How to treat a sporo cat?

First of all, sporo does not have a cure. Based on what the vet told me, sporo cats might be cured physically (e.g. Nemo's wound were getting so much better as if it was stitched up neatly), BUT a sporo cat will always carry it's sporo disease and thus making them a carrier (like those genetic stuff..) So basically, even though your cat might be as healthy as they normally do, but just take precaution and PREVENT THEM FROM GETTING ANY OPEN WOUND because an open wound can caused those who touches it with bare hands to be infected with sporo too.

So just a friendly reminder, please, I know the feelings when you love your pets like they are your family, but please just be careful. It is still a very dangerous & contagious disease. So take precautions like wash your hands if you touches any open wounds, make sure your cats doesn't fight with other cats or dogs or hurt themselves to prevent open wounds and etc.

So.. based on some researched I did earlier, and based on the doctors from vet C prescriptions.. Here are the medications that I used to treat Nemo!

I'll post a picture of each medication & explained how to use it on each picture, the intake and etc. But please prescribed them with your own vet first just in case these medications might not be suitable for your pets..

1st... (the 2nd most powerful medication that I myself believe helps a lot in nemo's recovery).

It is the small bottle (on the right) called the ELIXIR. You just apply it on the skin, twice a day or once in the morning and later use the sporo spray (as in picture no 3) at night. It is more like a serum where the texture is very thick (I will later post a series of nemo's recovery from day 1 to day 50) and you can see for yourself what & how this medication help in her recovery. 

p/s : i got this from my mum's dermatologist who is helping her with her skin problem. somehow during her treatment session, we talked about nemo to him (his name is Dr.Hafiz) and he told us to try this on nemo's skin since he explained that animal's skin has only 3 layers or something like that which makes it easier for the medication to work (compared to the human skin which consist of more layers). So, what I am saying here, nemo was the first animal to try on this medication (or in other words; an experimental cat) to see whether is works on animals skin or not.. AND IT DID! 

So maybe if any of you (who have skin problems yourself of who is finding treatment for your sporo pet, and are interested in buying this, please leave your comment here & i'll give you the doctor's number to contact). 

The NO.1 most powerful medication that I truly believe helps to really boost up Nemo's recovery session was this thing from Dr.Hafiz too (i am really sorry i forgotten the name & have thrown away the bottle) but it is a supplement (you eat it - or in this case i syringe it for nemo) but it smells like.......puke? hahaha seriously, it smells that bad but it works like miracle! Again, i am so sorry i did not have the picture of it but if you are interested then just leave your comment here.

2nd... this is a shampoo that i got from my vet (according to them it is very good for the skin) to prevent the sporo from spreading into other areas. I will show you in my next post how i used it on nemo's nose (since her nose was infected with sporo too) and because i cant bath her, i used cotton wool and wiped it on the area and later rinsed it with a wet cotton wool.

As simple as that! 

3rd... This is a spray used to treat sporo infected areas where you spray it on the wound (make sure it covers the wound). There are many brands that supply the equivalent thing, but according to the vet, this one is less toxic compared to others. 

Please make sure when you are spraying it on your cat's wound, try to minimize your breathing as you do not want to inhale it since it is toxic and make sure your cat is wearing a cone on its head to prevent them from licking their body (to prevent them from licking the toxic spray & most importantly because sporo is a type of fungal & fungal works best when there are presence of water. so prevent your cat from licking in order to prevent their sporo from spreading)

4th... Here is the medication that my vet gave. This is what any vet will give you if you are treating a sporo animal. It is called KETOCONAZOLE. I am not that good in explaining but by eating this, somehow it will make your cat a bit weak & causes their health to deteriorate (like a chemotherapy for cancer patient) because of its side effect. Due to its strong content, your cat will need to be supplied with a liver syrup (I do not have the picture but you can ask your vet for it - it is black in colour, syrup form and it is a supplement for the liver) to strengthen its liver (after eating this ketoconazole). So i can say it is complementary to each other where you will need both of them. 

5th... Chlorhexidine 5% with sprit (according to what is written on the bottle).

