Size
(when grown) -
Details
Not good with kids,
Not good with dogs,
Not good with cats,
Spayed or Neutered,
Shots are up-to-date,
Story
Blue
Male DLH grey
Estimated DOB: 07/2024
Blue REQUIRES a prescription food (Hill's Gastrointestinal Biome Stress. There are absolutely no ifs ands or buts about it. Eating any other food will cause him to have an IBD flare-up. This means that he needs a family who is fully committed to the financial cost of a prescription food (which is about twice the cost of a bag of Purina Pro Plan, so not outrageously expensive). You will also need to have a regular veterinarian because he will always need to be current on his medical needs/exams as this is a prescription only food. If this is too much to handle for the next potentially 15+ years of his life, we strongly encourage you to check out one of our other fabulous cats up for adoption. Please also consider other cats you may have in the home as either everyone will need to switch to the prescription food or he will need to fed separately or with a microchip feeder and no other type of cat food can be left out. These things can very easily be done, but it's not for everyone as it is a commitment to following through with yearly veterinary visits and purchasing a more expensive food. We currently have another cat Bean Burrito who also needs the same food because he has a sensitive stomach. They are best buds in case you were interested in adopting two kittens!
Blue is a very crazy kitten. He is constantly doing laps around the house. He thinks play time is all the time and often shows his love through play biting (which doesn't feel the greatest and we are working on it with him haha). He is super sweet, social and absolutely needs another crazy cat in the house that he can wrestle and climb the walls with. This boy is the energizer bunny! It is so fun watching him play and zoom around.
Now for Blue's long medical history which we encourage you to bear through and read if you are considering Blue as a potential new member of your family.
Oh, Blue. This boy has put everyone through some sleepless nights. Blue was surrendered to the rescue back in December when he needed emergency medical care/surgery. His family had taken him to the emergency hospital because he had a prolapsed rectum with chronic severe diarrhea. Surgery was unaffordable, so they tried conservative management and took him home. His rectum prolapsed again within the day and his family brought him back to the emergency hospital for humane euthanasia. The hospital suggested they reach out to the rescue because his condition was something that could "easily" be fixed with surgical intervention.... we found out that it was, in fact, not an easy fix for this boy and he had to add a little bit of spice to the mix.
The rescue brought him to our full service veterinary clinic and they performed a colopexy (going in through the abdomen and suturing the colon to the abdominal wall, essentially tacking it in so it cannot prolapse when he strains). He recovered from surgery and we were trialing hydrolyzed food along with other supportive care measures to help resolve his on-going diarrhea. Two weeks later, he prolapsed again. He went into the urgent care vet for temporary replacement of the prolapsed tissue with sutures to hold it in so he would be able to wait until the next day when the same surgeon could perform another colopexy as they were the only one at the clinic who performs them. Rinse and repeat and he recovered from surgery but we could not get his diarrhea under control despite a prescription hydrolyzed food, probiotics, dewormers, etc. Two weeks later... he prolapsed again. We fully thought that he was going to have to be humanely euthanized because a colopexy is a major abdominal surgery and is only supposed to be a temporary solution to buy some time while you figure out what is causing the diarrhea and correct it. And this was now his 3rd time prolasping. That was no life for Blue as he was actively leaking feces 24/7 and this 3rd prolapse meant he would need a 3rd colopexy which likely would result in the same outcome if his diarrhea couldn't be fixed.
As an absolute hail mary, we reached out to another veterinarian who has extensive experience with kittens and all the fun medical issues they like to have. She recommended running two huge fecal test panels to rule out absolutely anything and everything that could be causing the diarrhea because that needed to be the main focus. She even gave us the option of doing a fecal microbiota transplantation (which is exactly what it sounds like) because we *NEEDED* to get to the bottom of his diarrhea with a very limited window to do so after he had yet another surgery. This veterinarian performed his 3rd colopexy and she used a more drastic surgical approach to really make sure his colon adhered to the body wall and wasn't going anywhere. We also sent out the testing she recommended so we could either find or rule out an infectious/bacterial/parasitic cause for the diarrhea. To our surprise, the only thing that came back positive on his fecals was a fairly common bacteria/parasite which we promptly treated.
After surgery, we started to focus on other causes of diarrhea such as IBD while still continuing multiple pre/probiotics, B12 injections, and fecal microbiotia freeze dried capsules (a way less messy approach to FMTs but unfortunately more expensive). His foster noticed that he did slightly better on a different brand of hydrolyzed food, so we started to think it may be the food. She ran out of his original hydrolyzed food, so she used another GI food she had on hand until his original food was delivered. Once it arrived, she switched back to it, but his diarrhea became worse. We then ordered multiple formulas from multiple brands so we could trial them to figure out what had worked (the foster forgot what food she had used to get him by when she ran out of the hydrolyzed food that he improved on!). 6+ prescription foods later and we figured out what food works like magic for him. Within a day of switching back to this food, he was having solid bowel movements. We are now feeling good about his prognosis now that it's been 6 weeks since his last surgery.
Location: Blue is currently at Chow Hound Pet Supplies at 28th Street and Eastern Ave (734 28th St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49548).
Medical: All cats are spayed/neutered, current on age approriate vaccines (rabies and distemper), microchipped, given flea/tick prevention and dewormer, FIV/FeLV tested, and any other veterinary care that is needed prior to adoption.
If you are interested in adopting, fill out an application online at www.figandfriendspetrescue.org/adopt
