| Tributes - Adam N. |
| Adam Noonan Weymouth, Massachusetts Male, Domestic short hair 1997 - April 29, 2009 Existing Conditions Upon Adoption: FIV+ and Herpes Diagnosed with IBD in June 2008 Diagnosed with Anemia in March 2009 |
When he was neutered, we also had them perform an FIV/FELV test even though we knew nothing about these diseases. Our own cat
was an indoor cat only and had never had the opportunity to be exposed to these cat illnesses. Adam tested positive for FIV and the vet
said that he also had eye herpes. I read up on the FIV disease and cried because this sweet boy had an incurable illness. The vet
recommended that he either be confined indoors for the remainder of his life or that we euthanize him. We couldn't integrate him with
our existing cat because our existing cat hated all other cats. We did locate a shelter that would have taken him in, but in the end we
decided that he was happy living in our basement.
In January of 2008, we noticed that Adam was having loose stool quite a bit. It wasn't happening every day but probably a few times a
week. At this time, he was eating a diet of Royal Canin Light dry food - because he was actually overweight! We decided to switch him to
Royal Canin Sensitive Stomach dry food and that didn't really help to ease the problem. He also wasn't eating all of his dry food - which
was very unusual for him because he always loved eating it so much. I started giving him boiled chicken and white rice every few days
to try and firm things up, although it didn't "cure" him. We brought him to the vet and they put him on Baytril and Flagyl and that
seemed to help firm up the stools. About a month and a half later, we were back in the same boat of loose stools every few days or so.
We brought him back to the vet to get another script for Baytril and Flagyl. Five days later, Adam came down with an upper
respiratory infection. It was touch and go with him for about a week and a half. Adam's regular vet actually didn't think that he was
going to pull through. Even after the upper respiratory infection was gone, Adam still was never the same as he was before. His eye
herpes would flare up more than it ever had in the past and he was still having the occasional loose stool. X-rays showed that his
intestines were thickened. One vet at the practice where we regularly take our cats told us that he likely had cancer because he was
FIV+ and to keep him eating for as long as possible.
We have learned that some vets that treated Adam were quick to "blame" the FIV for every illness that he had. Our regular vet
suggested that we take him for an abdominal ultrasound to get more information about what was going on. He had the abdominal
ultrasound in June of 2008 and the results said that Adam either had IBD, cancer or colitis. Several vets suggested doing a biopsy of the
intestines but in the end we opted not to perform that surgery. If Adam did indeed have cancer, then he could never be treated for it
with strong chemotherapy drugs because of his FIV+, herpes and heart murmur. Instead, we decided to treat him for IBD/colitis.
We fed him science diet I/D and mixed in Purina Fortiflora in hopes that we could firm up the loose stool and reset the balance in his
gut. It wasn't working. Instead, Adam began to have serious colitis episodes where he couldn't go #2 and he would cry out in pain trying
to go. We took him to the emergency hospital around the corner from our house and they sent us home with tramadol, a pain
medication, but they said that we would have to make an appointment with a doctor during regular business hours to get any further
treatment for Adam. It was around this time that we joined to feline IBD board on Yahoo and switched Adam's food to grain free diet.
We made an appointment with a specialist at the hospital and that doctor told us to put Adam on a multivitamin and prescribed Flagyl
in addition to the tramadol that Adam was already on for pain. Maybe a week passed and Adam was still having painful stools. The
specialist told us that we should consider Adam's quality of life and that we might want to consider euthanization. I had done research
and asked him about Entocort (beaded budesonide). The vet said that we could try it but he warned me that it was not always very
effective and if it didn't work that we had to consider Adam's quality of life. We started him on a dose of 1 mg/day. Adam got better! He
was doing well for about 3 weeks but then he started to have painful stools again. We called the specialist and he told us to give Adam 2
mg/s per day (1 mg in the morning and 1 mg in the evening). Again, he got better and then 3 weeks later the painful stool returned. The
specialist said that he had seen cats go as high as 3 mg/day (1/5 mg in the am and 1.5 mg in the pm). However, I decided to put Adam
on 2.5 mg/day. We gave him 1.5 mg in the am and 1.0 mg in the pm. My logic for this was that if 2.5 mg/day didn't work then we could
always put him up to 3 mg/day.
