Purrkins

Wanted to share Purrkins is back to getting around to all of his favorite places.  Much to our disbelief, he scared us to death!

Here he is back on top of the kitchen cupboards. With no help no steps! He has to jump to the countertops, up on top of the fridge, and then up to the cabinets.

Getting down, I did assist him in showing him the best route and moved his steps to the counter for him. He used that way no problem.

How would he have gotten down? I’d like to think he had a plan? This is good we are here to see what needs to be addressed and make those changes as they come about.

Purrkins had stopped climbing the cupboards after his biopsy surgery. It’s an excellent sign he is feeling better without that arm! As scary as it is for us. It’s not for him!

He jumps in and out of his baskets no problem, Up and down the steps no issues.

It’s just over two weeks since his surgery, and we find him amazing!

Saxton and Purrkins are also back to being brothers! No more hissing. They are even back to a cleaning one another. 😍

Saxton still observes Purrkins, it is not a stalking behavior, definitely watching him close and staying close by him, have to wonder what he is thinking?

We go back for his 2nd Acupuncture treatment on Wednesday.  Will keep updating as we go.😽

It has been two weeks today since Purrkins arm was amputated. Unreal it has been two weeks already.

Yesterday after his acupuncture treatment Purrkins played with his yeowww fish! He rolled and rolled he figured out how to hold the toy with his one arm.

Purrkins went back today to MSU to get his stitches removed.

He quivered the entire time.  I felt terrible for him.

The surgeon is pleased with how everything looked and said Purrkins is FREE – no more t-shirts or onesies!

He is allowed to go back to regular activity!

I attached his Pathology report below.

 

LOVE THE BOLD PRINT ON PAGE 2!

Regular activity became RUN and JUMP all over the house lol

He was ready Mom was not. He does so well I shouldn’t have been so worried.

He amazes us again! He wanted to go down to the basement Mark, and I thought we would be ready in case he needed us. Well, he RAN down before we could do anything! 👀

Mark and I were both in shock did you see that?! He investigated the entire house every room in fact! I thought he must be exhausted by now. No, he rested for a few minutes, and he was back up again.

What an amazing day! Purrkins is AMAZING. We are both in awe. His Grandma and Grandpa were able to watch all thru videos and pictures. They were also amazed.

Saxton just watched Purrkins go everywhere, they smelled each other, and that was ok for a short time. Saxton then gave him a big hiss  😒 Hopefully a little time we can get them back to being brothers.

Purrkins is back to himself today! We can certainly say we did what was best for Purrkins!

He is back to his happy, active self!  We also know his leg was bothering him more then he was showing us! He had slowed down and was sleeping more than usual before the surgery.

We will work on some more videos and get them uploaded of him getting around!

1/2 day of being a free man again and on 3 legs has been a joy to see!

We are so thankful we had a choice and were able to save Purrkins life!

I know cancer has no rules. But this is the greatest news we could get! Clean margins, cancer left with the leg!  We are running with that!

We are going to live and celebrate a long cancer-free life! 🙏

Thank you, everyone, for being here with us thru this terrifying time!  Yeah, Purrkins! 🎉🎉🎊🎈

Love to all XOXO

 

Purrkins went for his acupuncture appointment today. He was not happy with the needle acupuncture he squirmed all around. I took a bag full of bonito flakes thinking that would help. Nope, not today.

Dr. Matt said this isn’t helping him and decided to try the laser acupuncture.

Purrkins didn’t mind that in fact, he started to purr.

In the photos, he still has some needles in. Most he squirmed right off. There were Lots of bonito flakes everywhere. 😉

Dr. Matt would like him to have 2-4 sessions. We go again next week and will keep you posted on how this goes and what improvement we see.

*Purrkins pain medication and gabapentin will be done tomorrow. Hoping this will help him be off the meds without any pain.

He came home and ate supper and is now sleeping soundly.

Thank you, Dr. Matt!

 

*Edited

Purrkins meds & duration ended up being

• 14 days Gabapentin 100 mg capsule – one capsule by mouth every 8 hours
• 12 days Buprenorphine 0.3 mg 0.25 ml every 8-12 hours

Spaced the Gabapentin and Buprenorphine 1 hour apart per our instructions.

I opened the Gabapentin capsule into a little bowl (pestle)
I added a small amount of sardine water or tuna water, mixed the Gabapentin, used a syringe and sucked the mixture back up into the syringe to syringe to Purrkins.

