Bingo!
I would say that we have the main Alpha cat in town and beyond. Just going to add: the guy hit us properly! When I say the guy, of course, I can only think of only one cat: Uri. He is really special in every way.
So, about a year ago, the aforementioned gentleman was castrated. He wa cryptorhid without both testicles in the scrotum: one was in the left inguinal canal, the other in the abdomen (below the urinary bladder). Three weeks later the period of meowing, singing, spraying all around, mating everything that breathes, flies and crawls was behind us…
So, we thought so…
A few months after the castration, it seemed that he calmed down. The meowing did not completely cease but we all attributed it to his personality. From time to time, he mated Vai (till recently!!!) but we thought that he remembered that beautiful feeling, Vai let him do it so: we, also, don’t have to play drama queen about it…
Here and there he would play roughly (a few months after castration the play was more rough), but it’s Uri: he is truculent, stubborn and he is a macho guy, so he should behave like that. It saves him that part of him is very sweet, almost doggy-like. He knows how to buy affection and it is difficult to resist him so he uses his good side well and is very much aware of it. A few months after castration, a couple of times a rougher game ended up with my correction, but that was all: all cat owners are aware of it. So, I did not pay too much attention to that. One moment they are rough, the next they kiss each other.
Thinking that life is beautiful, we moved to a new apartment in which my husband’s mother had lived with her castrated male cat. Everything was like in a fairy-tale. Till the 4th day after the relocation, when fairy-tale disappeared … On that day I was ready to go to work when I heard Vai’s (male cat, castrated; one year older; they grew up together) screaming and I saw Uri chasing Vai all around the apartment. It was not a game, it was Uri’s serious aggression and his predatory attempt to take over the new territory and establish a new hierarchy, while Vai literally screamed like a banshee, not realizing what was going on. I don’t wanna talk about my feelings but I was scared to death. Uri had a different look in his eyes; he was no longer my sweet boy; he was a killer.
The only logical explanation going around in my head in the next few days was that moving to another apartment was stressful (change of routine for cats is a pretty great source of stress and they can react to this with establishing new hierarchies and relationships, as they reset), that smell of the previous cat was a trigger after which he decided to take the thing in his paws and be the chief and responsible sheriff in the village. I decided to put things in place. According to all the researches, it would take a week or two and our life will be back again. So, I absolutely tried all the methods (and knowledge from dog trainer work I have been doing for about last two decades) which are normally enough in normal circumstances:
- negative: water spraying (I was present all the time every second when I tried to connect them together and I was tired like hell), a couple of times I slightly tapped Uri on nose like correction
• Positive: feeding and playing while they are together
• Cats Pheromone Diffuser (Feliway) 24 hours a day
• Aromatherapeutic preparation based on valerian and other essential oils (it has been a bit of a help but it has not solved the problem)
• Bach’s drops specially designed for both: for Uri to calm him down and to be better with a new space (because we thought it was the cause), and for Vai to bring back his left self confidence. Vai, actually, was the first one that showed that something was wrong because for months before he slowly began to pee more often on our sofas. Later it became clear that he did not dare to go to his toilet or simply reacted to the Uri’s intimidation.
• we rotated them to each part of the apartment to fill their smells and get used to each otherNothing happened, the days were passing and the situation was actually getting worse and worse. Several times, Uri caught Vai so hard that we had several trips to the veterinarian with following injuries: - Uri’s nails that we had to pull out after he fell out from cat tree after the fight
• bad injury of Vai’s cornea after the fight
- husband’s cat-bite on the arm that turned pretty ugly after this photo:
- I had a cat-bite under my nails, which hurt for days like a devil myself.Vai deshaded like hell from all that agony, and nothing was better with Uri; he also was stressed. Things were worse and worse and at one point, Uri literally became life dangerous to Vai. He would grab him on his neck and squeeze and bite his teeth as Vai screamed under him. To all others in he house, us and dog, he was still the best cat in the world.
And he was very respectful to me just listening to my own-no, but that was it. As soon as I turned my back, he would have snatched Vai as the last bloodthirsty predator hunting for a single purpose: to kill.
Approximately three weeks after the beginning of the entire circus, we have divided the apartment with a protective net.
A month and a half after the first attack and after all the methods, I thought the following: suppose that he was the most hard male on the road, he would, till now and at least, learn how to tolerate Vai again. And deep in his nature, Uri is very sweet. Well, goddamn, they grew up together and loved until recently! Something is wrong. Something physically. In every available literature (and I left my eyes surfing and studying everything alive and not alive), it was reported that cats react like this when something is really wrong. This was a pure redirected aggression and it seemed to be more of a physical nature.
In all my thoughts, I recalled two things Uri’s and Vai’s breeder told me in one of our unofficial talks … First, that one vet had a case of cat male sold to humans as castrate but suddenly he became aggressive towards his people. They checked him and found that he was not completely castrated. When they removed the remaining testicle, everything back to normal. Second thing that I remembered from their breeder is that she never succeeded to connect castrates and non-castrates (regardless of sex).
Risking that somebody proclaim me crazy, stupid, hypochondriac (ok, this is not so questionable) or anything else because Uri is a castrate, I made the decision to ask for testosterone and thyroid tests. We sent blood to Laboklin, one of the leading laboratories in Germany and, simply – we fell up to the ass.
Test has shown that TSH is low, T3 is low and fT3 is high.