This is used to wipe your cat's skin (since now you cannot bath them), so use this along with cotton wools and wipe it on your cat's body. What i did was.. I mixed it with water (1:3 ratio) so that it won't be too sticky or too shampoo-ey (tried my best to find a suitable word haha!) on your pets skin and making your pet uncomfortable since they cant lick their body. So yeah, for comfortable purpose (and I did ask my vet first before doing it to make sure it is okay to do so)

6th... This is majorly a supplement. Vets may not suggest it along with the medication that they give, but you can asked them for it because no doubt, it is a very good supplement for your cat's health since they will be weak after consuming the ketaconazole. It is highly concentrated (according to the vet) and you can give it once in 2 days or twice a week but i gave nemo daily (when she was at her worse state) and start reducing it when nemo's wound started to heal (I am still giving nemo this supplement now but only once a week or twice a week, depends on her condition).

7th.. This is a supplement for the fur. I gave nemo this because her sporo has infected her back part (which causes like spots here and there). In order to make it easier for me to treat her with the ELIXIR, i asked the vet to shave her fur (only half of the body) so that it will be easier for me to handle her wound and put on the serum to make sure it touches the wound.

Another thing is that while nemo is in her recovery session, she was stressed up (maybe due to the environment that needs to be isolated and must be kept in cage 24 hours) so she her fur starts to shed drastically (like you can put your hands to pet her and your hands will be full of fur). The vet said that this happened due to the stressed she felt.

Therefore, I gave this supplement to help her fur to grow nicely, soft and to stop it from shedding too much.

8th.. Well, this is just a cheap cotton wool I bought to use while treating nemo

(any cotton wool will do)

9th... VERY IMPORTANT!!

Make sure to use gloves EVERY SINGLE TIME you are treating your cat! and make sure that once you have used it, throw it away and wash your hands with soap. Even after you pet them, take precautions and wash your hands or any body parts that touches them. 

This is a very serious disease, it may not look like one, but try googling some images on sporo in humans (you will not dare to handle your cat with bare hands)

SO.. basically, this is what I used to treat my cat. I hope it may help you guys out there who are dealing with a sporo cat & might not know how to home treat them, I hope this simple explanation & pictures will help you guys, PLEASE prescribe it first with your vets as they know better than I do. But please, do not give up on these animals, they are your pet and they are your responsibility too. Don't give up on them. Instead, help them :) 

My next post will be on nemo's recovery from day 1 till day 50.. Trust me, it will make you wanna puke (or not) and it will also amazed you with its final result! So.. Goodnight peeps!

Nemo's rare case..

Well, if you have read my previous post, now you know how nemo was first diagnose with sporo. Apparently, at the 3rd vet we went (vet C), after the swapping they did on nemo, the doctor said that A NORMAL CAT WITH SPORO usually was infected through the soil or maybe through fights with other cats or dogs. So eventually, the infected area (e.g. the ears or the legs) which was infected with sporo, will be treated and if treatment does not work, they will cut of the infected area to save the cat from dying. And the cat will be able to live their lives as usual. However, as for NEMO's CASE, the doc said that there are high possibilities and they can nearly confirmed that my nemo got this sporo from her surgery wound (at the lower abdomen which she has the minor surgery). In other words, they are saying that nemo got the infection from the surgeries she went through earlier, and most probably was from the equipment they used (maybe it was not cleaned properly or we don't know and we will never know) and which in this case remains unknown because nemo did a surgery at vet A and also a surgery at vet B. So we can't really detect which surgery that she went through that had her in this situation.

This news really upsets me. Of course which owner wouldn't be blown away with such news knowing that your pet which is actually healthy became sick just because of a vet who did not take good care of their clinical hygiene. That is just the worse thing a vet can do to your pet. But because I had a great mom who is so calm at facing this kind of stuff and managed to convince me to truly believe in Allah S.W.T that everything happens for a reason and I don't want to waste my time thinking about who to blame or who's fault is it, so I decided to let go. Put this aside and only focus on how I can treat my cat because no matter how contagious it is or how sick her condition is, I can never let the doctors to just give up on my baby and put her to sleep because giving up is just never my thing.

