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Last Updated: 3/1/08
There is a video of Gino on my video page!
I love Gino! Here are a bunch of photos! They are from newest to oldest.
Gino on my bed, 1/13/08. He looked away
but I got him to look into the camera in the next photo!
Gino on my bed, 1/13/08.
Gino on 3/2/07.
Gino on 1/1/07.
Gino on 3/18/06.
Here are three photos of Gino in the laundry tub in early December, 2005:
Gino in the sink
Gino in the sink
Gino in the sink
Gino on a chair on 11/13/05.
Gino on 11/13/05, big close-up of the
previous photo.
Gino on my bed on 2/19/05.
Picture of Gino on top of Einy's cage on 1/25/04.
Picture of Gino posing to be the banner
for
the main page on this web site on 8/25/03!
My brother took these with his digital camera in 4/03 (also the one shown above): Gino on the beam, before the close-up shown above (Gino loves to walk on the house's beam!); Gino and his reflection; and Gino on my bed.
Picture of Gino perched on a rabbit table with
carrot legs on 3/26/02.
Picture of Gino enjoying a night on my lap with
my two guinea pigs in March of 2001.
Picture of Gino in my bedroom on
10/2/99.
Picture of Gino in the living room with pond
out the window, 8/21/99.
Picture of Gino resting with stuffed animals,
5/23/99.
Picture of Gino's brother (named Dudley and
later Sunny by my aunt's mother-in-law who adopted him), Gino's sister, Gino, and Gino's other
sister, April 16, 1999.
Pictures of one of Gino's sisters at about 3
months old.
My brother's sister-in-law took in a stray queen; a small, short-haired, orange tabby with white. She had four kittens. We agreed to take one. I picked out a male orange tabby with white and named him Gino. I wanted a boy since our only male cat (Tommy is feral and does not count), Tootsy, will not live much longer. Gino was born on 2/19/99. I picked Gino up on 4/16/99 and took him right to the vet. He tested negative for fleas, ear mites, worms, FeLV, FIV, etc. but since his nose had some caking, the vet told me to put him in quarantine for a week. So far, he is the sweetest kitten I have ever met. He rubs, purrs, squeals, and plays perfectly. Of course, he also bites some and gets the "crazies" where he runs around fifty miles per hour. He was only partially litter trained but I got him using our litter within a day. Gino had not started eating any solid food before joining us. He was eight weeks old and should have been eating solid food for a few weeks already. He drank mostly KMR for the first month I took care of him. Even at four months old, he still preferred milk to cat food. It took a month and a half for Gino and Schmoo (our dog) to get along. The dog would chase him, and Gino was scared. Now he rolls over and bats at Schmoo's face with his claws. Gino chases poor Polky (or Doodally as I actually call her) all over and bites her. Doodally seems to like it since she does not try to hide. Gino runs around with a Santa beard of her fur hanging out of his mouth.
Gino was neutered on 8/19/99 without much incidence. Doodally missed him (she must like being attacked) and was abnormally sweet while he was gone. Gino is doing well. His nickname is Pistachio or Pistach or even Stach for short (I got it from Pinnochio which is similar (to me anyway) since he took interest in the video). By the new millenium, I began calling him Stachley Buttons, P-Stach, and Mr. Pistachley-o-e-o-e. Do not ask me why! It just comes out of my mouth. In 2000 and 2001, I also call him simply Tach or G-G. Gino is the most active and attentive cat we have ever had. He likes to sit on my lap and seeks out all members of the household for petting. He really loves high places. He has mastered all of them in the house, including a beam that is 8 feet off the ground! He gets up there and squeals. New names for late 2001 for Gino include Mr. Gummy, Gummie-Beans, and Gummer. I seem to change the names all the time (later by 2007 I sometimes called him Love Monkey, Love Nugget, Bunny, still Stach a lot, and Gummy which my niece calls him in 2007)! I guess that is why most people think I am crazy! Gino greets me when I get home and rubs on me, purring, meowing, screaming for some lovin'. Giny loves to drink from the rabbits' bowls when I fill them, so I also call him Mr. Bunny. My brother suggested that Beany get his own web site, at gummyland.com since I always consult him for major decisions and so should you!
I love my Gummy so much!!
My poor baby has started having more asthma attacks. For example, on 2/14/04, in the morning, he started wheezing. His eyes were producing tears, and I could see the fear in his eyes as he tried to catch his breath. He would dart a few feet, heave, and then dart some more, really scared. I petted him and talked sweet to him telling him to calm down, and I think it helped to calm him. As you know, if you are not calm, it is hard to stop an asthma attack. If he keeps having them, he will have to go on medication like his biological brother that my aunt's mother-in-law has.