Several days after bumping him to 2.5 mg of Entocort, I was able to get an appointment with a holistic vet that practices acupuncture
and Chinese medicine. We figured that we had nothing to lose at this point because we were running out of treatments! When we
brought Adam for his first acupuncture treatment, the holistic vet also prescribed the Chinese medicines 4 Marvels (for IBD), Quiet
Digestion (for IBD), and Astra Essence (for faster healing - and also minimized the herpes flare ups). He also advised us to put a
teaspoon of pumpkin into one of Adams meals, along with 2 drops of native honey, and to give him 1 sardine packed in water per day.
Something in this combination worked for Adam; either the Chinese medicines, the acupuncture, the increased Entocort dosage or the
entire combination together. We'll never be sure what worked for Adam. But we had a happy cat from mid-August 2008 until early
February 2009.
In February 2009, Adam's appetite began to decrease. He started to refuse his multivitamin and his daily sardine. He also began to
have loose stool every couple of days. His blood work revealed that he was now mildly anemic which could be a result of him being
FIV+. Although his B-12 levels tested normal, we started him on weekly B-12 injections regardless. We experimented with probiotics
and different grain free canned foods but his loose stool cycles and decreasing appetite continued. At the end of March, we noticed him
breathing very rapidly. We brought him into the vet and chest x-rays showed that he likely had heart failure, heartworm, cancer, or
asthma. An echocardiogram was done in early April and that ruled out heart failure and heartworm. Adam's vet believed that his
respiratory distress was asthma induced by chronic anemia. We began treating him with inhaled steroids twice a day. At this point,
Adam's appetite was getting pretty bad. Some days he would eat okay and other days we would have to assist feed him.
On April 23rd, 2009 we noticed that Adam's back legs were a little bit unsteady and also his face looked slightly swollen. We assumed
that his anemia had gotten much worse and this was causing his leg weakness, and that perhaps he had fallen and hit his head because
his legs were weak. We brought him into the vet on April 27 for a blood transfusion but found out during that appointment that his
anemia had not gotten worse and that he likely had cancer. She gave him a steroid shot and told us that if he wasn't better in 24-48
hours that we should consider euthanasia. We had wanted to give Adam the full 48 hours before we euthanized him and we also wanted
his regular vet to be the one to give the injection. Adam was not much better after 24 hours so we made an appointment for April 29.
Sadly, Adam passed away in the early morning hours on April 29th on his own.
For those that are interested, here is a listing of the medications that Adam was on for the last 9 months or so of his life:
Adam's medicine for IBD:
AM
1.5 mg of Entocort (beaded budesonide)
62.5 Flagyl
12.5 mg tramadol
1/4 tablet of Quiet Digestion
1 Four Marvel Teapill
PM
1.0 mg of Entocort (beaded budesonide)
62.5 Flagyl
12.5 mg tramadol
1/4 tablet of Quiet Digestion
1 Four Marvel Teapill
Mix 1 tsp of pumpkin and 2 drops of native honey into evening meal
Bedtime
12.5 mg tramadol
1 sardine packed in water
Additional Supplements:
Adam took the Daily Best multivitamin made by Pet Naturals twice a day
When his stomach seemed off, 1/4 tab of 10 mg Pepcid AC was given to reduce stomach acid
Although Adam did not suffer from malabsorption, we started him on cobalamin (vitamin b-12) injections in mid-March 2009. The
injections did seem to give him more energy and make him feel better.
In November 2008, Adam started to take 1/4 tab of Astra Essence twice a day to help a scab on his nose heal. The Astra Essence
instead reduced the frequency and intensity of Adam's herpes eye flare-ups.
Adam's medicine for Herpes:
500 mg of Lysine twice/day
Adam's medicine for Anemia:
0.5 ml of Pet Tinic twice/day
was an indoor cat only and had never had the opportunity to be exposed to these cat illnesses. Adam tested positive for FIV and the vet
said that he also had eye herpes. I read up on the FIV disease and cried because this sweet boy had an incurable illness. The vet
recommended that he either be confined indoors for the remainder of his life or that we euthanize him. We couldn't integrate him with
our existing cat because our existing cat hated all other cats. We did locate a shelter that would have taken him in, but in the end we
decided that he was happy living in our basement.
In January of 2008, we noticed that Adam was having loose stool quite a bit. It wasn't happening every day but probably a few times a
week. At this time, he was eating a diet of Royal Canin Light dry food - because he was actually overweight! We decided to switch him to
Royal Canin Sensitive Stomach dry food and that didn't really help to ease the problem. He also wasn't eating all of his dry food - which
was very unusual for him because he always loved eating it so much. I started giving him boiled chicken and white rice every few days
to try and firm things up, although it didn't "cure" him. We brought him to the vet and they put him on Baytril and Flagyl and that
seemed to help firm up the stools. About a month and a half later, we were back in the same boat of loose stools every few days or so.
