Megat's Saturday

Cousin R came by to help me with his Inteferon injection. I am not able to jab him all by myself as I am afraid it would go terribly wrong. So usually Cousin R would hold him still while I push the needle in. She is very kind to come all the way from B just for a few minutes that it takes to do this.

I also gave him his usual sang hwang suppository and now he is in his cage so that they can dissolve in one place. However I think the sang hwang takes faster to dissolve than the shark cartilage as this morning I saw some white cartilage in his stool when I cleaned his bin.

Megat's Review 24 September 2009

Megat's picture taken on the 3rd day of HR

The Feline Inteferon - 7 injections on alternate days

The shark cartiledge suppository to be given once a day at night in addition to his sang hwang suppository which will now be given in the day...

The hospital was as usual very crowded and when we came there was already a crowd of walk-ins. Dr L saw us 1 hour later than our scheduled appointment but Megat was very steady, even when a dog started to sniff at him and chew the strap of his carrier! He is used to all this I think as we have been in this position for 3 months already.

Dr L saw his gums and announced that they were still pale and as such he would not be doing a blood test. Instead he gave us 7 days worth of Recombinant Inteferon Alpha-Mutagen for Cats. He told me that this one is made with feline protein (?) and so Megat should not have any adverse side effects. He also said that as Megat is still anaemic and the vets were not able to ascertain if the depressed system was due to his FIV or his chemo, then we should proceed with some caution.

He also gave us 24 shark cartiledge suppositories. Of course my dilemma was whether I should even use shark cartiledge in the first place as sharks have been exploited to near extinction. Finally my cat won the day and I trust Dr L knows what he is talking about.

"We will beat this cancer!" was Dr L's final words for us and I trust that we will try to the end until Megat decides that enough is enough!

Megat has lost some weight and he is now 3.12 kg! How can a cat lose so much weight in 1 week from 3.65 kg? He feels as heavy as before and his bones do not protrude as much as when he had his fever 2 weeks ago. I would like to think that this was due to the faulty weighing machine as Dr L's assistant had to bang on it several times as the numbers kept disappearing :) Nevertheless I am keeping watch on his diet. He has been eating all of his Walthams Renal and stealing the other boys' kibble when they were not looking.

Dr L also advised that we stop all medication except for his supplements and we would have to come back in 2 weeks.

An Inteferon How-to

This is a delicate operation and so everything must be up and ready

1. The Recombinant Inteferon Alpha-Mutagen for Cats

2. The syringe with the err...liquid that I need to combine with the powdered Inteferon in the bottle. I also needed to pierce the grey rubber stopper with it.

3. The 25 gauge needle that I need to use to inject Megat under his skin

The grey stopper can be seen when the blue protective cap is removed...

The 1st needle that is used to pierce the grey rubber stopper to release trhe clear diluter (?)


I need to change the needle as by now the 1st one would be dull
Its 25 gauge and so the needle is fine and I hope the operation painless for Megat


Cousin R doing the delicate operation of releasing the now-liquid inteferon into the orange needle
and we are all set for the new procedure of giving Megat his inteferon injection for the day

Needless to say I was full of trepidation when I had to inject Megat with the Inteferon. I think the whole procedure gave me a lot of stress and I had to remember what to do first and last [yah the cat is last:]

I had to lay down all the apparatus and then rehearsed how to put the whole thing together. Cousin R said I should take pictures of it as it would enable me to remember the whole thing clearly in pictures :)

However once I actually put them together, it was not so bad and Megat did not complain as the 25 gauge needle was very fine. I gave him a treat and he was very happy with it. I have 7 of these bottles to get through but I am now more confident about it.

After this, I gave him his shark cartiledge suppository and 10 ml of water only as he deserved to rest.