Gino had his yearly appointment on 5/25/04. He was up to 12.0 pounds. He was 9.8 pounds on 6/5/03.
Giny went missing one day. I had last seen him at 5 pm on 12/11/04 and could not find him to put him to bed. He always comes running. Doodles (Polky) was also missing! I searched and finally went to bed myself, getting one hour of sleep. In the morning, Samantha (cat) went back behind Einy's cage (lizard), and I heard a bashing. I went to look. Gino was there, all wrapped up in a plastic bag! He couldn't move and could have suffocated. Instead of crying out or making noise, he had just stayed quite for the half day he was missing. I was SO happy to find him. Doodles finally just appeared at 9:30 pm that night, 29 hours after I had last seen her. This may not seem like much to others but Doodles had never hid for more than half a day before! My mother thinks seeing Gino in a bag was so traumatizing that she had to hide. Four people searched our house and outside top to bottom and could not find her!
I had Gino microchipped on 3/13/05 at a clinic.
On 3/24/05, Gino had his yearly checkup. Gino is up to 12.4 pounds from 12.0 pounds the year before! He got an exam, distemper, and blood work which came back normal. His heart murmur is now a Grade 3 so I will probably take him to a cardiologist. The vet thinks he may have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. A sonogram will show if he has it, and medication could prolong his life. Without it, if he has that problem, one day he will just keel over. That is what happened to his biological mother (who was with someone else) a year ago or so. I am very worried.
On 6/23/05, Gino saw the cardiologist and had an ecocardiogram. It showed he does not have cardiomyopathy! Hurray! He just has "mild mitral valve regurgitation" which means his valves do not shut all the way (they leak). It is not bad enough for medication so we just have to monitor it. It does mean he is more apt to have a heart attack than a cat without this problem.
On 2/23/06, I noticed something was not right with Gino. The previous few days, I had noticed a lot of cat litter spread around the pan and lots of tiny pees. That morning, while working in the laundry room to feed the animals, I noticed Gino was in the litter pan continually. I checked on what he was doing. He was straining to pee over and over but not much was happening. He would get out and lick his privates and then do it over again. I feared he had a blockage in his urethra and took him to the vet. I left his there while I went to work. They pumped him full of subcutaneous fluids to see if he could pee. After filling him up, he finally peed quite a lot, all over himself. Gino is super sweet at home but petrified of strangers. When visitors come at home, he vanishes, often up into the box springs of an old bed or couch. At the vet, he cowered in the corner and refused to do anything. They pumped him full of more fluids and tried to get a sample from his bladder via catheter but with no luck. After his first big pee, he kept making tiny ones all over himself. I finally got him at 6 pm and took him home. That night, I put glass beads in an empty litter pan and locked Gino in the laundry room by himself (normally Dude joins him). He provided plenty of sample for urinalysis. The results did not come back until 2/25/06. The vet said he had just a few white blood cells, a ton of red blood cells, no bacteria, a slightly high pH (she did not give me the actual value), and a few triple phosphate (struvite) crystals. So, he has a lot of blood in his urine. She calls the problem cystitis which is inflammation of the bladder. She thinks he has a bladder infection or other irritation in his system. She says bladder infections do not always shed bacteria into the urine. She said the crystals were not much of a concern as of yet and a diet change was not really needed. That would be hard since Gino only eats dry food, and there are five cats running in the house. Eating dry food without much water like Gino predisposes him to this sort of problem. I am looking into ideas to help him. I tried to give him some subcutaneous fluids on 2/25/06. As soon as he felt the prick of the needle, he cried out and ran off. It is not easy to restrain a healthy 13 pound cat. I am used to my half dead 6 pound cat who gets 100 mL of fluids every day without any problem. I have added a section on cystitis to my cat health page that you should read if you are interested. I finally got Gino antibiotics on 2/27/06. He gets 1 mL twice a day of liquid Clavamox which is mostly amoxicillin (amoxicillin trihydate and clavulanate potassium to be exact). This should help with any associated infection. Getting him to eat a controlled diet, drink more water, and exercise is not going to be very possible. He used to be very active climbing on the high beams in our house even but about a year ago, he got lazy. As of 3/3/06, a week later, Gino is still making a lot of small pees. He sure can put up a fight when I give him his medication but he is getting it.
Gino finished his medication barely a week after I started it. They did not give us much. I bought some Eukenuba Low pH/S dry food and Veterinarian's Best Cat Care No F.U.S. Feline Urinary Support which is a supplement to help with cystitis. It has cranberries and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) to lower the pH of the urine as well as herbs that help the urinary system. Gino actually eats these treats right up! They are mostly dried chicken. The other cats like them too. Gino also eats the Eukenuba but I wish it were natural instead of corn and by-products! I do not know which is worse for him, going back to non-natural crap food or not having a diet made just for cats with his problem. So, I offer both. I will have another urinalysis done on 3/20/06 to see if things are the same or not.
