October 23, 2024

Felix's 4th bile duct surgery

 Well, life is really unpredictable. I have for some time in recent months been grateful for the serenity at home as Felix was able to lead a "normal" life. A vomit in the afternoon of 6th October which was initially thought to be a minor setback, though he looked a bit dull, but he ate pretty normally. By 2.30am on 7th October, he came to sleep on my pillow. This to many is nothing, but my heart tanked and squeezed hard. Its a tell tale sign that he's not feeling well and could be nasty, or at hindsight could say something wrong with his bile/liver.

He was admitted to hospital on 7th and blood test showed his ALT shot to 1267, and TBIL at 9 (which though was normal, was high by his "normal" standard). With the help of medication, his ALT dropped to 801 on the 9th, but the TBIL was slightly above normal at 17. Ultrasound gave us the bad news that the bile duct was blocked again and surgery was the only solution.

After further discussion with family vets, we decided to transfer him to VSH on 10th. Blood test showed ALT rose a bit to 850, TBIL shot up to 42. By the expression on his face, the discomfort is getting worse pretty fast. So we quickly decided go for surgery on that day. It ran from 5.17pm to around 7.46pm. Luckily, the "mess" from previous surgeries were not too bad, managed to clear the bile duct via flushing and took out as much of the stent as possible. 

His blood test readings showed fairly quick and consistent improvement during his hospital stay. However, improvement in his appetite and appearance fluctuated widely and to me doesn't seem to gel with the blood test results. So when he was discharged on the 15th, we decided to transfer him to the family vet for further convalescence before taking him home, as I don't want the worries we have to affect his psychological health.

Turnaround happened on the 19th, after he refused to open his mouth for food during lunch time. Via ultrasound and blood test, found that his stomach wasn't functioning properly as a lot of water was there. Moreover, his abdominal cavity and pancreas showed signs of inflammation. Felix showed fairly quick improvement after taking relevant medication and has since been eating normally by himself.

He was very happy when we took him home on 22nd. He greeted us with his loud meow when the nurse handed him to us in his carrier bag. When we walked in the street, he was poking against the carrier, wanting to take a better view and smell the air of freedom. In the video, you can see him wiggling inside his green carrier bag while auntie prepared to clean him before letting him out.... haha

Felix is readjusting to life at home pretty well. Unlike in the past, he's not hiding himself and seemed pretty relaxed. He ate his meals by himself, walked around a bit, and catch up with his sleep as well.

Betty being the elder sister has no problem is welcoming Felix back. She went to kissed him a few times and have their snack together. Stella, being the youngest one is totally new to welcoming Felix back. Though looked a bit puzzled, she adjusted pretty fast as well. She started by turning her turbo to the highest volume and watching Felix from a distance, to gradually lower the volume and distance apart. Its nice to see their decent love bonding, despite their age and breed differences. 

Although its difficult to say exactly what caused this episode, there are a few things I wanted to highlight:

- As parent, trust your instinct when you sense something is wrong and don't be affected by non-professional advise. 

- Very likely, steam dried Ziwi Peek is not suitable for Felix. He ate a total of 100 pieces of this "raw dried food" since early October and is the only new food he ate. Likely this sparked off problem to his liver and might have spilled over to the pancreas and bile duct.

- Must comb him more frequently. I brushed him 100 times in the evening each day. This might not be enough as found a fur ball hooked to the mesh of the stent, which blocked the bile duct. If I had known of this earlier, I would have asked the surgeon to save it for me, as its a very expensive fur ball!

- Unfortunately, Felix has to stay with the food he is used to for his own safety. Must stay firm, regardless of how "cute" he looks when he enjoys them.

- Continue to save for the rainy days, though I sincerely hope history will NOT repeat itself. 

The family and Felix are truly grateful to Dr Tint as always, for his sound guidance, Dr Tasmin for the professional care and willingness to listen and to discuss. For Dr Francois and Dr Alice for the successful surgery. The last and the most important person is Dr Vera, who regardless of the hour of the day and time zone differences, responded promptly to my queries with sound practical professional advise which is highly useful to all of us.

Below is our document of this incidence:

- Pre-surgery hospital stay


- Post surgery hospital stay



- Home sweet home






The 3 surgerical options:



The incision area:



The feeding tube:

Other shaved areas - tail and hind legs and a pair of short boot in the front :












October 6, 2024

Church Service

Last year, Saint Francis Xavier's Day Church Service was cancelled because of the typhoon. This year, under the hot and sunny weather, the children went to All Saints Cathedral for the service and received the Lord's blessings.

All the children behaved well. Felix made it through despite not feeling too well as he vomited shortly after lunch. 

