Visit us on:
Bee Holistic Cat Rescue and Care
  • About
    • Who are we?
    • Schedule a Consultation
    • Board of Directors
    • How to Help! >
      • Sponsor a Cat
  • Hospice
    • Hospice Care
  • Adoption
    • Available Cats and Kittens
    • Vaccinosis >
      • Spay/Neuter
    • Adoption Information >
      • The Raw Food Diet
      • Weekly Special!
    • Adoption Application
    • Happy endings!
  • Resources
    • Food & Supplements
    • Recommended Vets
    • Intuitive Animal Communicators
    • Books we recommend
    • Insurance
    • Great cat furniture
    • Toys & Trees
  • 💛 Donate
  • Blog
    • Blog Posts Archive

Great News!!

10/19/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
This guy here, Mow Mow, is one hell of a cat! I won't show you his gory 'before' photos; let's just say that the injuries were to his sternum( broken), entire abdomen (bruised and cut), and that he was hit so hard that his diaphragm was herniated. He arrived home barely able to stand. 
He went to the wonderful PETS Referral emergency hospital in Berkeley. Images disclosed the extent of his injuries. He stayed overnight, and surgery was recommended. Now comes the nail-biter!
I had pretty much come to the bottom of my financial resources, and she had none to begin with. Would he survive until we could beg or borrow the six or so thousand we needed for surgery?? I'd spent about four thousand so far, for tests and to stabilize him, and...I explored options, and groups which might help, but to get funding would take time we didn't have. So I crossed my fingers and applied for Care Credit...was approved up to $8000. Surgery was a go! We met with a lovely surgeon, who...eek...was going to be out of town for a week. By this time Mow Mow was...still alive, to our great happiness, and remained stable. Eating and producing output. He'd been kept in my friend's trailer...dicey, no electricity...and was anxious to get out. Yet...were his intestines blocked? Guess not. Were his organs moved into his chest cavity? Was his heart threatened? It was the longest week. I've still not recovered.
Then! Last Tuesday, October 17, he went in for surgery. We'd made it!! 
And he sailed through it!! My friend had been terrified...she didn't know PETS as well as I do...and it was the first surgery on one of her animals. He was deemed good to go just as the two-day heat wave hit, and his trailer would have been well over one hundred degrees. PETS graciously, against their policy, agreed to keep him until it cooled down! Mow Mow is home now, and is doing very well!​


Picture
Picture
Then!
​While this was going on, our beloved Sunflower (Sunny) was attacked by a coyote. My husband Ken chanced to see the attack from our kitchen table, and was able to get her to safety. We had thought the back yard safe...
She was alive, but in deep shock. She had several puncture wounds on her throat, and one on the back of her head. There wasn't a lot of blood, and the wounds were not bleeding much. 
We cleaned her wounds, and called our vet. I didn't want to move her. The vet reminded me to pinch her toes, to test for reflexes. All was well, each foot reacted. Not paralyzed.  
We worked with two vets and two communicators...it was thought that she did not have neurological issues, so we cancelled the appt. with the neurologist, but may take her to him later...
Sunny was pretty much immobile for the first two days, but slowly began to regain mobility. she became more alert and engaged with us more. She began to purr...
She was able to swallow, and I fed her by syringe. 
It was impossible to know what to expect, but as the days went by, she improved, slowly but surely. She became able to lick up some broth when I held her head in position, then to lick up some food. A few days ago, she began to eat more, and hold her body's position better...at first she ate lying on her side, but...today she kept her head right over the food. She's eating full meals now (!!) and is better able hold her body upright
Yesterday a gifted woman, Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of the Body-Mind Centering Institute, www.bodymindcentering.com, came to see her! She worked with Sunny's spinal fluid: improving its flow, and helping it clear debris from her system. Today Ms. Sunny is stronger and better able to position herself! Bonnie's daughter is on my board, and is also gifted and skilled. We are enormously grateful!!
I am thinking that Sunny will be able to make a full recovery.  She has come far.  Her wounds are almost healed, and each day shows improvement! What a blessing!
0 Comments

Isabela Needs Our Help!

