Keja -- Cat Trouble With A Capital "T"

Cats are the #1 U.S. pet. They fit our busy lifestyles because --in addition to being great companions -- they are very low maintenance. You can leave dry food and water out for them 24/7, they use a litter box so they don’t have to go outdoors, and they’re pretty quiet–neighbors don’t complain about them barking. Most guardians don’t worry about providing extra care -- special diets, medications, and/or frequent vet visits --until their cat is geriatric.

Every now and then, though, cats – like people – are born with special needs. Keja (aka “Trouble”) is one of these cats. She was born in 1997 and stayed in her first “forever” home until 2002. During that time she had black, gooey ear problems -- that were first treated as ear mites and later as ear infections -- and litter box lapses -- possibly caused by frequent bladder infections. To get chronic health issues under control can cost a great deal in time, money and stress– often more than many families are willing or able to handle. Instead, their solution is to give up on the cat entirely – and that’s what happened to Keja. Fortunately for her, the cat rescue placed her quickly in a new home.

But in this new home, Keja’s health problems persisted. Her second family tried to handle them-- like the first family had -- but now a third problem appeared – Keja began balding -- and was bare from her waist down. The veterinary diagnosis was psychogenic alopecia – caused by stress. They pinned the source of the stress on the family’s dog – a Border collie puppy and that was a deal-breaker for Keja.

So … once more Keja lost her home. This time she went to the local animal control shelter -- where at 7 years old -- she was ineligible for adoption. By 2003, we had slowed down our intake of older cats, but agreed to take one more in and Trouble moved to our cat farm. It was hard calling this beautiful baby “Trouble”– so we changed her name to Keja – an Indian word for “cat”.

When Keja had her intake exam, our vet shined a fresh light on Keja’s chronic conditions. She diagnosed the ear goop and the fur loss were related symptoms pointing to allergies. We did a blood test and sure enough Keja was allergic to almost everything– but most allergic to eggs, beef and dust mites.

We immediately eliminated beef and eggs from Keja’s diet and started her on allergy shots targeted at the dust mite component. The shots proved ineffective because there were so many other allergy triggers the shots couldn’t address. We did put her on a low dose of vetalog to control the itchiness. It took a long time, but Keja’s allergies are now managed with only minor hair loss on her hind legs – which is okay.
Her bladder infections come and go but her litter box use is impeccable. Rarely -- when we suspect a bladder infection -- we test her urine and if needed -- give her antibiotics. Chronic health problems are much easier to deal with than many people think – once you have a proper diagnosis and treatment plan. And now that Keja has both – she’s no Trouble whatsoever.