The urinalysis on 3/20/06 showed Gino's urine was full of blood (which I could see) and a lot of crystals. The pH was 7.5, down from 8.4 last time (I had to ask since they do not tell me details otherwise.). The pH needs to go acidic, maybe 6.5 to dissolve the crystals. Since he is much worse, the vet says I have no choice but to offer him only vet diet food. I hate that the food is disgusting but Gino does eat it. So, now, I have to sequester feed the cats. What this means is that at night, Gino has to be locked up by himself with his special food while the other cats can then have access to the natural dry cat foods. Because Gino does not eat canned food, I can still put out the canned foods all the time for Samantha, Elvisina, and GK who eat those. Dude only eats dry too so she will only get to eat at night when Gino is up. She wants to eat his special food but it can be dangerous for some cats. As far as I know, Dude is fine (blood work March 2005 was normal) but you never know. I will probably get some of the Science Diet low pH food too to see if he likes the corn/by-product/pig fat in that. I just learned today, 3/21/06, that Wysong makes a vet diet for struvite crystals. I am looking into that although it is a sort of freeze-dried meat thing that Gino may or may not eat as is or reconstituted. If I could get him to eat wetter foods, it would help his problem. We go back in a few weeks for another urinalysis to see if the restricted diet helps.
On 3/24/06, I picked up some Hill's Prescription Diet C/D for Gino. I am mixing it with the Eukenuba 50/50. The Hill's food is yellow while the other is brown. On 3/25/06, I caught Dude, Elvi, and GK eating some of Gino's food. I hope it will not hurt them. Gino's fur is shedding more than normal. I hope this is not due to him no longer getting all the good stuff in his all natural food with all the herbs, probiotics, essential fatty acids, etc. Now, he is eating crap but it is his only chance. In a week, we will see if his urinalysis is any better. He is so precious, sitting next to me as I type (better than on me as usual).
The last week of March, Gino decided he no longer wants to eat the FUS pills when he used to love them so much! The other cats are stealing the pills. Hopefully the food will be enough to lower his pH. His urine will be re-tested on 4/3/06.
Overnight from 4/2/06 to 4/5/06, Gino would not go in the litter pan of beads. So, the morning of 4/5/06, I locked him up with it, food, water, and a bed in the bathroom. When I went to use the toilet myself, I explained the situation to him, and he made a huge pee in front of me. The results showed that he only has a trace of blood in there now but that there are still a lot of struvite crystals. The pH is down to 7.0 but it still needs to go down further. The vet said he rated the crystals as 4+ before and now they are 3+, whatever that means. He will be tested in two weeks again. If that fails, the vet says I have to try feeding just one of the vet foods and not mixing them. If that fails, there are short term acids the vet can give him but that is usually for cats with known blockages or something he said.
On 4/20/06, I wanted to get a pee sample from Gino again. He did not use the beads overnight or in the morning. I decided to let him out (I had to go to work) and followed him to the basement litter pan where he really needed to pee. I collected it right from the source. The results showed his urine pH was still 7.0 but there are no crystals or blood! He said to re-test in 6 months but I think I will do it in a few months as I am still worried about this. The vet worries that the FUS pills could harm him (lower the pH too much) but I do not see that that has happened.
Gino has his yearly check up on 5/17/06. He is up to 14.5 pounds, having gained 1.3 pounds on his new vet diet! I sure wish there were an all natural diet that would work for his urinary problems. He also got a rabies shot. His heart murmur is still a Grade 3.
Beginning in early June, Gino's behavior changed. I have always locked him into the laundry room at night since I have had him. He never complained. Now, he meows all night, starting as early as midnight and will not stop until I let him out. When he gets out, the only thing he seems to really want is fresh, cold water. He is overheated from crying all night. I have to lock him up because I cannot sleep with my door open. The sounds from my mother's TV, father's snoring, clock, rabbit Harry digging around, etc. keep me from falling or staying asleep. If I close my door, and the cat(s) are out, they knock on my door which wakes me up and then want to crawl on me. I kick violently when asleep which could also kill any animals nice enough to want to spend the night with me. Anyway, I wanted to rule out diabetes, kidney failure, thyroid malfunction, a urinary tract infection, and so forth so I took Gino to the vet on 6/27/06 where they extracted blood and urine for testing. Gino was up another half pound to 15 pounds! That vet food is really bad for him but they say I have no choice. I tried to get some pee from Gino the night before but he did not cooperate. At the vet, they did a cystocentesis which is where they stick a needle through the body wall to dry urine directly from the bladder. Poor Gino! Gino also had an asthma attack or something on 6/21/06.
