I just wanted to give a thumbs-up to the BFCA and the great work they do in B/CS. The folks who take in these cats and take care of them are nothing short of saints.

My girlfriend and I have been looking to add to the Animal Farm. She was being a little particular, but the ladies with the BFCA allowed us to visit them at home to see the kitties in their home-environment to see more closely if they would be a good fit for us. When they saw our hesitation, they went as far as to say we could take one home for a little while and see what we thought - holding onto a post-dated check from us. Pretty cool, IMO.

I can't say enough good things about these people. Check them out if you're interested in adopting.

http://catfriends.org/

Oh, and cuz I can't help it, here's the little guy we adopted:



[This message has been edited by AggieJason (edited 6/14/2011 8:04a).]

I totally agree! We've adopted two of our fur babies from them, both great additions to our family. The work they do is awesome!

They rock! We got one of ours from them, and she is the best cat ever. Super smart and she's softer than a rabbit! The only regret that we have is that we should have adopted her sister at the same time-but I'm not sure we would have ever been able to tell them apart.

Yes, they are great. Mary "the Cat Lady" helped me and my daughter rescue Momma Kitty and her four beautiful babies a few weeks ago. Without her help I don't know if I could have handled all of them. We are hoping to pay a visit to Momma Kitty and her family soon if we are allowed.

AggieJason,

Congrats on the new kitty!
Way to go BFCA!

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Yes, they are great. Mary "the Cat Lady" helped me and my daughter rescue Momma Kitty and her four beautiful babies a few weeks ago. Without her help I don't know if I could have handled all of them. We are hoping to pay a visit to Momma Kitty and her family soon if we are allowed.

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The advertising that thread generated (in part) is what drove me to check them out.

Thanks for the well-wishes!

[This message has been edited by AggieJason (edited 6/13/2011 7:53p).]

Congrats on the new kitty!

Egon!!! So cute! AggieJason & all who have adopted from BFCA - thank you for making room in your homes and in your lives for these kitties. Their lives start out pretty rough but with folks like ya'll they have happy ever afters. >^..^<

Yes, Brazos Feral Cat Allies is a great group! I got one of mine from them a few years back & providing foster home for another who is apt to become mine permanantly soon.

The cats all stay in people's homes so they know lots about them and can help find the right cat or kitten for you. Yes, best to adopt kittens in pairs so they can keep each other company, especially if do not have another cat already.

There would be many more homeless cats if BFCA was not out there trapping feral/wild/stray cats, gettign them neutered, and adopting out the socialized kittens. And of course it makes all the difference to the cats who get to go from homeless to foster to being someone's special kitty.

They are great to work with. We adopted our 2 cats from them a few years ago. Congrats!!!

Nana-check with your little bit, I sent her the foster info - you are more than welcome to visit the kittens & momma.

Ha, finally figured out who you were....lol

I also got my favorite fur-baby from them. Fantastic organization!

Ilove the work that BFCA does for the community. I got the most perfect cat in the world from them a year ago this month!!! Felix the Cat! Black kitties are the best!

nvm

[This message has been edited by AggieJason (edited 6/16/2011 8:46a).]

We got our cats from Brazos Feral Cat Allies. They are great.

Gotta give another to BFCA. Our Egon is going through some tough times - we come home to him yesterday throwing up and lethargic. Twelve hours later and he's deteriorating. TAMU Vet doctor says he's going into renal failure due to bloodwork that's off the charts. Nancy @ BFCA steps in and foots the bill to have him looked at over at Kingdom Animal Hospital. Please pray for him.

They are great folks. We enjoyed hosting a fundraiser for the group a few weeks ago at Shipwreck. I hope to do it again in the future.

Prayers for your sweet kitty

Oh no! Could Egon have gotten into anything? If its acute kidney failure, sometimes lots of fluids can help them pull through. I sure hope so - he is such a cutie and its clear you love him very much! The vets at Kingdom are great - hope they can pull off a miracle for your little furbaby.

Egon is doing much better! We went to visit him earlier this morning and he's moving around, drinking water, eating, etc. All Kingdom did was run IV fluids for 24 hours to flush his system.

Thanks all for you thoughts and prayers!

And kudos to BFCA and Kingdom for all they've done for us.

SO glad to hear Egon is doing better!

Kingdom is awesome! Dr. Knight helped my furkid last year when she ate thread (I am a sewer) and couldn't throw it up (i.e. hairball) They do not rest until they figure out what is wrong with your furkids

[This message has been edited by Kbeauty63 (edited 6/22/2011 9:24a).]

