The music with this page is "Sleep Walk".
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Things sure have changed since we originally wrote Fluffy's page. We are deeply saddened that Mr. Fluffy is no longer with us. We found out on 12/31/97 that he had been a victim of veterinary malpractice. A brief description of what happened is on: Fluffy's Story... A Victim of Veterinary Malpractice. Fluffy died right after a surgery trying to correct our original vet's mistakes. Please read his Health Diary for more details. There is also a Tribute Page for him. The remainder of this page has been left as it was before we lost him...
Fluffy is a terrific Maine Coon that we took in in November of 1991. He is one of the fathers of Mia's three kittens. Mia and her kittens were feral strays living outside in the summer of 1991. The kittens were wild and we could never catch them all at the same time. When we had to have Mia spayed (she was pregnant again), we had to take her inside our house to recouperate. Fluffy took care of the kittens outside for the entire 5 days. That's when we realized what a great cat he was. We managed to catch them all a few months later.
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In December of 1994, we saw Fluffy straining to urinate and NOTHING was coming out. He was totally blocked! He eventually needed a urethrostomy (removal of the penis, and a new opening made for the urethra) to fix the problem. He had a very large Ammonium acid urate stone that blocked his urethra completely. They tried to catheterize him 4 times in 6 days. Every time they would take the catheter out, the stone would roll back and block him again. So, after 6 long days at the vets, he had the surgery. About 6 months later he again had to have surgery to have his bladder walls scraped. Apparently some of the other stones he had in there had become embedded in the bladder walls. He was only in there 2 days for that one. We had an ultrasound done on him and just about every test you could think of. They found that 1 of his kidneys is damaged, so they suspect that is why he is forming these weird stones. He was quite sick after the first surgery and on antibiotics for a long time. I think the stones left in his bladder kept infecting him. Anyway, we still check his urine every day with Hema-Combistix test stips (they run about $65 for 100 strips). In order to collect a urine sample, we take a 7 oz. plastic cup, cut it down to about 1 inch high except we leave one side alone to make a "handle". Then when he starts to pee, we slip this "ladle" under his bottom, and he pees into it. He's not usually aware of it, if we do it just right. We do this to help know how much blood he still is getting into his urine. He almost always has a little. The reason we do it is to try and ward off an infection before he shows signs (cats are very stoic and seem to only act sick when ther're really in a bad state). So far, thank God, he is now doing fine. We occasionally see some crystals or small stones. They say he'll probably always make them, but they seem to pass thru him OK and he has been off Baytril for over 6 months.
Fluffy had probably been hit by a car before we knew him and took him in.
After his surgery, we put a "Mr." in front of Fluffy's name so everyone knows he's a boy!!
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