The $200 in tests revealed that Gino is perfectly normal! He just does not want me to sleep! The only abnormal thing about his results was a slightly elevated cholesterol level. His urine pH was down to 6.0! The night of 6/28/06, my mother said I had to stop Gino from crying so she could sleep. I took him to bed with me. But, then I could not sleep because I could not move for fear of kicking him. He fell asleep. I did not. By midnight, when my father's snoring started bad, there was no way I was going to sleep with the door open so I put Gino in GK's cage in the basement. It was punishment for him when all he was doing was sleeping like an angel. He did not meow but in the morning, the litter and food in there were strewn all over. Tonight, I will try closing him up as usual but with Dude to see if she distracts him. If he starts meowing, into the cage he will go. I only got 3 hours of sleep last night and can barely type this.
The night of 6/29/06, I let Polky stay with Gino. This also meant Gino had access to his old organic dry food but I think he only wants the pig fat/corn yuck food anyway. I opened a homeopathic calming remedy on it for pets that have trouble traveling, going to vets, and separation anxiety which is probably why Gino cries. He wants to be with me for some unknown reason. Anyway, he has stopped crying all night. You would think this would mean I would catch up on sleep but the night of 6/30/06, I was up half the night wondering what happened to Samantha, my dying cat that my mother let outside. I did find her the next morning (more on her page if you care to read).
I took Gino back to the vet for another cystocentesis for urinalysis on 8/29/06. His weight went up further to 15.8 pounds! He has gained 0.8 pounds in the last few months and 3 pounds since he has been on his yucky vet food! It is making him way too fat! When I got home, I found Gino covered in isopropanol (rubbing alcohol) and urine. They kind of made a mess! It was not good for him to lick that off. The next day, the results showed still no crystals or other problems but his urinary pH was up to 7. Apparently eating maybe a third of a cup of all natural food with the rest being the corn/by-products/pig lard was still too much good food to keep his pH down. So, I again separated Gino and Dude. The first night was fine. Then at 5:30 am on 9/1/06, I was awakened by Gino's plaintive cries. Oh well, plan B. I will have to let the two cats together. I want Dude to eat the good food but cannot stop her from eating the yucky vet food that Gino needs. During the day, all the cats snatch a few bites of the gunk. I may try to close Dude in the bathroom first thing in the morning for about a half hour with her food so she can eat that (that is what I ended up doing). Overnight just will not work.
Gino had another cystocentesis on 10/9/06. His urine pH was down to 6! But, the food is still packing on weight. He was up to 16.1 pounds. The vet suggested mixing some Science Diet WD in with the CD but I am worried then his pH would go back up.
Gino had cystocentesis on 12/19/06. His urine pH was 6 so it has been stable! He had "rare" crystals and no white or red blood cells in his urine. His weight went down half a pound to 15.6 pounds. Yeah! I will be mixing in more of the WD with the CD. He does not have to go back for 4 to 6 months.
I brought Gino to the vet on 4/30/07 for cystocentesis to check his urine. Since he was due a few weeks later for his yearly checkup, I also had that done then. They charge $18 just for an office visit and $55 for the "wellness exam" which consisted of a minute of feeling up the cat and listening to his heart. That is about all for a ton of money. By doing it early, I saved $18. The vet could not hear his heart murmur this time! He has a strong murmur so either he is cured, or the vet is deaf. Despite being on yucky Science Diet WD to control his weight mixed in with the CD, he was up to 16 pounds! Since Gino was scared, his ears turned red, and he shed a ton of fur while there. The bill for the day: $116 for Gino, $355.15 total (Elvi also went in). Gino's urinalysis results all came back normal.
On 11/14/07, I took Gino to have his urine tested again. They were not able to get any urine. The vet stuck the needle in him but could not find his bladder. He says Gino is just too obese now! He is up to 16.7 pounds!! I will increase his WD over CD but those foods are just so nasty; I do not think they are helping him. In order to get urine to test, I will have to try to put the spare litter pan with plastic beads in it when he is in the laundry room overnight on the nights I cannot catch Doodally. Eventually, he will have to make a "donation?" It may take a while though.
Gino finally peed in the beads overnight, and a sample got to the vet on 12/7/07. The results came back normal. His urine pH was 6.0. There were no crystals, bacteria, white or red blood cells. His urine was very concentrated because he does not drink much and only eats dry food. I have talked to him about that but he has decided that the only non-dry food he will eat is human chicken baby food (my mother taught him to do tricks using that like stand, sit, shake paw, turn, etc.).
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