Divinity and Will the Bobcats

 

Divinity and Will are both in the West Boensch Cat Hospital.  Will is being treated for irritable bowel disease and kidney disease.  Will was never able to be released back to the wild because of his severe neurological issues.  He has a very hard time processing his environment.  He was very dehydrated when we brought him into the hospital, so he was given sub q fluids, but in watching hours and hours of him on the Nest cams we are noticing that he doesn't drink water.  He has two bowls; a regular one, like the one in his outdoor cage, and a water fountain, in case he needs the sound of water, to know what it is.  He will frequently go to the bowls but we haven't seen him actually take a drink.

 

We've been adding fluids to his meals, and he consumes more water that way.  His keepers say he doesn't do blood 'cicles.  This could explain his kidney issues.

 

Yesterday we didn't turn on the cameras in the Windsong Memorial Hospital because we were so certain that Divinity's kidney values, at the age of 22, would mean that it was the end of the road for her.  6 months ago she had some bad teeth removed after she had stopped eating.  She went back to eating for about 3 months and then declined again.  At that time her kidney values were horrible.  Great for a 22 year old cat, but horrible for long term survival.  She was put on a new kidney supplement and some more repair work was done in her mouth.

 

When teeth are extracted the vet sews a flap of gum over the hole to help it heal.  Divinity's flaps did not heal, so the process was repeated.  She's done well for another 3 months, but then started to go off her food again.  At first she only wanted to eat at night.  Then she began eating less and less.  The last three days she barely ate at all, so that's why we thought it was the end of the line for her.

 

As soon as a cat is sedated and on gas we draw blood to see what we are dealing with.  It takes our machine a long time to spit out the results.  During the time that the blood was spinning down, we did X-rays because given the weird joint problems we had seen before, and the fact that her mouth not only had not healed, but the jaw was cracked, we suspected bone cancer.  No tumors, or irregularities could be seen in the X-rays.  Divinity's upper palate was broken in a way that you only usually see in a bobcat who has been hit by a car.  While it's possible that she could have fallen off a platform, or could have run headlong into a wall of her cage, or den; neither seem likely.  She's too slow, on her arthritic little legs, to move so quickly and despite being old, she has never been seen falling.  Bone cancer seemed certain, or maybe bone deterioration from infection, since the flaps had not healed, yet again.

 

Divinity was moved to the dental table, but everyone just stood around her, waiting on the blood machine to tell us if there was any point in proceeding.

 

Much to our amazement, Divinity's blood values had actually improved.  The supplement was working!  Dr. Justin decided to give it one more shot by cleaning out the holes, where her rotten teeth had been, and sewing flaps over them again.  He stitched the broken palate and jaw areas, with the hopes that Divinity's improving organ function might be able to enable healing this time.  It's still a long shot, so we will be watching her closely over the next few days to see if she starts to improve.  If she does start eating we may have to sedate in 10 days to see if the healing is finally taking hold in her mouth.  We don't want her to suffer but we weren't ready to give up on her yet, either.

 

Hi, I’m Carole Baskin and I’ve been writing my story since I was able to write, but when the media goes to share it, they only choose the parts that fit their idea of what will generate views.  These are my views and opinions. If I'm going to share my story, it should be the whole story.  The titles are the dates things happened. If you