With current veterinary knowledge, the survival rate for Bobcat Fever is roughly 45-60%. There’s been some changes within the past couple of years to antibiotic protocols that have moved it as high as 65%. Needless to say, it’s a rough disease for little house cats to get over. While some do in the wild and go on to be asymptomatic carriers (like Mama J), the disease can flare at any time until it’s eradicated because it’s a blood parasite that lives in red blood cells ready to strike.
We’re now 26 days from the vet visit as I write this, and roughly 3 days from the end of the antibiotic regimen. I could see little by little that she was getting better. She fought me more on the pills. I’d started cutting the half pills in half, but even then she really fought me. I suspect in a few places my hands are permanently scarred. But that’s okay. Because it means that Mama J got a miracle.
You see today is the first day I feel like I got my Mama J back. I’ve seen her eat dry food at the bowl, not once, not twice, but four times. Sure, it’s a couple of mouthfuls each time, but she is eating on her own. This is huge. And it was our last hurdle. We’ve been off the sub-q fluids now for probably a good week, and I’m going to blog about overhydration in kitties because it sure would have been nice if the vet had told us this was a possibility. But for her to eat on her own is big. I’ll still try to syringe feed her at least morning and night for a while. Frankly, she’s lost enough weight that she needs the calories and while I haven’t had blood drawn, I’m still sure her liver values are better, I want them excellent, and the best way to heal hepatic liver disease in kitties is with food. (She got the hepatic liver from not eating due to the Bobcat Fever, so she had several decks stacked against her.)
My husband and I had called his cat “miracle kitty” after an amazing nearly eighteen month rally after pretty severe chronic kitty disease (We have had many geriatric cats and seen many things.) Well, this generation of cats has it’s “miracle kitty” and while I thought it was my mom’s cat Belle (who also had Bobcat Fever, but not the liver issues, and she’s doing great for an elderly, mostly blind, kitty with high blood pressure.) was my miracle cat, I know, it’s Mama J.
I cannot tell you how nice it’s been today to have her sitting in my lap, or on the back of my desk chair, purring up a storm, rubbing her head against me and mostly being the Mama J kitty I’ve known and loved now for three and a half years. I don’t know how old she is, because she brought us a litter of kittens (two actually, silly girl wouldn’t be caught after the first one), and I suspect she’s older than Sweet Pea, the other stray who came to us about the same time. But she’ll get the best care for as long as possible. After all, she’s our Miracle Kitty.
