Miss Maggie Gives Us a Scare

Aspen Ridge RV Park, 9-27 to 10-1-19, South Fork, CO

Miss Maggie, as you may know, is our elder rescue cat. She joined our family in September of 2016 after we found her in a Priest River, Idaho animal shelter. We thought she looked so old and frail that she wouldn’t last through the winter. We decided that we wanted to make her last days as comfortable as possible so the decision was made to take her home with us.

Well, it wasn’t quite that straightforward as we Putnam’s never seem to make a snap decision about important things. We actually left her overnight while we talked about having her join our family. And it got cold that night so we worried about whether the shelter would keep her inside or would she be cold, would she make it and so on.

Three years later, she is still a part of our nomadic little group. Oh she still has her health problems that we deal with. In her previous life she had some trauma with her hips and now her mobility is limited. But she has learned that if she squawks loud enough we will help her up into a chair or down as the case may be. We travel with a ramp that we set up at the foot of our bed so she can walk up to go to sleep, or walk down for a late night snack.

She weighs about 5 pounds and never seems to gain any weight even though she has a voracious appetite. One of the medical problems she has is megacolon. This is a condition where the large intestine gets, well larger in diameter, and the bowel muscles get weak making it hard to go to the bathroom. The vet has prescribed lactulose which has really helped.

Naturally when anything changes with her eating and bathroom habits we go on high alert. In the past, she has been to the vets several times to get, as we call it, “roto-rooted” to get her go to the bathroom( that’s Frank’s way of saying she received an enema) . This hasn’t happened in over two years so the Lactulose is working really well.

One day in late September she stopped eating altogether. She acted like she wanted to eat, but when she would get to her food bowl she would start making gagging noises. We tried all her favorite foods and got the same results.

We steeled ourselves for the worst (thinking this may be the end) and made an appointment at the vet in Monte Vista, CO. This is the same vet office we took Gabby to a year ago when she had the “Gabby Bot” experience.

The vets there are kind and gentle and spend as much time with you as you want, while answering your questions and concerns. We insisted on all kinds of tests which all came back fine. There was no infection, her bloodwork was fine, all indications pointed to a healthy kitty. So why wouldn’t she eat. The vet ended up rehydrating Miss Maggie, and giving her an appetite enhancer. We asked for and received some special food that tasted extra delicious hoping that would help.

After paying a hefty bill, we returned back to the RV and opened up a can of the special food. And she gobbled it up.

The next day, I got the old off brand cat food (Paws) out of the refrigerator and put it in her bowl. When I set it on the floor she walked up to it and started gagging again, but didn’t eat any of it. I replaced it with some canned Friskies and she gobbled it down. Hmpf!! Could all of this been because of a can of “bad” cat food? The only difference is this time she only sniffed it and the previous time she actually ate it.

Life in Miss Mosey is back to normal again and so is Miss Maggie. Basking in the sun is always good.