We brought him back to the vet to get another script for Baytril and Flagyl. Five days later, Adam came down with an upper
respiratory infection. It was touch and go with him for about a week and a half. Adam's regular vet actually didn't think that he was
going to pull through. Even after the upper respiratory infection was gone, Adam still was never the same as he was before. His eye
herpes would flare up more than it ever had in the past and he was still having the occasional loose stool. X-rays showed that his
intestines were thickened. One vet at the practice where we regularly take our cats told us that he likely had cancer because he was
FIV+ and to keep him eating for as long as possible.
We have learned that some vets that treated Adam were quick to "blame" the FIV for every illness that he had. Our regular vet
suggested that we take him for an abdominal ultrasound to get more information about what was going on. He had the abdominal
ultrasound in June of 2008 and the results said that Adam either had IBD, cancer or colitis. Several vets suggested doing a biopsy of the
intestines but in the end we opted not to perform that surgery. If Adam did indeed have cancer, then he could never be treated for it
with strong chemotherapy drugs because of his FIV+, herpes and heart murmur. Instead, we decided to treat him for IBD/colitis.
We fed him science diet I/D and mixed in Purina Fortiflora in hopes that we could firm up the loose stool and reset the balance in his
gut. It wasn't working. Instead, Adam began to have serious colitis episodes where he couldn't go #2 and he would cry out in pain trying
to go. We took him to the emergency hospital around the corner from our house and they sent us home with tramadol, a pain
medication, but they said that we would have to make an appointment with a doctor during regular business hours to get any further
treatment for Adam. It was around this time that we joined to feline IBD board on Yahoo and switched Adam's food to grain free diet.
We made an appointment with a specialist at the hospital and that doctor told us to put Adam on a multivitamin and prescribed Flagyl
in addition to the tramadol that Adam was already on for pain. Maybe a week passed and Adam was still having painful stools. The
specialist told us that we should consider Adam's quality of life and that we might want to consider euthanization. I had done research
and asked him about Entocort (beaded budesonide). The vet said that we could try it but he warned me that it was not always very
effective and if it didn't work that we had to consider Adam's quality of life. We started him on a dose of 1 mg/day. Adam got better! He
was doing well for about 3 weeks but then he started to have painful stools again. We called the specialist and he told us to give Adam 2
mg/s per day (1 mg in the morning and 1 mg in the evening). Again, he got better and then 3 weeks later the painful stool returned. The
specialist said that he had seen cats go as high as 3 mg/day (1/5 mg in the am and 1.5 mg in the pm). However, I decided to put Adam
on 2.5 mg/day. We gave him 1.5 mg in the am and 1.0 mg in the pm. My logic for this was that if 2.5 mg/day didn't work then we could
always put him up to 3 mg/day.
Several days after bumping him to 2.5 mg of Entocort, I was able to get an appointment with a holistic vet that practices acupuncture
and Chinese medicine. We figured that we had nothing to lose at this point because we were running out of treatments! When we
brought Adam for his first acupuncture treatment, the holistic vet also prescribed the Chinese medicines 4 Marvels (for IBD), Quiet
Digestion (for IBD), and Astra Essence (for faster healing - and also minimized the herpes flare ups). He also advised us to put a
teaspoon of pumpkin into one of Adams meals, along with 2 drops of native honey, and to give him 1 sardine packed in water per day.
Something in this combination worked for Adam; either the Chinese medicines, the acupuncture, the increased Entocort dosage or the
entire combination together. We'll never be sure what worked for Adam. But we had a happy cat from mid-August 2008 until early
February 2009.
In February 2009, Adam's appetite began to decrease. He started to refuse his multivitamin and his daily sardine. He also began to
have loose stool every couple of days. His blood work revealed that he was now mildly anemic which could be a result of him being
FIV+. Although his B-12 levels tested normal, we started him on weekly B-12 injections regardless. We experimented with probiotics
and different grain free canned foods but his loose stool cycles and decreasing appetite continued. At the end of March, we noticed him
breathing very rapidly. We brought him into the vet and chest x-rays showed that he likely had heart failure, heartworm, cancer, or
asthma. An echocardiogram was done in early April and that ruled out heart failure and heartworm. Adam's vet believed that his
respiratory distress was asthma induced by chronic anemia. We began treating him with inhaled steroids twice a day. At this point,
Adam's appetite was getting pretty bad. Some days he would eat okay and other days we would have to assist feed him.
