Hello, Friends of FeLVies!

Ready for another update on our residents?

We’ll talk about Oram and Tucker first. Tucker had an abdominal ultrasound over the past few weeks. There was good news here, as the scans showed no progression of his cancer. His steroid dose has also been decreased. He does have some dental issues and has become a little congested, so he’s been started on an antibiotic. We’re hoping this will tide him over for a while; a dental procedure is not a high priority for him while he undergoes chemotherapy.

Oram lost a bit of weight over the past month, but that’s not a negative in his case. We think his increased activity level may account for the small weight loss; Oram is much more active since he started bunking with Tucker, and those boys really go at it when they wrestle! Oram also had bloodwork and an echocardiogram done, and the results cleared him for a dental exam (he’ll be rechecked in 6 months).

There isn’t any news on Durin this month; he’s been his same old laid-back self. He’s very curious and will come over to check you out immediately if you enter his suite, but he’s quite relaxed about the whole thing. On the other hand, we’re concerned about Ponce de Leon, who has lost a significant amount of weight since moving to the suite he shares with Durin. Bloodwork did not show anything amiss, so we’ll be scheduling an abdominal ultrasound to see if we can get to the bottom of his weight loss. We can’t decide whether Ponce is a bigger fan of human interaction or cat treats. He takes any possible opportunity to sit on a lap, and when the staff enters his suite for medication rounds, he jumps onto the sink in his great desire to, ahem, “help”. Then again, when someone pulls out the treat bag, Ponce can barely contain himself.

Is she or isn’t she? That’s the question about Hoopla Green, our newest maybe-FeLV resident. Hoopla tested positive for FeLV before coming to Tabby’s Place, you see, but then she tested negative at the time of intake. This isn’t that uncommon. If we and she are lucky, those results mean she was exposed to FeLV earlier on but wasn’t actually infected with it. Right now, Hoopla is very frightened of people. We have her in a room by herself for the time being, as we need to re-evaluate her test results to decide where she’ll make her longer-term home.

Whew! That’s enough for one update, I think. Happy Spring, and thank you for helping us care for these very special felines.

Your correspondent,
Stephanie