9/22/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

Howdy! I'm Cynthia of Bee Holistic Cat Rescue and Care in Richmond, CA.
This sweet lady, our Isabela, was doing a bit poorly, and when she saw our vet, was diagnosed with a host of problems! She is anemic, has incontinence problems, kidney problems, a bad eye, major dental issues, and....she is positive for feline leukemia. Bless her heart! (There is little or no risk to the others, as they're all adults save for the kittens, who are always kept separate)
She sees our holistic vet again this Monday, Sept. 25, for acupuncture and a review of her treatment plan. She gets her dental work done on Sept. 28. (estimate $2150.00-$2475.00)
Isabela is a very quiet, gentle lady. She came to us badly traumatized and sick. She is a love, and deserves a good life, a healthy one! Let's give it to her!!
Please give what you can, and PLEASE share her campaign! All of our funding comes from private donors like you!  The donate button is on the menu on top!
Thanks a million, good people!!

0 Comments

Animal Hospice Group!

8/13/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Spreading the word...!
Ventured out in my Animal Hospice Group tee shirt yesterday...first stop to a vet clinic.
Was chatting with the office manager, and she was VERY happy to hear of the Animal Hospice Group! She was aware of the urgent need for better end-of-life care, and I directed her to the AHG website, and suggested that I visit again and talk with the doctors. Stay tuned!
Next stop: Natural Grocery Store...met an adopter, who'd adopted two cats from us (Bee Holistic Cat Rescue and Care) in 2011. She was thrilled to hear that I'm doing animal hospice now, and agreed that its time had come!
Productive day!
0 Comments

What's NEW??

6/26/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
I’m trying something new today: setting a modest funding goal, and, I hope, an achievable one!
I’ve been staring at my lab bill for the month (I have my own account with Idexx lab, which is great, and saves money) and wondering how I can pay it. It’s for $497.41.
So… this gofundme campaign is for the blood tests done on three  cats...two of mine, and one for a friend’s cat. Emma, the black and white lady here, is getting on…14 years now, and slowing down. She’s had dental work done, and gets acupuncture, but it was time for a general look-see. (tests showed nothing alarming, yay) she’s doing well, getting fluids for dehydration, and b-12 shots.
The second cat tested was Coco…who had the miraculous recovery from a bleeding liver. She checked out fine. See my previous posts on beeholistic.com for her amazing story!
The third cat showed up at a friend’s house, unspayed and thin. No chip. He got her spayed, and asked me to have her tested. FIV and FeLV negative; in good overall health.
So…if folks could give a small amount, I feel that we can get this bill paid! Idexx lab is a great company, and deserves it! 😊The donate button is at the top of this page!
Thanks a million, in advance, and please share this campaign!

​
0 Comments

The Animal Natural Death Support Group Lives!

6/3/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Animal Natural Death Support Group is up and running! The group meets every Friday, and every other Friday we have a meeting to which we invite those interested in the subject, or who have an animal at the end of their life. 
We have been supporting a lovely woman in New Zealand, whose beautiful white cat has mammary cancer. Both are doing well, and have great veterinary advice. The woman wants to see her beloved cat through to a natural death, if possible, and has been caring for her lovingly. (Cancer itself is not painful, although it can cause pain if it interferes with other organs, etc.; death itself isn't either, although conditions leading to death may be)
Another visitor wanted to tell us about the death of her dear cat. She had been expecting to have her euthanized at the end, but the end came quickly and easily for her. She was amazed and gratified at the love which passed between them during the short dying process, and at the peace and wonder of that time together.
​Folks are able to contact any of us in the group between meetings...for advice or reassurance. (We do not give medical advice)
Our group has a facebook page, the Animal Natural Death Support Group, which you are invited to join. Lots to learn; lots to think about! When you join, you'll receive a link to each zoom meeting. See you there!

Picture
If it fits....
0 Comments

Never Give UP!

5/10/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
Never Give UP! A lesson I've learned well...
The Calico cat, pictured above with her sisters, came to us from a box left in a Pet Food Express parking lot, some three years ago. The fourth one, bless her, was just skin and bones. (I'd heard the expression, but had never seen a cat represent it so tragically)
I took them directly to an understanding vet, who took a quick look and reassured me that the three weren't in imminent danger. The poor emaciated one died on the way home.
AnnaBelle, on top here, was in the best shape.  Melanie, on the left, was thin, but viable. Sunflower, or Sunny, lower right, had a terrible skin condition: red and scabby all over. She had very little fur left on her back half.  Melanie and Sunny were blind. Their ophthalmologist said that having been fed dog food had was the probable cause: their rods and cones had disintegrated.
​The three ate well, and came back to life slowly.  Sunny's skin improved, but remained irritated.  
We have a great holistic vet, and tried acupuncture, different herbs, western and eastern, and more, but...improvement, but not cure.  

