Doodles story and new problem (Interesting story)

[Sourdoughpuppet]

A very sick cat showed up in my parking garage and I thought he had rabies or something because of the way he looked.  Very thin dirty greasy hair you could see his skin through with ears that were ripped up and chewed all black inside and the skin was all torn open behind his ears from his own constant scratching.  He was a bag of bones and was missing most of his teeth and his eyes were swollen shut and he could barley open them.  He is a feral cat who is at deaths door and looks like a zombie.   I started feeding him but I was really scared of him and any diseases that he may have that I could bring upstairs to my two house cats.  I became attached to him and after he didn't show up one night I thought he was dead and I prayed and told God that I promise that I will capture him if he is still alive.  Sure enough,  the next morning on my way to work he was waiting by my car starving and even more sick looking and barely able to see because of his swollen eyes.  I acted like I had food and got as close as I could then I jumped at him and caught him with my hands!  He was wild and trying to fight but he was so weak it was easy to catch him.   I put him in the guest bathroom and all he did was lay on top of the cat liter with puss oozing from his nose.   A friend of mine gave me some animal antibiotics she had (I had no money to take him to a vet and this was a emergency)   He had a strong will to live and a huge appetite and that along with the antibiotics saved him.   I put him in a cage in a secluded quite room away from my two house cats were he very slowly tried to recover.   2 months later I took him to some pet help sponsored charity and they told me he has FIV and he is very sick and they didn't seem to have any hope and offered to put him down and I said no I will give him a home and some love until he is ready to go and they gave me some more medicine to give him.  He was still very sick looking like a skeleton with thin hair and bare patches of skin around his body and face.  I named him Snickerdoodle since he looked like the cookie.  He lived in that cage for 9 months since he liked it (felt safe) and was afraid of everything else.  He was freaked out...  I eventually moved his cage in to my bedroom and shut it off from my two house cats.  Now it's Doodles room!  I started leaving the door to the cage open and eventually he started coming out of the cage and jumping up on to the bed and making himself a cat cave with the covers.  At this point I still can not pick him up or pet him with out freaking him out with violent hiiises and claw swipes at me.  He has put a lot of weight back on but is still skinny during this time but he is starting to turn in to a really beautiful cat but very sickly with a constant running nose and always really congested and sneezing and a ear condition that will never go away.  I put his cage away forcing him to find a new home on top of my bed.   I found that if I slide in to bed he is ok with me and I can pull him up in to my arms while he sleeps (all he wants to do is sleep) and we started sleeping together.  Sometimes I would be awaken by him standing over me swatting my face repeatedly  (no claws) and would hiiiis at me if I tried to stop him.  He is as wild as they come and he has PTSD for sure.   That cat was traumatized for sure!  after about a year and a half he and I started developing a relationship and even though he was still very sickly he had returned to being the beautiful cat he was suppose to be.  Of course his eye condition cleared up eons ago only to find out he is mostly blind.  After he hit the 2 year mark he really seemed to hit his stride and was no longer sickly and seemed like a normal happy healthy beautiful cat that is blind as a bat and PTSD for days.  I call him a living stuff animal since he lives on my bed and never wants to go anywhere other then to the liter box or his food dish.   You climb in to bed with him and all he wants to do is cuddle and be loved.  I have never met such a sweet wild animal before.  I love him so much!   It took a long time to nurse him back to health and find a way to get close to him.  It is now approaching 3 years that I have had him and he is the most amazing special loving little guy that you would swear is a person and not a cat.   My two house cats are cats and Doodles is a person and I make him homemade cat food since he hates cat food and only wants people food.  He was eating left over people food out of the dumpster when I found him and that's all he wants and his health responded when I would give him the home made food.   All my friends thought he was going to die and said he had no chance and they are all shocked when they see him because he doesnt look like a dead walking zombie cat anymore and looks like a beautiful pedigree cat with a silky mink coat.  But now that he seems healthy as a horse and looks beautiful and amazing he is suddenly loosing weight but everything else about him is fine.  His coat is beautiful and he is acting sweet and normal and loving but his weight is still in decline.  His chronic respiratory issues have been long gone and there is zero trace of any illness and I am scared he is getting to skinny.  Is there anything I can do???  His will to live i so strong and he has done nothing but get better and better and is the most healthy he has ever been other then the weight loss???

[CML2014]

Wow!!!!!! Just WOW!!!!!!!!

What a wonderful post. It gives me so much hope when I know people like you are out there and willing to love a "cat" until his time rather than just put him to sleep.

When Doodles' time comes he will only have known love, a warm bed, and a profoundly generous mom. I do think cats live in the moment, so hopefully he will never realize how bad off he was.

I just think you are one super human being, and I bet Doodles is looking very Fine these days, so much so he has to fight off those "catty" girls.

It is understandable for you to be concerned about his eating, but considering from whence he came...this is just another bump in the road. Like Opus said FIV waxes and wanes. His health will always be fragile.
I can suggest one food I think he may like. It is called Weruva, and it comes in a soupy consistency so even a toothless wonder can lap it up. I know this because I have a cat just like Doodles, and she has NO teeth, and was soooooo picky about wet food. I spent a fortune trying different brands. This is what finally worked. She runs to be fed now. See if you can find it and try one or two cans . The one that is the most popular is Mac n Jack (mackerel and skipjack) and healthy harvest (tuna with peas and carrots). Most of their flavors are soft and in a yummy gravy.

Thank you , Puppet, for being a very special human.

Keep us posted, I think Doodles will have some fans on this site. Send a picture if you can.I would love to see this Handsome little man.

CML

[opus88]

what an amazing loving person you are to take this poor ill abandoned cat in and love him, he sure needed someone

I am not any expert on FIV...but what I do know is its not curable, only controlled...and it will progress on a wax and wane basis. I think with some good food and a warm safe home he improved for awhile but this is an immunodeficency virus that keeps his immune system low and prone to many other diseases and conditions...even cancer.

I'm not sure what a Vet could do for him...other than alot of tests to give a diagnosis. is he eating and peeing more than usual...eating lots but still losing weight is a good indicator of diabetes.

I don' t know what to suggest for him, you feed him human food..that means he is not getting all the required nurishment that cats need...his diet isn't balanced, no calcium/taurine and such that cats need, they would get this naturally if they were eating their normal mouse diet. Have you tried HIGH protien canned food for him? have you tempted him with different brands to find one he may eat?

other than diet I don't know what to suggest? he may continue to lose weight due to the FIV and fade away and all you will be able to do for him is keep him comfortable and loved as you are doing...

I'm sorry I wish I could offer more help. When there is no diagnosis to understand why the weight loss its pretty hard to know what to tell you

keep us posted please and we will try and help if we can...:((