 

Purrkins is back in his window seat and is thrilled. We are so happy he is doing great! Each day is better than before, and each day he wants to do more.

We just set up his window seat and the stairs on Saturday. We thought it was time for him to start doing more things. We stripped this room down to next to nothing for Purrkins to come home.

We took the bed off the box springs and just put the mattress on the floor. No way for him to get under the bed. We needed to have access to him for his meds. Also under the bed was not a safe place to be, if he would bump his incision.

We took out all the tables too. The room had the mattress, litter box, sleeping bag cushion for me and all cushioned floor exercise mats down for Purrkins learning process. We did not want him to hurt himself if he had some mishaps learning.

We will continue to bring more things back into the room this week. Our Purrkins is getting stronger every day and making this Tripawd living look easy!

Purrkins had a better night last night. He helped me write his blog as you can see😉

We both got to sleep on the bed last night. What a treat!

He tucked in under the covers!

We went to get his pain medication this morning. Purrkins has always been a great rider in the car never makes a peep!

He just isn’t the Atypical kitty! I thought after this surgery he would protest. He amazed me once again.

I told him we were going to MSU for his meds and that no one was touching him today.  I have always told him what the plan is even for this surgery.  You never know he might understand, If nothing else he is a good listener!

He rode along just like usual enjoyed the scenery. We went in, got his meds and left. Not even a  quiver which always happens at the vets.

This is the greatest of carriers by the way! The top, bottom, and door come all come off! NO fighting to get them inside or out of the carrier.  They are secured with a seat belt. MSU even let him stay in it, in the cage until his surgery!  We got it on AmazonSmile K&H mod.  Saxton sleeps in his and uses it as his thunderstorm safe place!

He is back to being comfortable again today!  What a relief that was awful to see him in pain!

That was one of the many fears  I had going into this surgery!

Our Holistic Vet mentioned acupuncture would be great for Purrkins after this surgery. Purrkins has an appointment on Monday.  I will keep you posted on what benefits we see!

We had trouble finding the best height for Purrkins to eat comfortably since the amputation.

His Grandma and Grandpa sent him a prize he got it today its perfect!

Thank you, Grandma, and Grandpa your the best! We sure miss you!

Saxton loves the boxes and of course Grandma and Grandpas smell!

 

Purrkins is in pain!

I have several things to share today! We were doing great on the pain meds (Buprenorphine) every 10.5 -11 hours. We were coming to the end of the pain meds, and I took Purrkins to every 12 hours yesterday. Purrkins was in pain! He meowed, I went to him, he growled and hissed at me and would not let me near him! ALL HUGE SIGNS of PAIN!

I only know this because Purrkins was in pain from a vaccine once and he acted the same way! We ended up on a short course of Prednisolone for the vaccine reaction!

Called the surgeon

Then again this morning he did the same thing. I put him back to 10 hours and called MSU. I had to leave a message for Dr. Rubin. I waited all day for him to call in a panic (we only have one dose left.) I couldn’t stand to think Purrkins was going to have to go without the pain meds.

Mark got home and recalled MSU and Dr. Rubin was in surgery all day, but he would get back to us. Dr. Rubin called back at 4:48 and agreed we need more pain medication, and I can pick it up tomorrow a.m. Unfortunately, Purrkins will have to go on a road trip with me to get his medicine.😬 I can’t leave him so he will go with me.

Clean Margins

The best news we could have ever got we got today! Dr. Rubin got the pathology report back on his leg.

Soft tissue sarcoma low grade and we now have CLEAN MARGINS!  🎉🎊 Our prayers were answered.

Changed to baby T-shirts

I got Purrkins some 0-3 months t-shirts, the onesies were moving around too much on him, but the t-shirt seems to be a better fit and staying put. I will let you know if that changes.

Pooping

TMI disregard the next paragraph if you don’t want to know about Purrkins BMS 💩

Purrkins finally went #2 today seven days with no BM. I gave him 1/16th tsp Miralax on the 6th day and 1/8 tsp on the 7th day. We got BM day 8💩 Purrkins stands on his back two legs to go #2, and he still does the same stance, the only difference now, he holds himself up on the edge of the box with one leg, not two. He started covering his BM before I could get up to take care of it. I did end up helping so he didn’t tire out so much.

Thank you!

We want to thank everyone! Tripawds family, Our family all of the prayers that were put out there were ANSWERED in the way we asked. We couldn’t have done this without all of your support! We look forward to growing old with Purrkins and Saxton!

With gratitude & abundance of love!