Sidenote:  Blind cats manage very well.  One of ours went blind years ago, and it was some time before we realized it! And they do NOT need to be confined indoors! No reason to deprive them. I've never known a blind one to go far at all! And my two kittens born without eyes were the best tree climbers! The one pictured below is Stella.


Picture
This is Stella, livin' the life! She and her sister were born without eyes.  
Anyhow...I knew that cats often had food allergies, usually because their food is so bad. We feed a raw, healthy diet, but still..it's mostly chicken based: chicken is much less expensive than other proteins. I'd tried to feed Sunny separately, but it took a lot of doing: we had to put her in a cage to see that she ate only her special food...got tired of that and lapsed. 
Soon enough, we said "basta!" Need to fix this.  We started feeding her a turkey based food.  In Chinese medicine, turkey is cooling, and chicken is heating.  Her skin, again in terms of Chinese medicine, was the result of an imbalance of heat to cool in her system. The excess heat (yang) also caused her ongoing gastric distress. Sooo...we took the drastic measure of giving Sunny a shot of steroids. It was hoped that this would cool her inflammation and give the other treatments time to work. 

And it did!! No way to tell how much of Sunny's improvement is due to the change in food, and how much to the steroids, but....Sunny is a NEW CAT!  She is loving the turkey, eating well, and has changed in so many ways! She's more engaged,  responsive, active (no more under the covers all day) affectionate...more fluid in her movements, more interested in life in general.....far less panicky when she's picked up...just a joy to see!
Her body is no longer covered in scabs, she's no longer scratching, and her fur is coming back! You can imagine how thrilled we are...and how we wish we'd did the food & steroids sooner.
I'm so grateful to our doctors, and to Sunny for her endurance and patience.
Happy days ahead for Sunflower! 

Picture
PS: Any contributions  toward Sunny's medical expenses would be welcome! donate button at top of site!
0 Comments

Resurrection!

4/26/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture
​I have waited...and now can say with confidence that Coco has survived, and is thriving!
I'm still stunned by this miracle!

(was it Einstein who said that one can live as if everything is a miracle, or as if nothing is?) 

Coco did indeed regenerate his red blood cells a third time...with the help of angels on earth: my holistic Dr. Anne Reed, his chiropractor Dr. Margaret Holiday, and especially the medical intuitive who has let us know, over the years, just what's wrong with many here, and what to do! I've learned a lot about how the body works, especially the organs, and am in awe. There is so much we do not know...and a lot we should know and don't. 

Coco's ultrasound had shown tiny tumors all over his liver, which had caused the (great amount of) bleeding into his abdomen. 

The intuitive suggested, among a lot of other things, getting a tincture, Blushwood Berry, which, she said, would help reduce the tumors. Maybe it has, along with everything else...Gemmotherapies, acupuncture, homeopathics...etc. Thank goodness Coco has been receptive to all these treatments! 

Today is April 26, over two months since his last "crash". Coco is eating like a horse, eager for meals, no more vomiting...happy and serene. At his next checkup, we'll draw blood and see where his hematocrit is. His holistic vet says his pulses are strong, and he is literally "in the pink", so we haven't done labs to since February.  His gums and tongue are pink as they oughtta be! 

Grateful?? YOU BET!! 
We still have a lot of bills to pay! if you can help, please to to www.beeholistic.com and hit the Donate button!!
0 Comments

Coco! Da Wonder Cat!  Chapter two!

3/29/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture


The second time Coco crashed, vomiting and becoming lethargic, his hematocrit was 12% The vets said that he could not sustain life at that level, and that there was noting more to be done.  If he didn't retain a healthy level of red blood cells after a transfusion...well...
I don't remember just when Coco started seeing our holistic vet (one of them) for acupuncture and advice. He also heard from a wonderful communicator, who told us that he was not digesting, and advised a supplement protocol.  He was still with the foster, with me visiting him daily. Still, he crashed a third time. This time his hematocrit was a mere 8%. We decided to do another transfusion, and took him to Berkeley Dog & Cat where they said his blood type was available.  When we got there, we found out that they did not, in fact, have his blood type. (ask me another time where they get the blood) By this time he had been at Abbey Pet Hospital and  Berkeley Dog and Cat  for most of the day.  A trip to OakVet, where they said they did have type A blood, would mean another eight hours or so, and, the last time he'd seen the internal medicine specialist there, the doctor told us that they'd not do a transfusion on a cat with such a low red blood cell count. They told the specialist (shoutout to Dr. Megan O'Sullivan) at Berk. Dog & Cat that they would, but I wasn't convinced....and, as he had regenerated his red blood cells before, I decided to not put him through another eight hours of stress.
We took this dear, beautiful, Long-suffering one home, and.....stay tuned!
Hint: he is still VERY much with us. Find out what we did!
Please help us with his medical costs, if you can, at www.beeholistic.com!