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They do not rest until they figure out what is wrong with your furkids

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I hope that's the case. Dr. Knight says Egon's phosphorus levels are still off the charts, even though he's doing better. They want to keep him 'till Friday for further testing and treatment, but they're besides themselves trying to figure out what's caused his levels to be off the charts.

Glad for the good news. You might need to learn how to do subQ fluids to help him out for a few days while his levels come down. If so, I recommend Terumo needles (much better than Monojets).

There are phosphorous binders if need be, but could resolve on its own as the other kidney numbers come down slowly over time.

He would not have gotten into a pill like Tylenol or an NSAID like Advil or Motril, would he? Many OTC human meds are poisons to cats.

Sounds like between you and Kingdom, Egon is in very good hands.

I just don't know. There's always a chance that I may have dropped an ibuprofen or acetaminophen on the ground and he found it, but it's highly unlikely. All the meds and household cleaners are put up out of reach, or in locked cabinets.

The vets keep asking if he has access to any of these things, or antifreeze, or raisins, or plants, and we keep giving them the same answer: No. Either they think we're lying and just don't want to admit it, or they're flat-out stumped.

Kingdom did an ultrasound on him to determine if his kidneys are suffering from a congenital defect or if it was really acute illness. The ultrasound showed nothing definitive, so that lends more evidence of him getting into something, but what, and how?! I'm stumped and a bit paranoid.

The vets think there's a chance he might have been exposed to something while he was being fostered, and that he's been slowly building up a resistance to the toxicity until his body just couldn't take it any more. If so, it'll be a lot harder for him to get over this, if at all. I'm finding it hard to believe that's the case, given that the foster family had six cats at one point (that I know of) and we haven't heard of any of the others getting sick.

They think also think there's a chance Egon has leptospirosis, even though the chances are rare. Leptospirosis spreads via contact with infected body fluids. That would have happened at his foster family, as there's no chance of that here. Again, the foster family knew what they were doing and haven't heard of the other kitties getting sick, so that likelihood is rare. In my home, we have three other pets and chances are, they'd have it, too, if that's the case. Either way, they've started him on antibiotics just in case.

It doesn't help that they also did more blood-work yesterday and have seen no appreciable improvement in his levels. The vets there agree he has a very very poor prognosis.

AggieJason - hang in there. Please don't feel like Kingdom thinks you are not being truthful. This is a difficult case & they are likely just looking for any direction available as to how to proceed with treating Egon. As with humans, identifying the source of the problem can go a long way in the treatment.

dp

[This message has been edited by graciejane (edited 6/23/2011 12:15p).]

Prayers for Egon.

Thanks for the prayers. The g/f and I visited him before and after work. He's eating, drinking, and going to the bathroom, which is a huge improvement. He looks a little more energetic (Yay food!), which is also a major plus. Please keep your fingers crossed for him that tomorrows blood work shows improvement.

Egon's all better! We went to visit him today and Dr. Lara said the most recent blood test shows all of his levels were falling back to normal. He'll be kept thru the weekend to be run on a third bag of fluids and his levels will be run again Monday to make sure the results today weren't a fluke. Oh we're so excited!

I want to give a special thanks, again, to BFCA, especially Nancy, Dawn, and Mary for coming out to visit Egon when we couldn't be there during the day. Y'all are truly a special group of people.

Oh what WONDERFUL news!! I am SO glad Egon is better! Yay for BFCA & Kingdom Animal Hospital

Egon has charmed everyone at the clinic. He is so cute and has been a real trooper through all this. T&P's for continued improvement!!!

That's so wonderful. I was going to post that when its acute kidney failure it can take three days of IV fluids to see much of any improvement. I think they ask several times just to see if can jog your memory. When your cat is sick, its hard to think straight - sometimes I find it hard to come up with basic info. Your mentioning raisons reminded me of that - had forgotten those were bad for cat - not that I would feed them but sometimes drop things like that.

Double check the cat food too - double check none of it is on a recall list. And triple check any plants or other potential poisons now that you can breathe a sigh of relief and think a bit more clearly.

Something just occurred to me... Could this be old cat food by chance? I am not suggesting you would knowingly feed your cat old food, but check the date. Since you have exhausted all other possibilities, I am left wondering if you have somehow come into possession of a bag of tainted cat food from years back, possibly? His symptoms sound very familiar. Its worth investigating maybe. Hopefully there isn't a new batch of tainted pet food floating around out there.

Glad to hear the little fella is doing so much better! Continued T&P's for him.

We're so happy for him. We're gonna be visiting him in a little bit.

I never thought about checking his food. Unfortunately, I emptied all of his food into a big Tupperware container, so I can't check the dates except for one bag that I saved so I could get a mail-in coupon. At any rate, I'll check for recall lists.