her much longer than an average kitten to gain weight.  She also had a very large stomach.

{C} Finally, after a few months, she was getting close to the 2 pound mark so I took her back to the shelter vet because I was concerned about her very large belly.  I was especially concerned about what would happen when she was spayed because you could actually hear liquid sloshing around in her abdomen.  He examined her and he said that he could not recommend that she be put up for adoption because she had a number of congenital defects and they did not know what was going on in her abdomen.  When I talked to the shelter manager, I asked her what would happen to her and she told me through teary eyes that they would have to euthanize her because they already had several special needs animals and could not take another one, especially a kitten.  I quickly said "Can I keep her?" and she very gladly said yes.  She gave her all of the shots she could have at the time and I took her home.
She quickly fit in with the other two cats and held her own with them despite the size difference.  I took her to my vet to get the rest of her shots and to see if he thought anything could be done to help her.  We did blood work which showed her liver enzymes elevated to 4x the normal levels.  He suggested an ultrasound to get an idea if it was anything that could be rectified.  The ultrasound showed a lot of extra veins in her liver and something wrong with one of the main veins going to the heart.  He said that there was nothing that could be done and we should do additional blood work in a couple of months.  I asked him if he thought she would live very long and he said - no.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In two months we did additional blood work and the liver enzymes were elevated to about 7X normal levels and she had started vomiting and had to eat special food.  Her kidney function was also not good.  The vet told me he wanted to wait to spay her (I took this to mean that he wanted to wait to see how long she would live). 

It was then that I remembered that I had something in my cupboard called Pet Recharge™ from Gematria Products, Inc. and started giving it to Luna about two times a week.  Soon, the vomiting stopped and she started eating the other cats' food.  I did not think much about it until she went into heat a few months later.  It was not a good experience!   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again, she went to the vet who said he did not want to do anything until she had a liver function test to see if she could withstand the surgery.  Her results came back normal, but on the low end, so we did additional blood work.  The vet said her liver enzymes were high and he would rather not operate.  They were now 4X normal (down from 7X). 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I asked him to compare them with the last test and he was rather surprised to see that all of the results were much improved - including her kidney function which was now normal.  During the testing, she went out of heat, then back into it about a week later.  Anyone who has had a cat in heat will know that you just cannot have this in the house, so despite the risks, we did the surgery and she came through with flying colors. 

Six months later, in September 2008 at her vet visit, Luna's blood work was nearly normal.  She continues to take the Pet Recharge™ about two times per week and I know that without it she would not be here today.  In April 2009, Luna celebrated her second birthday and is now a normal, healthy cat.

 

Update on Luna:  On April 16, 2013, Luna will celebrate her 6th Birthday.  For the most part she is a normal,healthy cat.