My dear sweet Penny was diagnosed with hydrocephalus. Who would have ever thought you would make it this far?
Penny was found by a wonderful lady here in Fethiye called Funda Somaz in a children's park. She swept her up in her arms and brought her home. All was well at the beginning.
She enjoyed her food and was playing like a normal kitten. But one morning, they woke up to find Penny slumped over, head down. Knowing something was seriously wrong, and they rushed her to the vet. The vets quoted them a price that was impossible for them to pay. Unfortunately, the vets could not treat her for anything. They then decided to ask for help and posted on social media. They had no option but to ask the local council shelter for help. Then, I saw the post for help and rushed to the shelter to collect her. I knew she was terrible. She was so skinny and weighed only grams. I took her to my local vet, and she was, at this point, freezing and in a coma.
I took her home thinking she might not make it through the night. She had seizures every hour. I put her in a cat box with blankets and a heating pad to warm her up. During the night, I thought we would lose her. But to my surprise, she was still alive in the morning. I knew then this kitten was a fighter. She wanted to live. I got some wet food in a syringe and started to feed her, and she was taking it. I was amazed and so pleased. Days passed, and I could see she couldn't move or lift her head; she was paralysed. I started to weigh her every day. I wanted to build her up and see if things would change. I assumed she was very malnourished, causing her not to move. We had x-rays done, and they showed no broken bones. We thought there was a chance she could have parasites on the brain. But the head should be lifting by now.
It had been a few weeks, and she was putting on weight. She was making progress. She was reacting to my sound. She enjoyed her food via syringe so much.
It was almost four weeks, and a few seizures were still happening. We wanted to get her in for an MRI scan, but I wanted her to survive the anaesthetic. And for this, I had to get her to a healthy weight.
It was finally the day for the MRI scan to find out if there was anything seriously wrong with her brain. This tiny kitten going under this giant machine scared the life out of me. I was so frightened she wouldn't come round from the anaesthetic, but she did.
Penny was now finally walking. And I slowly started to get her to eat, teaching her to
eat from a flat dish. Her head was still slightly down. But then she had lost a lot of
muscle, and we knew we had to rebuild that. We started her on complete medication of
omeprazole and prednol daily to keep the fluids down and swelling around the brain.
Every day she would show us improvements. And she kept getting stronger and
stronger. We were amazed. She was the strongest kitten I had ever seen in 7 years
of fostering.
She was thriving every day, and finally, she was doing everything a normal kitten
should do. It took four long months, but we got there. She was a miracle. We
noticed she was probably 90% blind, so she would need to learn to live
like this. But this was no problem for Penny. She managed fine, and even though she
couldn’t jump up on things, she still played and ran around like a playful kitten.
She never grew much bigger than a 4-month-old kitten. The hydrocephalus stunted
her growth. But this was fine too. She was the tiniest ball of gentle fluff. She made us
laugh every day. She taught me everything there is to know about hydrocephalus.
And about not giving up. She taught me to fight. Even if there is only a tiny chance, you must keep fighting until the very last moment. And that's precisely what we did
, dear sweet Penny, you would have been a year old in April 2021.
Over the last few months, she was starting to crash here and there. She would go
down, and we had to up her medication. And she was then back to normal again.
Sadly, the downside to having all the medication is that it weakened her immune system. And took many vitamins from her tiny body. We used many
supplements for her with unique probiotics and good quality food, Wet and dry. But
then she came down with her last and final crash on February 14th, valentine’s day. It
was then she started coughing terribly. And we decided to take her for another MRI
scan. We then saw she had bronchitis on the left lung. And the water in her brain
had increased dramatically. For three days, we continued to fight together. But
unfortunately, she had to let go. She could no longer resist the fight. We laid Penny to
rest in our garden on 16th February.
We will miss her every single day. And we will never forget what she brought to us
as a family. The love she showed us. The fighting spirit she showed the world.
So many people will miss Penny. She touched so many hearts. She was so
precious but so strong. She was a hydrocephalus warrior.
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