Monkey Update

Many of you are aware of what's been going on with Monkey lately. She has been having a upset stomach and has started licking off all of her fur on the back end. From the front she appears to be normal, but on the other side, it looks like she is not wearing pants. She used to have the softest, fluffiest butt in all the land, with these cute little brown speckles on her hips.... so sad to see her in this state.

We have seen the vet several times for this in the past 6 months. A couple of months ago when we went in for a visit, Steve had left the house before Monkey and I, and had accidentally taken the car key with him! And there was no way to get it back. So Monkey and I had to walk 2 miles to the vet's office. It was a lovely September day so the weather was not a problem - I was wondering how I was going to carry the hard, sturdy cat carrier all the way there.

At that point I was wishing I had one of these cat strollers. Even though I know it sounds CRAZY-cat-lady-like.... I still kind of want one.

Instead I had to put the carrier into one of those huge blue Ikea bags and try to peel part of it down so Monkey could see what was going on. I thought, "Oh well maybe this method of transportation will be easier on Monkey because she won't get motion sickness like she does in the car!" Boy was I wrong. She vomited twice and pooped once inside her cage before we made it there. I think it was just all the bouncing around from me walking... she probably felt like she was riding a camel! Maybe if i had the stroller it would be a smoother ride.

At that point Dr. Miller decided to try a hypoallergenic diet for Monkey. She and Elvis decided they liked the Venison, and we renamed their food "bambi cereal" (dry) and "bambi souffle" (wet). It was expen$$ive but we would do almost anything for Monkey. She is our princess. We were very strict with her diet and she did not receive treats or table scraps for two months.

Recently we visited Dr. Miller again for an assessment because there wasn't much improvement in Monkey's condition. This time Monkey made it all the way to just outside the clinic where we were looking for a parking spot before her bowels let loose. Then she vomited. But they are SOO nice there they cleaned out our carrier, threw out our towel (yet another old towel lost to a vet visit... soon we will be out of them!) and put a disposal pet pad in there. The Dr checked again for fleas and for any other evidence of a skin condition. And she decided that a food allergy wasn't causing all of these symptoms. Which means we can go back to our lamb cereal by Solid Gold (much cheaper!) and Monkey can have treats!!! She was so happy to have treats when we got home.

Our next strategy is to do some blood work to see if there are any underlying problems (like diabetes, etc) and we should get those results back on Thursday. If that comes back fine, then Monkey probably has some irritated, inflamed bowels and that may be why she is licking the fur off of that area of her body. So we will try some steriods to get that under control. And hopefully that will take care of it! I hope so because this has been going on for about 9 months... poor Monkey. :(

By the way I highly recommend our veterinary clinic Uptown Animal Hospital!!! They are located in Andersonville. Their office is very clean and inviting. The staff is so friendly and I truly feel that they care about the furry members of our family. Dr. Miller is the best :) Plus she is an Albion alumn.

And I'm still looking for a way to take the cats out in some sort of stroller. I'm thinking a double decker cart would be ideal but I haven't found one that will fit the cat carriers. Any idears???