0 Comments

Up for air

3/10/2023

0 Comments

 
Picture

This is Coco. His story to follow!
Ironic it is, that when you need help, financial of otherwise, your crisis has you so focused, stressed, and preoccupied that you can no more ask for it than you can fly.
Every case, every emergency, is different: the medical mysteries are the most fraught. Along with more garden variety ailments, I've had a new cat, plucked from the streets after showing up at one of my colonies. He baffled the experts, and was sent home to die...twice, by allopathic-only doctors.
Good thing about being stubborn, you don't give up. Experience tells us that there's always more to know, to do. And yet I waited to get the ultrasound which gave us the last piece of the puzzle for Coco...that his liver was bleeding, from its entire surface! I should have known better than to wait. The vet had said that if there were masses, and we wanted to do chemotherapy, there was no reason to get the ultrasound...and we would not have elected to do chemo.


To back up, Coco had been in a good foster home, very close to me, and had been doing well for three weeks. Then one morning the foster called, saying that he was vomiting and breathing fast. ER at once.  
Bloodwork showed that he was extremely anemic, and he got a transfusion. His hematocrit (% of red cells in blood) was too low to sustain life. It bounced back to 20% after the transfusion (25-45% most say is normal) and held at 19%. We crossed fingers and took him home. He did fine...!! However, the cause of the anemia was still unknown. He did carry the feline Immunodeficiency virus but the vets said that that alone should not have caused him to become so anemic. I've had plenty of FIV positive cats with no problems...
So it was wait and see...
​There's a lot more to this story...Much more! Amazing and wonderful. But enough for today!


0 Comments

Hoo-boy!!

11/10/2022

0 Comments

 
PictureChillin on top of the big cage!
​

Picture
Taking charge in the kitchen!
Behold the new Joe Lee! Now Happy Joe Benning! I'm constantly reminded that miracles happen every day...was it Einstein who said that we can live as if everything is a miracle, or as if nothing is...? 
In my last post I was seeking a new home for Happy Joe where he could be then only cat, as he was attacking the others here. Out of fear, and a misplaced need to dominate. LONG story...
I thought I had found the perfect home for him, but was mistaken. He was sent back to us, after doing his best to fit in; to be the cat they wanted.  This betrayal by the adopter set him back severely, and he was ready to give up entirely. 
He had been getting support from two incredible communicators, and one of them soon agreed to adopt him! Thing is, she was across the globe, so he would stay with us, and she would work with him to restore his will to live and his ability to trust and to love. It would take volumes to tell even a part of his story.
This communicator is world-renowned, and it's an indication of how deserving and unusual Happy Joe is that she adopted him! She worked with him closely, and....what I thought would take years was accomplished (not fully yet, she says) in just a few months.
After HJ Benning came back, we had to keep him in the big outdoor cage so as to keep the others safe, and from leaving! We sat there with him as much as possible (it was summer, yay) and brought him into the house for visits. The visits got longer and longer, and now...he has almost complete freedom.  The changes, from his arrival to now, have been constant, and many! And astonishing.  He and his journey are unprecedented in my experience, and, I believe, in that of the communicators he's worked with. As in any profession, there are differing levels of ability...he got the best of the best, I'm certain! One of them does not even work professionally; she's a writer....but Happy Joe so impressed her that she was compelled to help him. And she did! He was also the most communicative and willing animal she'd ever spoken with. And with the most interesting and unusual history: maybe I can get her to write the book HJ Benning deserves to have written about him!!
The story will continue, but for now HJ Benning is able to feel safe and loved. Thank you, dear ladies! Thank you for keeping the faith, Mr. Happy Joe Benning!!
0 Comments
<<Previous

    About Cynthia

    ​The founder of Bee Holistic, Cynthia Burke, has been caring for cats most of her life, volunteering with such groups as the wonderful Animal Balance, and Fix Our Ferals, now Animal Fix Clinic. In 2009 her own non-profit was formed..

    Archives

    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    November 2022
    February 2022
    November 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Location

​​Bee Holistic Cat Rescue and Care
6073 Felix Ave.
Richmond, CA 94805
​Tel: (510) 994-1704 and (510) 237-1190

Contact Us

    Subscribe Today!

Submit