Tom's Story



We took in Tom (who we affectionately called Teddy, since he looked like a Teddy Bear to me), in September of 1981. He was apparently abandoned by "people" that moved away a few houses down the block from us. By the time we learned of Tom's situation, he had been outside for quite a while, and had learned not to trust people. It took us a while to win him over. I used to feed him everyday, and he'd run away and hide when he first saw me coming. He'd stay within eye sight of me though, so he didn't miss his meal. I used to always tell Tom, "Now you run away from me when you see me coming, but one day you'll run towards me". It took a while, but he eventually did.

Tom is our hardest story to tell. He had so much go wrong with him. I'll just touch on the problems here, but hopefully I can go into more specifics at another time.

In 1991 Tom was having trouble breathing. Our vet thought it was a bad a Upper Respirory Infection (URI). We took him to the vet several times for this. In early March of '91 our EX vet prescribed aminophylline (a bronchiodilator) for Tom. Two days after he started that drug, he had a seizure as we were walking into the vet's office. The vet saw the entire episode, gave Tom 4 injections, and sent him home with us. We were shocked by this seizure, since Tom had never had anything like this happen to him before, and asked the vet what we should do if this happens again that night. He promised us that he had given Tom so many shots that there was no way that Tom would seizure again tonight. At one AM we awoke to the sound of Tom thrashing! He was stuck in a seizure! We rushed him to the nearest Emergency Clinic. Tom was stuck in that seizure for about 45min. It left him practically unconsious for 8 days and permanently retarded. He also seizured many times a day after that, until we finally broke the cycle. This began a year and a half of almost constant care for Tom, since he had to relearn to do everything again, from peeing, and pooping, to eating. He was ok then for several months, until Dec of '91, when he again had a major seizure that he got stuck in. After that seizure, Tom required 24 hour care, 7 days a week from us. We rearranged our lives, and slept in shifts to help him.

Within the last year, after Mr. Fluffy's death we looked into how and why this all could have happened. We have since found out that our vet prescribed 3 times the recommended dosage of aminophylline for Tom, and that aminophylline can cause seizures if prescribed in too high of a dosage.

We have filed charges with the New York State Licensing Board OPD against our EX vet because of this "mistake", as well as Fluffy's. They are still currently investigating this.

One thing I'd like to add here, is to always ask what your vet is prescribing, and why, and then to try and verify that it is the correct medication, and dosage for your cat. I'd hate to see anything like this ever happen again to anyone's kitty.

In early Nov of 1992, Tom had more neurological problems, and he suddenly couldn't even walk. We had hope that this might correct itself, as Tom had surprised us by improving so many times before. But, after 2 days of no improvement, on Nov. 12, we let him go. It was very hard for us to do this as we had come to care for him like a "baby", and centered our lives around him...but we knew we had to do what was best for Tom.

"Tom, Binky, Papa, and Crazy Mama"

Rest in peace, Tom. Your best "Bud", Binky, is with you now. We love you, and always will.

Tom's Tribute Page

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