Good News For "MAX"

by Mary
(North Carolina)

I took "MAX" into my home 3 years ago when his prior owner (My daughter in law) decided that since she was about to have a baby that he was (Too Much Trouble).
She had adopted Max when he was only 8 weeks old in 1997 and she and Max had been together all these years.
Then she married my son Five years ago and when she became pregnant 3 years ago, she decided that Max was "too much trouble".
I lived 2 hours away from them but my son called one night to tell me that they had decided to "Put MAX OUTSIDE" to live, after being an INDOOR ONLY cat,(declawed also) all his life. Poor Max was then 11 years old.

This poor cat was not to blame and had no bad household habits.
They merely decided that since a baby was coming that they no longer had time to deal with him. He was a healthy cat that only required a clean litter box and daily feeding and some love and attention now and then. This seemed to be more than they was willing to offer this poor cat who had been a faithful companion to my daughter in law for 11 long years.
It was winter time, temperatures was below 20 degrees and snowing.
Max was not use to this living environment and he was getting old.
Being Declawed also meant he had no way to defend himself against dogs or other animals.

I told me son "PLEASE do not put Max outside. He isn't use to these severe cold temperatures and he is defenseless. I told them I would come get him and take him in.
I drove two hours and picked up poor Max who didn't understand being taken away from the only home he had ever known. My daughter in law never shed a tear over him leaving. This broke my heart because I knew poor Max was confused.

Once home, I noticed Max had a horribly stinky flea collar on (an over the counter brand) which I removed ASAP. He had never been allowed outside so I thought this was useless and I know first hand the dangers of the pesticides in those flea collars. Max did OK the first 2 or 3 days then started vomiting every time he ate.
He laid around all the time and was lethargic.

I thought he may be depressed but the vomiting concerned me. We went off to the vet and had a full scale check up done and bloodwork (partly due to his age of 11 years). Bloodwork came back showing he had an acute Pancreatic inflamation and was caused by the high toxin level from the over the counter flea collars he had been wearing when at his prior home. He was suffering and the vet said she feared we would lose Max. After 5 days in the hospital with IV fluids and constant pain meds, Max perked up. The final bill was 1,200 but Max survived so in my opinion, it was money well spent. I knew if he had stayed with his prior owner, he would have died of this and received no medical care.His death would have been painful and not humane.

Max is now 14 years old, and been with me 3 years. He is a sweetheart and I adore him dearly. Three days ago I noticed he had puss all over his mouth and his breath smelled terrible. Again we went Saturday of this past weekend to the vet.
The vet frowned and told me that Max has severe Ulcers on his tongue and in his mouth and that she feared he may have Renal disease as this is a symptom of Kidney failure in older cats. My heart SANK. I have lost seven cats in the last 16 months to cancer and old age diseases and I could not stand losing yet another.
We did a blood work series to check ALL his body organ functions to be sure.
I held my breath all weekend waiting for the results which came in this morning.
When the call came I was fearful to answer, expecting the worst.
To my joy, the Dr. revealed that ALL of Max's organs are in good order and his ONLY problem is he needs a good dental cleaning and antibiotics for 14 days and he will be GOOD AS NEW! I broke into tears of joy and my beautiful Max is going to be OK.

I know this was a lengthy post but I wanted to make a VERY important point.
Just because a cat is older does not mean they are dying when they show signs of illness. IMMEDIATE medical attention is necessary to determine the TRUE cause and sometimes we get lucky and it is nothing serious.
Before taking in a pet PLEASE make sure you are financially able to handle these "unexpected emergencies" because THEY WILL COME, and these animals deserve to not have to suffer because their owner cannot afford to take them to the Vet.
It is the same as your children. When they get sick, you take them to the DR no matter what it costs. Your PETS DESERVE NO LESS! They are living, breathing animals who cannot say what hurts and how bad they are suffering. It is up to you to monitor your pet daily and KNOW when they need medical help and THEN make sure they are allowed the right to be seen and treated by a good Dr.

I am thankful that Max and I have hopefully more wonderful years together and he will never be "Tossed Outside" or given up on as with his prior owner.
He and ALL my animals are worth EVERY CENT that their medical care cost me.
Max TRULY has a FOREVER home with me.

I LOVE YA Max.

Mary in NC