Dear Jude Friends,

Our poor Jude has had a rough month with multiple seizures. She had 7 grand mal seizures, and 1 episode of cluster seizures. Cluster seizures are mild seizures, during which Jude is still awake and knows what is happening. Her body twitches and jumps, but it doesn’t escalate into a full-blown seizure.

Cluster seizures make Jude cranky because she gets frustrated that her body is twitching and she can’t control it. The episode of cluster seizures lasted for about 10 minutes and then she was ok again. During several of the grand mal seizures, I had to give her the rescue medication, which helps stop the seizure. Due to the increase in Jude’s seizures, it was time to talk to her neurologist, and see if there is anything else we can do.

He immediately increased one of her medications but needs some testing done before we can increase her phenobarbital, which is the main medication that controls her seizures. The testing she needs is a pre-post bile acids test, which means fasting her for 12 hours, do a blood test, then feed her and draw another sample 2 hours later. We are going to schedule this soon and try to do it with the least amount of stress on Jude as possible. If the bloodwork is all good, then we will increase her phenobarbital, and hope that helps her have fewer seizures.

Most of Jude’s seizures happen in the middle of the night, though I’m not sure why. It’s strange because I am a very sound sleeper—a bomb could go off and I would still be asleep—but the second Jude starts to have a seizure I hear it, and I am out of bed in one second and over to her.

Because of the multiple seizures, Jude had to have several baths, which she hates with a passion. But during seizures, her bladder lets go, and she often ends up covered in urine (yes, I usually do, too). When it’s that bad, baby wipes are just not enough, so it’s off to the bath we go. She yells and growls, but when it’s over I can tell she likes being clean and smelling nice.

Something good did happen this month though….. kittens! I was fostering 2 tiny kittens, who were only a few days old, so they needed bottle feeding. I kept their crate in Jude’s room, so they were close by. They need feeding around the clock, so they need to be nearby at all times.

One day I was bottle feeding the kittens, and they were doing

their usual tiny meowing sounds. I felt something touch my side, and when I looked down Jude was there with her head raised in interest towards the little sounds. I held the baby near to Jude and she sniffed and nuzzled the baby. The baby immediately started purring at feeling fur and nuzzles, and this made Jude snuggle closer.

When I brought out the next baby the exact same thing happened. Jude loves kittens! Every time I brought the kittens out after that, Jude came over to hang out close by. After a couple of weeks, we had a mom cat who had finished nursing her own kittens, but she was still full of milk, so we offered her my foster kittens, which she immediately took as her own. I missed the kittens, and I knew Jude would miss them too, but it is so much better for them to be raised by a momma cat. I’m sure there will be plenty more foster kittens for Jude during kitten season.

That’s all the Jude news for now, but I will let you know what happens with her bloodwork, and if we can raise her medication to help her have fewer seizures. Keep your fingers crossed for our little Jude. Thank you all for your continued support of Jude. She certainly needs lots of medical help and we couldn’t do this without you.

Your correspondent,
Karina