And so, we went to the vet next day (vet C) who agrees to help treating nemo by isolating her in an unused room (nemo was put along with a dog in like a small pantry room they had). Even though they agreed to help, idk i just felt like nemo was just being isolated away and nothing was really being done to treat her. So i took the initiative to google and did some researches on this sporotrichosis disease on how to cure this disease and all. I was so lucky to find a blog (i forgot the name of the blog) that also writes about her cat which was infected with the same disease and read on how she home-treated her cats after the vets gave up and would not take the risk to help her cat. So after i did my research, I went back to the vet next day and met with the doctor in-charged and had a talk with him. Well, since i don't want to be this skeptical owner who is going to blame the doctor for not taking care of her cat and blame them for not reaching the level of expectation i am expecting them to treat my nemo, I decided to bring nemo back home and take the risk of having a home-care treatment for her. So with this, for me, if anything goes wrong or if luck is not on our side, I know that I had at least tried my very best to take care of my baby and not just simply give up on her by letting the doctors to put her to sleep. The spirit that I had in me, the courage, the supports and the positive environment that I prepared for my baby was basically what helped her to go through this until today.

this was nemo's stomach that was infected with the sporo. This was during the first & second day I applied the medication I'm using to treat her.

(I will tell more regarding the medications that I used to treat nemo tomorrow. Like I said before, this is going to be a long journey since the journey itself took around 50+ days from the first day nemo was diagnosed with sporo until the day she was out of the cage.. so keep updating! More writings to come, in shaa Allah :) GOODNIGHT GUYS! Thanks for reading! )

Diagnose with Sporotrichosis

Alright, so it started when we decided to do castration for nemo (due to certain circumstances). Castration in Malay is pemandulan, but since nemo is a female, she will have to undergo minor surgery (which is a normal procedure is u asked any vet). So, it started when Nemo went through this minor surgery, they tend to cut through nemo's lower abdomen (as you can google castration process on how they do it and all - bcs i did before sending nemo). So after the surgery, it normally took 5 days to a week time for normal cats to heal but in Nemo's case, the wound tends to open up. Of course the doctor will said Nemo was too rough on herself and maybe she bite her own stitches due to feeling itchy at the surgery place. So the doctor stitched her up again and told me to take a very careful care of her (of course i will kot.. c'mon nemo is my baby!) and then....

it happen again.. :( do you know how deteriorate I felt at that time??!! and yet the doc said something like it is still the same damn reason.. that nemo is being too active and myb due to that, the stitches got opened up again. and again, they stitch her up again but this time they did not sedate her at all because they do not want to keep sedating her too much (sedating can have a slight effect if it is done too many time i suppose?) and okay, this keeps on happening again n again and finally i decided to change the vet. from vet A to vet B. this place B is nearer to my house so okay, lets give it a try. so by the time i went to vet B, tat was nemo's 4th surgery (as in 4th time being stitched again and again i think? 3rd or 4th i can't really remember). So, i went to vet B hoping for help because at that time, i was vulnerable like I just don't know how to take care of my own cat. Do you know how devastating it felt??

So okay. Vet B tried to help by stitching her back up again and kept her for few days to keep her on observation. well, i understand they tried to help but on the 4th day, nemo is getting more and more depressed and she doesn't even want to eat or even poo because nemo is a home cat who I do not keep in cage and she literally settles her business in toilet (like human do because I trained her so well that she even waits for the line to go to the toilet :D i know, i just love this cat so much. she is a well trained cat i can say). so it is a very hard time for her to deal with sudden changes and it is not a small change for her, and I just couldn't bare to see my baby suffers by staying in the clinic so i decided to take her home. but AGAIN, her stitches keeps on re-opening back again (at that time it was already nemo's 6th or 7th stitches) and idk i think the doc was so frustrated he said that I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TAKE CARE OF NEMO and asked me stuff as if i purposely did that to nemo. I got so angry I told my mom that the doc has no right to say that i do not know how to take care of my cat. i did every single thing he told me to do. to not let her out of the cage for a whole week, to not let her even walk around the house i did all that. the only thing that i do was changing her collar she had been wearing for idk months since the first surgery to a smaller collar just because my nemo's arm (both arm) was having blisters due to the over-sized collar (vet B changed her collar to a bigger one because to them, they said the collar was small that it allows nemo to bite her stitches but it wasn't! the collar was the right size for her but because they are the doctor so i let them do their work and trusted them) so thing is, i changed it back into the usual size after a week i took her home and just because of that, the doctor said i did not love my cat and i was the caused this thing happened. you know what is on my mind at that time? I was the worse owner a cat can ever asked for. seriously. I was so down i cried a lot.

