Mr. Maxwell is indeed a bit of a mess. He has severe nonregenerative anemia more than likely due to poor nutrition. It is suspected he is diabetic, the vet said probably diabetes mellitus because he is so skinny. Silly me, I thought only fat cats got diabetes. Turns out I was wong. The bloodwork won’t be back until Weds to confirm this though. He was loaded with parasites. He has a fairly strong heart murmur, they took films just to see if his internal organs have withstood all the junk food and he has cloudy lungs which for his age they should be fairly clear. I wonder if this homeless man smoked and he might have asthma? I don’t know but the funds aren’t there to run another test to find out what this cloudiness is for now.
So we did flea-treat him, he is on supplements and a strictly cat food diet. I told him on the way home, he has to at least pretend to like cat food! We de-wormed him and will just do the best we can to repair the damage done to his body and go from there.
He;s just such a lover though. He was head-bumping and purring up a storm and patting the vet’s hand with his paw (with his claws still sheathed). He may have been fed wrong, but he certainly shows evidence of being loved.
Maxwell sounds like a really awesome kitty – I hope it does not take his body too long to recover from all the junk food damage!
On another note – I wonder what happens to humans when they do nothing but eat that junk?
I wish Maxwell success in finding a permanent home, but it’s tough when a cat has so many physical problems. Hopefully he will heal and find the right home. Until then, he’s safe with you – and I suspect he will learn to like cat-food.
Right now he prefers pork and beans though! *G*
Poor Maxwell. Frankly, I’m surprised he is not blind. I remember watching an Animal Cops show from New York and they were rounding up a number of cats a very poor woman had taken in. She was very sweet, meant well but it also seems mentally challenged. She could only afford to feed herself potatoes, so that is what she fed her cats and two had become blind because they were never given any meat.