Pet of the Month! Cheryl!
Cheryl is an 11 year old cat who has been a patient with us for nearly 2 years. Cheryl has Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), and other gut related conditions. IBD is a frustrating condition to live with, and can present in mild forms with diarrhoea and vomiting, but also include serious flares that extend to involve the pancreas and liver (when this happens we refer to “triaditis”; enteritis, pancreatitis, hepatitis). These flares can result in hospitalisation and intensive care to correct the illness.
IBD can be triggered by many events, the most common being food intollerances. Given the nature of Cheryl’s condition, the care at home has to be exemplary and requires constant attention to detail together with vitamin and mineral support, such as B12 and Cobalamin.
We asked Cheryl’s owners a few questions about her!
1. What do you enjoy the most about Cheryl?
We found Cheryl living as a stray in late 2013 and despite the fact she has a lovely house to live in now, she is still in touch with her feral side and really enjoys spending time outside! We also love that she's a very vocal cat who's always shouting and bossing us around and is a right little diva, especially when she's not sure what she wants to eat. She is a very determined little girl and when she wants something, she doesn't give up - not great when what she wants is to go outside and it's 3:00am(!).
2. What is Cheryl's favourite thing to do?
Cheryl has a little cat house in the garden and she loves sleeping in there during the day, even when the weather is cold. We make sure she has a hot water bottle on those occasions! Cheryl also loves to eat fish and chicken, and can smell a chicken breast from the far end of the garden. She also has a very 'unique' meow when begging for chicken.
3. Does Cheryl have a particular daily routine?
Cheryl gets up super early most mornings and spends most of her day in her cat house in the garden. She pops in during the day to shout at us for food and to use the litter tray (yes, she comes in to go to the toilet!). She comes in for the night at around 9.30pm, but sometimes brings her ginger cat friend Patrick with her and we have to evict him before we all go to bed.
4. How did you first notice that Cheryl was unwell?
In the summer of 2022, Cheryl was being sick very frequently, which was really worrying. After registering with James Horner and having several tests carried out, we discovered that she had very low levels of vitamin B12 and likely had IBD. She's been on B12 supplements since then and is doing really well. She recently had a high blood pressure reading and she's now on medication for that, we're really pleased to see that her blood pressure is now going down.
5. Have you looked further into her diagnosis?
We've spent a lot of time Googling over the past couple of years and have learned that a lot of cats have IBD. We're very careful with what we feed her and keep a close eye on her symptoms.
6. How has being on the Gold Wellness Subscription helped you?
The Gold Wellness Subscription gives us peace of mind that Cheryl can get the care she needs, when she needs it. Cheryl has been through stages of needing very frequent vet visits at times, and under the Gold plan, this is all included, which is very helpful from a cost perspective. We've been able to get her the help she needs without amassing huge vet bills. The discount on medicines is also helpful, especially now that Cheryl is likely to be taking her medicines for the long term.