So? my mom managed to slow talk with me, and we decided to give it a try and go to the 3rd vet... vet C. we went there once years ago (when my previous cat was still around) so we decided to try out again. with such a heavy heart, i tried to explain to the doctor incharged and they agreed to try help nemo but first they need to do some swapping to detect what is it that actually caused nemo's stitches to unable to cure like a normal wound will. so i admitted my cat there on friday morning and in the afeternoon, i received a call from vet C, and they told me that the ONLY REASON why this keeps on happening is because nemo was infected with the disease called SPOROTRICHOSIS. The doctor explains it carefully to me about this disease how it is actually a very dangerous disease, and even asked me if i has any opened wound with me as she's scared that i might be infected too if i had any, but Alhamdulillah, i did not. So with such sad news (and with lots and lots of tears and cries - a big portion of me was so scared of loosing nemo but a small portion inside me was so damn relieved that I WAS NOT THE CAUSE of nemo's wound to keep on popping up again and again but that was not my main concern at that time).. at that time, all i can think of is how will nemo endure this pain alone as she will have to be isolated not only from other animals, but also from humans.. from me. 

(i will continue this story later at night or when i have my free time, but for now, lets stop here. please know that i am not blaming any vets or doctors who technically are involved in this case but just a simple note to any doctors out there, you guys have no right to judge an owner by simply saying we do not know how to take care of our pets because if i do not care, i wont be going to hardship to change vets and spending idk hundreds myb for my cat just to get her help. and that was the most painful event i have to go through my entire life knowing as if i do not know how to take care of my baby, as though i am the one causing all the pain she has to suffer for the past few months. that is just the worse feeling ever i can say. and i can never forget that. i even asked my mom to call the doctors in vet B and update them with nemo's condition and yes, the news made them speechless and yes, to me, they failed as a doctor; they fail to help my cat and instead blaming me for it. that is the most horrible thing a doctor can do towards a patient. I'm sorry but writing this is not to blame anyone, but for other people out there to be very careful in choosing your vet.)

The reason for blogging...

Hye everyone! Well, the one and only reason I am forcing myself to create this blog is because I simply made a little promise to myself, that if my cat (Nemo) will ever recover from her disease, which is the Sporotrichosis (which is define as a chronic fungal infection produsing nodules and ulcers in the lymph nodes and skin - based on google), well the journey was a very tough one for me as the owner and for nemo herself.. so, basically i promised myself if nemo will ever recover from this disease, i'll create a simple blog, just to share my experience on how i treat my cat (home treatment) since the vet doesn't want to take the risk of keeping my cat under their observation (note that this disease is contagious even to humans but no worries, careful steps can be taken and as the person involved with this, I am still as fit as a fiddle up till today and so does my nemo!)

Before we start out journey with this blogging thing, I would like to apologize first if this blog will take some time to reach its end from day 1 to day 50+ (since it was a very long recovery session) but if in any case some of you might needed an urgent information about this disease and how i am treating my cat, what medication i'm using or what safety precautions that should be taken while handling sporo cats, feel free to drop your comment and maybe i can share the details with you guys personally, in shaa Allah.

And btw, this is Nemo! (I guess you guys should get yourself familiar with the name Nemo since this blog is nothing else but about Nemo and only Nemo. Haha! :p)

this is nemo before she was diagnosed with sporo

and this is nemo when she can still fit in both of my palm 

Oh and a simple note to anyone who is facing with cats with sporo, in ANY CASE that the vet said that they want to put them to sleep (as in a lethal injection or what ever they call it) please please please don't. Personally, as a cat person, I am against this 'put to sleep' thing as I truly believe that animals too deserves a second chance or any chances to live and survive. So please, let us together help these cats because obviously, last 3 months, if I had agreed with the doc to put nemo to sleep or in other word to simply GIVE UP on her, she would not be here right now with me as I am writing this to you and nemo is as healthy as before and she SURVIVED from sporo. So please, do not give up on your pets guys. Just don't ever. I'll guide you through this, i promise.