Buddy hit the 2 1/2lb mark today, so he is all ready to go back to the shelter for spay/neuter day. Bosley isn't so lucky on that end. He is still hovering around 1lb, 13 oz. I sent an e-mail to my cats vet, Dr Brown, and asked to pick his brain a little about Bosley. Right away he mentioned something called a liver shunt. He said it would explain the low weight, and the vomiting. I did a little research, and that is not a good thing to have. It's pretty rare in cats, usually striking small dogs. A liver shunt is basically a blood vessel that reroutes the blood from going to the liver, and takes it back to the heart without filtering. Not a good thing. I am not convinced that is the problem, because Boz has not shown any other signs of this problem, like seizures, trembling, aggressiveness or lack of coordination.
I figure that Bosley is pretty much unadoptable with his vomiting issues anyway, and I know the shelter wouldn't have the funds to fix this problem, so yesterday, I adopted him. Yes, after all my hard stance on no more cats, I went and adopted a special needs kitten.
Dr. Brown knows about my fostering work, and he told me he would see Bosley for free, and at least we have a starting point. He thinks an ultra sound would show a shunt if he has one. I hope it's something else! I think he is small because he can't keep enough food down. (At least this morning he had a decent meal and kept it down.)
Now my biggest problem is when Buddy goes back, Bosley will be alone all day. :( I can't let him run the house, since he likes to go downstairs. He is too little to be left with Bentley all day, unsupervised. Until he gets a little bigger, he is just going to have to deal with being alone in the mornings until I get home.
