Special Needs Kitten Needs Your KMR labels!

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A little bit about Bazil and his story

I took in and fostered Bazil when he was just a few days old. Hand raising him was great; he was a good kitten and showed no signs of any problems.

But once he got to weaning age I started to notice a problem when he ate. He kept on getting sick and it took a while to get to the cause. I knew he handled formula fine but any kind of can or dry kibble made him sick. He still got sick on just plain baby food but not as much. I figured it had to be a problem with the thickness of the food. But I stilled try around with different types of foods, flavors and ingredients.

We know now that Bazil can handle 100% liquid, any bumps will cause him to throw up. Even just a bite of dry kibble or the softest of can food will cause him to get sick as well. We had been seeing a vet for him and had some test done which lead us to believe that he had PRAA which required a very risky and expensive surgery. Time was also very limited, we were told the older he got the worse it would get and that by the time he was 7 or 8 months old, the PRAA could get so bad he would not even be able to take in liquid.

We had no money for this but nothing less then getting him the surgery was an option. We got a hold of some places and were able to raise enough money for Bazil to have his surgery. The vet did not even give Bazil a 50% chance but we still went a head with it. We were heart broken when the vet called us and said they were not able to fix anything but Bazil was doing okay.

We decided to go further with tests but we never got any answers. We had taken him to a total of 4 different vets, two which were specialist and none of them had any idea of what could be wrong. After many barium swallows, X-rays, camera views, even open chest surgery and many other test we still have no answers.

After $8,000 in vet bills we finally had to call it quits on all the testing, we were getting no answers and all the testing was taking a toll on Bazil. We were very lucky to get help with Bazil or we would never even have been able to make it that far. Bazil is now 9 months old and doing well on a liquid diet. There are many risks that come with his special needs, if somehow he gets into the other cats food or finds a pebble he will get sick and each time we run the risk of fluid getting into his lungs. Then we also run risks with him being on a liquid only diet. We were told he would not make it, that he 12 weeks kittens usually start going down hill on liquid only diets, their bodies just more. But we watch Bazil closely and have been able to keep him at a good weight.

I am asking everyone to save their UPC codes from any KMR formulas to help with Bazil. Because of his special needs and how tight money is for us the company has agreed to let us in a program where with UPC codes we can get some free formula. Bazil goes though about $170 dollars alone in formula a month and that is just the start of his cost! Money is very tight for us, and on top of that I just lost my job about 2 weeks ago so it will get even harder. So the formula would help out a lot with him.
Posted Nov 19th, 2002...

Bazil Update (2 1/2 Years Old) | Posted 8/24/2004

Hi, I just thought I would e-mail about Bazil and give you our updated address.

Bazil is doing wonderful! He is 3 1/2 and is happy as can be. He still has the neurological problem, which he will have for life but few health problems are relating from it. We have gotten everything pretty much under control. He still gets sick a lot and requires a liquid only diet but we have been very lucky that new problems have not come up. We just moved about a week ago an hour and half a way to a much bigger apartment for the same price we were paying. The pets now have their own room. We were going to use the extra room as an office but hated having a big cat cage in the middle of the living room along with all the other pet stuff. We set up their room and still have tons of things that don't fit. Anyways overall he is doing wonderful!!!

Basil Update (5 Years Old) | Posted 2/28/2007

Bazil is doing amazing! He will actually turn 5 years old today which amazes me. He is at a good weight and is pretty healthy but still on a liquid diet. We've had to up his amount of formula daily to keep his weight up so it cost a bit more but is well worth it. I've also sent a few updated pictures. We are still collecting the labels which makes it possible to feed him.