On April 23rd, 2009 we noticed that Adam's back legs were a little bit unsteady and also his face looked slightly swollen. We assumed
that his anemia had gotten much worse and this was causing his leg weakness, and that perhaps he had fallen and hit his head because
his legs were weak. We brought him into the vet on April 27 for a blood transfusion but found out during that appointment that his
anemia had not gotten worse and that he likely had cancer. She gave him a steroid shot and told us that if he wasn't better in 24-48
hours that we should consider euthanasia. We had wanted to give Adam the full 48 hours before we euthanized him and we also wanted
his regular vet to be the one to give the injection. Adam was not much better after 24 hours so we made an appointment for April 29.
Sadly, Adam passed away in the early morning hours on April 29th on his own.
For those that are interested, here is a listing of the medications that Adam was on for the last 9 months or so of his life:
Adam's medicine for IBD:
AM
1.5 mg of Entocort (beaded budesonide)
62.5 Flagyl
12.5 mg tramadol
1/4 tablet of Quiet Digestion
1 Four Marvel Teapill
PM
1.0 mg of Entocort (beaded budesonide)
62.5 Flagyl
12.5 mg tramadol
1/4 tablet of Quiet Digestion
1 Four Marvel Teapill
Mix 1 tsp of pumpkin and 2 drops of native honey into evening meal
Bedtime
12.5 mg tramadol
1 sardine packed in water
Additional Supplements:
Adam took the Daily Best multivitamin made by Pet Naturals twice a day
When his stomach seemed off, 1/4 tab of 10 mg Pepcid AC was given to reduce stomach acid
Although Adam did not suffer from malabsorption, we started him on cobalamin (vitamin b-12) injections in mid-March 2009. The
injections did seem to give him more energy and make him feel better.
In November 2008, Adam started to take 1/4 tab of Astra Essence twice a day to help a scab on his nose heal. The Astra Essence
instead reduced the frequency and intensity of Adam's herpes eye flare-ups.
Adam's medicine for Herpes:
500 mg of Lysine twice/day
Adam's medicine for Anemia:
0.5 ml of Pet Tinic twice/day
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We bought a house in the fall of 2004 and we noticed an orange and white tomcat at one of our neighbor's
houses. We had seen him in our yard and since we're cat lovers we started to leave some food out for him.
Although the kitty was friendly (we had seen our neighbors petting him), we weren't able to get very close to
him for several months. Once he did start to trust us and come closer to us, we noticed that his eyes were
sometimes very red and puffy and they looked like they hurt him. We also noticed that he occasionally would
have cuts and scabs on him. We assumed that he was getting into fights with other cats because he wasn't
neutered. It wasn't until we were in our house for a good six months when we spoke to our neighbors and
found out that he was just a cat that showed up at their house one day and they started to feed him and
named him Adam. They weren't claiming him as their own, so we told them that we wanted to catch him and
get him neutered so he would stop fighting and getting hurt.
It took probably a good six months before we were able to catch him. I eventually trapped him by putting a
bowl full of tuna into the back of a cat carrier and he was brave enough (and hungry enough!) to go into the
carrier.
We made an appointment for him to be fixed as soon as possible and until then he was confined to a 2 level cat
cage in our basement. The inside of his ears were black and caked with what looked like dirt and also had fleas
and ticks. I remember petting his chin and feeling a lump and then realizing that it was an engorged tick.
houses. We had seen him in our yard and since we're cat lovers we started to leave some food out for him.
Although the kitty was friendly (we had seen our neighbors petting him), we weren't able to get very close to
him for several months. Once he did start to trust us and come closer to us, we noticed that his eyes were
sometimes very red and puffy and they looked like they hurt him. We also noticed that he occasionally would
have cuts and scabs on him. We assumed that he was getting into fights with other cats because he wasn't
neutered. It wasn't until we were in our house for a good six months when we spoke to our neighbors and
found out that he was just a cat that showed up at their house one day and they started to feed him and
named him Adam. They weren't claiming him as their own, so we told them that we wanted to catch him and
get him neutered so he would stop fighting and getting hurt.
It took probably a good six months before we were able to catch him. I eventually trapped him by putting a
bowl full of tuna into the back of a cat carrier and he was brave enough (and hungry enough!) to go into the
carrier.
We made an appointment for him to be fixed as soon as possible and until then he was confined to a 2 level cat
cage in our basement. The inside of his ears were black and caked with what looked like dirt and also had fleas
and ticks. I remember petting his chin and feeling a lump and then realizing that it was an engorged tick.
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