Thank you Krista and Anna for your kind responses. But.....Krista, you give me way too much credit. We know I'm a bull in a china shop about homeopathy and know very little about cat inner workings. And yes, there is never a holiday without some crisis!

Have been reading Colch since seeing the post. Some of it fits quite well but Julio has absolutely no thirst and hasn't for a few months. (Would thirst/no thirst be enough to eliminate a remedy? Guess it would have to be verified what potency was used if this was from a proving....if it was the ending of symptoms from a low or the maintaining from a higher....if all that is true.) He was a water drinker while still getting the Science Diet killer kibble but since switching to more raw and cutting the kibble down, he had stopped completely. It was one of those bad decisions, I think. He was being maintained on that junk and putting him on a higher meat diet, at his age, was more than his system could handle, though I did do it gradually. I should have realized and known better.

He also has very peaceful nights. In fact, unless I force him to face that he should go to the bathroom he's very contented and quiet. He only cries (sometimes, not always) when he is picked up from pressure under his front chest area, kidney/ gall bladder area.

Mid-day yesterday, in desperation, I gave him one dose of Hep S 200 in water. He ate the slurry like I use for the megacolon kitty (with beaten raw egg included) with gusto afterward. Quite a good appetite. Later last night, even having eaten more than he has for a while, he felt and looked more dehydrated than he has. His belly was not distended but he looked more "peaked".....yet had a much improved appetite. I did not give fluids last night yet this morning he greeted me with leg rubs and no dehydrated look about him. Belly still not bloated. Ate more. Took him for a walk and he passed a nice amount of very soft but formed stool of normal color with normal cat posture and effort! No mucus, no sputtering, no globs of whatever the heck that bunch of rosy pink stuff was. He also seemed a little less inclined to lose control of his hind end walking. Attitude great. Happy little guy.

As the day went on, his belly has begun to distend again. He did eat a few more small servings (wanted it) but had 2 unproductive attempts to pass stool. Fell again in the attempts. No urine attempts.

I felt there was a good initial response to Hep S but it hasn't seemed to hold but for about 24 hours. I can't figure out what might be close to Hep that could be a better remedy, to re-dose with Hep (succussed, I saved the water dilution) or what to do....?

Odd thing, when I combed him last night (which he always loves) the throat from lips down to beginning of chest shed many small wads of hair in small clumps stuck together (no moisture) forming a what looked like a triangle with puffy white hair fanned out and one point hardened dark orange hair in a stiff point. He only has white hair under the throat so I have no idea how the clump ends could have been so dark. Is there some way toxins are discharging out the pores causing this? There are no bare spots left behind on his skin where they came from. He pushes hard into the pressure of the comb on the throat and the sides of his face. The sides did the same thing but less than the throat. Never lost clumps of hair like that before, anywhere on his body and didn't do it today. As though what ever it was that caused it, is over. There are and weren't any eruptions or bumps of any kind. He is very clean, no built up crud to cause anything like that. His coat is think, soft and shiny. The sore spots down his spine were still there and crusty last night .....and gone today! He trembles all over but his head actually shakes with the trembling when combing the sides of his face, in a line from the outer edge of his mouth toward the ears and then under the ears. Bends his head and neck into the comb. Drives him to tremble but wants it done. He continues to tremble for a quite some time afterward. His ears have just a tiny amount of brownish wax but he almost turns inside out when using a swab inside them. As much as he likes the pressure on the lower outside ear area, he dislikes anything inside them.

I don't think there's any value in it but I did send off hair and saliva samples for testing. It was an easy way to get part of him into a lab. They say (?) it determines where the problem is seated. Have no experience with anything like that.

Thank you, ladies.

PS...Spoke too soon. Sir Julio is proud to announce he has pooped again...and piddled. Stool nice color and texture, small amount but that's to be expected. Do you think that if it is cancer or liver or whatever, that he would have a normal looking stool after having so many with horrid things in them, then the one that looked like that mass of a goodly amount of dark pink mucus? Can say it now, that was darn scary. I thought it was part of his intestines at first, it looked so much like flesh coming out of him.

[ 31. December 2002, 06:16: Message edited by: gpm ]

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