Snippets







September 16, 2024

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

Stella is thinking of preparing a roast piglet for Mid-Autumn Festival dinner.... In order for the skin to be crispy and crunchy, she decided to first sunbath in the beach..... 


Is this really a piglet??!! Looks more like a pig to me!! Haha
   
                                                   









Wishing all our bloggers and their loved ones, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!


















If you cannot reach the moon, then reach for the bubbles..... haha






August 21, 2024

Stella's Fourth Cat Show Competition

 As a gentle reminder, the purpose of us documenting events in this blog is NOT TO SHOW OFF, but to record our children's life journey as part of our precious memories.

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Stella went for her 4th Cat Show Competition on 18th August in U Place. This one is being hosted by Feline Fanciers' Federation Hong Kong. The space was less spacious and a bit hot. Additional fans were available to help ventilation, but the associated sound and wind quality seemed to have affected the cats, as most were less playful, a bit moody and tense. 

Comparatively speaking, this was a smaller size cat show with only 3 rings running from 11am to 5.30pm, hence, should be less tiring. 

Despite the less than ideal environment, Stella still tried her best and was awarded First Place in all 3 rings. I must confess that Stella was lucky, as I think she could do much better in her interaction with the judges. 


Being the Highest Scoring Female Premier, Stella competed against the other 2 female winners in the Kitten and Adult category for the FFF Queen honour, but failed. I know Stella is a quality Exotic, but other competitors are also beauties in their own way. Besides, Stella was crowned FFF Queen in the last competition (May 2024), and to keep the game running, its fair that others also can have a piece of the pie. 


By the end of the day, Stella got 2 big rosettes as (1) Highest Scoring Premier and (2) Best Body. I was thrilled when they announced that Stella got the Best Body, for in the past 2 competitions, Stella missed the award by a mere 2 points. The comment I often heard about Stella's body, was that although she is a female, her build is muscular, compact and is even better than some male counterparts - 是個女漢子. For this, apart from her genes, I would attribute to her playfulness, as she likes to run around the house and jump to the top of the cat tree.


Thank God! By now Stella has virtually collected a "complete set of the FFF Best rosettes" - Best Head (Nov '23), Best Body (May '24), Best Coat (Feb '24), Beset Condition (Feb '24). The only piece missing is Best Color. I don't think Stella stands a good chance in winning this, as her white and cream color is nice but no big deal! Haha! 



Snippets


Official result from the cat show



 Unfortunately there are some mistakes in the  Best Head category (red circled area)..


Stella got a 1 and 2 from two of the three judges. 1 is worth 10 points,  2 is worth 8 points and 3 is worth 6 points. So Stella should be second in this category with 18 points instead of 10 points being shown in the result announcement. 




July 14, 2024

Medley

 With the weather so hot lately, life goes at a slower pace....





June 20, 2024

Stella is 2 years old today

 

Happy Birthday to Pat Pat, Stella, Mo Mo and youngest 4th sister!

Stay young and energetic! 

Wishing you Good Luck, Good Health and Happiness Always!


Stella's birthday party!













Stella got a Meownooker as her birthday present. Guess who has a stronger sense of the game on first trial.....







June 16, 2024

Felix was sick, but is recovering well

 On 7th June, Felix had his first round of breakfast at 5am normally. However, by the time of his second round breakfast at 9.30am, he appears less keen and ate only 3 pieces of dry food (normally, he ate 10). By noon time, he didn't go to the kitchen to ask for food. When given to him, he only licked twice. His ears were very hot.

Immediately, we called our family vet. Dr TN was on sick leave, but Dr TT kindly agreed to see him at 2pm. Dr TT found his breathing rate to be fast at 120/min, his body temperature was marginal at 39.3 degrees. A full blood test and ultrasound were done. 

The blood test suggested that his white blood cell readings were high and so were the liver readings. The pancreas also ABnormal. Dr TT did a fine needle on the liver for lab and culture. In the meantime, I decided to let him stay in hospital, with hope to precent a major flare up.

On 8th June, update from the nurse was that his temperature was back to normal at 38 degrees and that he ate by himself. But he hadn't urinate. So I decided to have him discharged as I believe we can take care of him at home.

Since returning home, apart from being a bit tense, he ate well, slowly regained his sleep and even played with Stella at times.


Felix revisited Dr TN today (16/6) and is making good progress in his recovery. Physical examination revealed no discomfort and his blood test readings are within the normal range, though some are still higher than his "usual self". 

We would like to thank Dr TN, Dr TT and Dr VM for their care, medical advise and support, without which I would not be in such relaxed mode to document this event. 

As an aside, a funny video on Felix taken earlier on....