My story started 13 years ago while living with my sister, Monica. She has an incredible talent for rehabilitating animals. She has had particular success with cats. She bottle fed more little ones than even she could count and has managed to keep even the most fragile alive.
As often happens in the spring and early fall there was a fresh, week old litter of kittens with no mother brought our home. Five kittens in all. In the first few days three of them did not make it. The two remaining did pretty well. They grew as she cared for them like a mother. She carried them everywhere with her and fed them every few hours throughout the night. There was a male and a female. The male, at about 6 weeks went through what I have learned is "fading kitten syndrome" which means for some unknown reason (or at least to me) a perfectly healthy kitten in a matter of hours stops eating and will fade and die.
Monica, quick to respond scooped up the kitten and dropped some sugar water into his mouth. He stopped breathing. I watched in horror the limp little body in the palm of her hand. "No"! she shouted at him. "You will NOT die". Blowing a few breaths into his mouth and nose he started to breath...but for how long. She dropped a few more drops of sugar water around his lips and with in 5 minutes he was wobbly but alive.
With a mother's scorn she bounced him gently in her hand as if to mimic an angry shaking and told the little guy with a firm voice "Don't you ever stop eating again". He never would.
As the day came closer that he would go to the shelter and find a loving home, my heart grew heavy. I had named him Jeff and his sister Lorraine. Lorraine was an impish black and white and Jeff was a square little tabby. He was clumsy and rolly-polly and I was in love.
Monica's husband who strongly objected to cats and insisted that ALL cats move onto the shelter was not going to be an easy sell but I gave it my best shot. To my relief he went for it on the condition that when my stay with them came to an end I would not leave the cat. "Yes! Yes"! I agreed to the conditions and I became the happy new mom of Jeff the cat.
He grew to be very tubby. He took my sisters threat to heart and never stopped eating. He rode with me in the car as I did errands. He would take road trips with me. He was a big bag of love blub that let me do anything. When I met my husband and drove from Ohio to Florida he rode on my lap looking out the window the whole way. But there was something wrong.
Jeff never moved quite right. I always thought that something must have happened in that first week before he came to live with us. Maybe he was squished a bit or slightly malformed. He never was able to jump high or run fast like other cats. He didn't climb trees or chase after birds. He always had a funny lumpy gate to his walk. I never gave it a lot of thought until he grew older and he started to develop what I suspected was the inevitable arthritis.
One day I came home and Jeff was in agony. He was in spasm and was yowling with pain. I tried to calm him but he wasn't having it. I rushed him to the vet who did not offer much help. They gave him some pain meds and told me to give him massage on his back legs. A year later it happened again. This time it was worse. I took him to a different vet who basically did the same thing. After a few days he seemed to be alright. Just a little older. Then about a month ago I got a call from my room mate, Abigail. I was out at a dinner party and she was very upset. "It's Jeff...". she said in a shaky voice. I made a hasty departure and came home straight away. It was happening again. This time is was worse than ever. As luck would have it, this happened late on a Friday night. All vets were closed for the weekend.
It was a sleepless weekend for both Jeff and myself. He never stopped yowling and hissing. I had never seen him in such pain. I gave him arnica and other calming potions like rescue remedy to give him a bit of relief. When I took him in first thing Monday morning, I thought I might not be coming home with my sweet cat who had traveled the US with me, been through marriage and divorce, lived on a boat with me and never given me an hour of trouble.
The vet took ex-rays and showed my his lower vertebrae were rough and disintegrating . He was diagnosed with Spondylitis. He gave me some pain meds and some antibiotics and sent us home. By the looks of it he probably had it all his life.
The meds made him puke and he stopped eating. With in two days he was really looking worn. I called the vet and he told me to stop the meds and get him to eat. "Come on Jeff. Remember what your Aunt Monica told you. Don't stop eating". He started to eat but his pain was still very bad. His face was drawn and he started to lose his fur. He didn't get up for much. He slept fitfully on my fur coat I had laid out on my bed. I started to prepare myself for my loss.
While talking to Abigail about putting him down and where I might plant him in the back yard she burst into tears. "No I'm not ready! He is pure positive energy; Bubby the love sponge" I felt the same but I was not going to let him suffer like he was.
The next day Abigail came to me and asked if the disease was caused by a virus. I thought is was and that was why they wanted him on anti-biotics. Abi had been attending a business networking group and there was a lady there with an incredible story of coming back from the perverbial banana peel and coffin. She told a story of being given two weeks to a month to live when she started taking "the powder" Huh?
"What powder was this"? I asked "I don't know, some sort of rice powder". She said. "It's worth a try" I agreed. "OK get me some powder"
I went with Abigail to the business networking and met the woman. I told her about Jeff and she gave me some powder and some pills that she told me was "dirt" She gave me some basic instructions about how and when to administer the "stuff" I took it home to my love sponge, Jeff who was thin and drawn. I mixed some "dirt" with some canned salmon and he lapped it up.
TO MY SURPRISE!! within a half hour my failing cat had sparkly eyes and was up and walking around. He was begging and purring and standing up on his back legs. WOW! What was in this stuff? The next day I went back to the woman and told her about Jeff. She was very excited for me and I bought a month's supply of Enzacta PXP and HFI. We are now on day three and I see so much improvement. I have not given him any pain meds and he is actually starting to try to run. It is not possible because of how he has atrophied but he doesn't seem to know he can't.
Because of this incredible turnaround I decided to try it myself and so has Abigail. She has decided to give it to her dog Pepper Grace who is covered with fatty tumors. Over the next 30 days I plan to give you an account of what happens to all of us. I hope this will serve as a success story that will help others find solutions for their health issues or for those of their beloved pets.
Thanks for reading...to be continued...
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