The Internal Medicine Specialist

Forest Gump @ 3.2 lbs (1/21/2009)

A scene that will stay with me forever is how I learned Forest hates needles.  Poor baby was having a wonderful time at the vet's office exploring and playing until he was taken away to have his blood drawn.  When he came back, his teeny little hind leg was all wrapped up and he ran away from the technician and into his carrier.  He poked his head out of it after a minute and when he saw me, he cried and ran under my legs so I'd hold him.  

I telephoned the Internal Medicine specialist's office today.  Forest's lab work came back as being perfect.  Additionally, he tested negative for being a dwarf.  

The specialist says the next step would be to go to rarer tests to see if Forest is able to process certain enzymes correctly.  There is research being done at a children's hospital in PA on growth problems in felines- in the hopes of helping human children eventually.  The only problem is that even if they can figure out which enzyme Forest is not able to process (if this is even the problem), there aren't many that they can supplement or treat.  The test costs around $50, not including collection and shipping fees of Forest's urine.  

Otherwise, depending on how far we want to pursue figuring out what the problem is, they could put an endoscope down through Forest's throat and digestive system to take biopsies and take a closer look at his insides.  It would cost around $1,200 to just take a look.  The vet wasn't sure they'd even find anything because of how good his blood work and x-rays were.

Forest is just an odd little boy, even to a vet specialist.  As the vet said, there is obviously something going on with him because of his slowness to grow physically and mentally, his inability to keep down most foods, and random bouts of throwing up bile.  And this is made even more clear with how well his siblings have and are doing in comparison.

To change the topic slightly...

Forest has captured many hearts and had help in different ways from different people.  The latest example of this is why Forest was able to go in to see the Internal Medicine Specialist.  A lady met Forest a weeks ago and was taken by him- she decided to sponsor him for seeing the specialist, she has five cats of her own so she couldn't adopt him.  Her sponsorship of his visit is the only reason he was able to go- as much as FancyCats would like to, they simply wouldn't be able to afford to without special fundraising.  Financially, FancyCats has been hit hard the last few months.

I need to learn more about fundraising for a non-profit.  I currently post many ads for FancyCats' felines on Craigslist, but I don't currently know how to post ads with a donation button for specific (or general) causes.