Generally, his thyroid gland was not very good and he was in hyperthyroidism. But it was the result of something else… And the finding that everyone fell to their asses was the testosterone test… In castrated males, normal level is less than 0.1 ng/ml. In non-castrated males, testosterone is up to 1.3 ng/ml. Ready? Uri had 4.1 ng/ml! So, as the test said: our “kitty” is alpha macho cat at the full force, hormonal kamikaze, and full-haired predator. Now I’m thinking how we all were surprised all the time that Uri had developed so fantastic. Like a British short-hair cat which is mating all the day long, his head was huge with those imposing British cheeks that were broad and strong – so much so that we could not fold the skin on the upper part of the neck as everything spread, the strong body and hair as if it grew up in Siberian conditions. He even did not had the so-called “British fat” (fat in the lower part of the belly typical for the castrates) although it can not be said that it is not properly subdued :-). Now, it became clear why he developed: the guy had a hormone reserve for 5 males at once and to mate all the cats in the city. But, to get back to the topic … Well, he was still phenomenal considering these test. With that amount of testosterone, he has genuinely well tolerated Vai. While he did not became so crazy while he flip as a popcorn. All the anger I had already started to feel toward him because he was terribly terrorized all of us, now disappeared. Now, it was necessary to find out what was happening. The problem, obviously, was physical.
Test from Laboklin:
Considering that so high production of testosterone was abnormal even for non-castrates, there were only two possibilities:
- tumor of the testicle but he was castrated a year ago by very good veterinarian. He took out undetected testicles (Uri was a double cryptorhid: one testis in the left inguinal canal, and the other in the abdomen under the bladder). So, there is no testicle and we came to another variant:
2. an adrenal gland problem or possibly a tumor on it. The problem that could arise is that the adrenal gland can produce too many one or more hormones, among others testosterone (excessive production of androgenic steroids). In the case of an adrenal gland tumor that is functional, there may be increased testosterone production. But, that’s really high testosterone at Uri and hmm…
There is a search that we tried to make to prove the source of testosterone. This is a stimulation test with GnRH (gonadotropic releasing hormone) and stimulation test with hCG. Stimulation test with hCG may have serious side effects so I have discarded it at startup.
A test with GnRH remained, which actually examines whether there is some secretive ability of testicular tissue. Simply put it out, this test tells us whether all this testosterone is the result of testicular work.
Now, we live where we live and it’s hard to get this test in Croatia. Animal stimulation can be done in Kleintierklinik der Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (my mother is there so this is good destination for me to stay), but their laws do not permit cross-border transfer. That was not the option, because anyway Uri has been stressed and more stress for him was out of option. In conversation with the Klinik, we learned that we can do a test with the human GnRH, but it is also not easy to get it. Nevertheless, we found it for a price of around 1.500 kn that I would still give that in the meantime we did not realized that it doesn’t have to show 100% correct values. This fact and fact that Uri is very difficult to handle in vet ambulance, we have also dropped out of that test; it was not worth while. Already at the edge of the force (all these surveys lasted about two weeks and more), we began to think about the operation as the ultimate diagnosis, because the only thing we knew was that something produces all these enormous hormones and it has to go out.
These days, we considered also the implant which would give us time to think as much as possible, and calm Uri because all these hormones was certainly not good for his health.
Eh … what about the implant? It is injected like a microchip in the subcutaneous area (neck, inguinal canal, abdomen). It works by releasing the active substance deslorelin as the synthetic form of GnRH that acts on the adrenal gland, it suppresses it in the production of hormones (both in males and females). For the time being, the best for cats was shown by Virbac’s Suprelorin brand (4.7 mg). In fact, the manufacturer actually intended it for ferrets and dogs. Despite this, it has already been used by many cat breeders and has not shown any side effects so far. The implant is injected and releases deslorelin lightly and it disappears about 6 months after injection (in cats longer, even up to 20 months). A common occurrence is that testosterone first increases and after several weeks there is a fall in hormone cause of feedback system (up to about 5 weeks).
Thinking of the implant we left quickly because it would mean calming the symptoms, but the problem would still be there. Even, a problem would arise because, in the case of a testicle, the implant would act to reduce the production of testosterone and the testicle would also be reduced and it would be more difficult to find it if it was in a “dull” place. So we got back to surgery.
I recall to my memory what a circus Uri did the last time after the castration (craziness with an Elizabethan collar and running all over the apartment where he almost injured Vai and himself, then tearing apart the stitches and inflammation of incision after we had to remove the collar, then reject his body of the stitches… mostly, general madness) and the thought of laparotomy that would cut him from all over, and maybe it would not have found anything, it was a huge gag in the throat and I had a great resistance to this idea. Weekend before we agreed anyway on the operation, I contacted the veterinarian (actually we contacted each other all the time) and suggested that I make something more before the operation: biorezonance. I decided to try it with Uri’s and hair follicles and it showed that the following things were in the problem:
PITUITARY GLAND – certainly if we look that Laboklin test showed low TSH (pituitary gland regulates and stimulating the secretion of thyroid hormones)
THYROID GLAND (hyperplasia) – this was also clear because our “commander” pituitary “concluded” that TSH is not needed because thyroid gland works overtime (plus the upper fT3 finding).
MALE AND FEMALE HORMONES are way over
LIVER – medium problem (Laboklin test showed T3 was 17.1, ref 33 – 167)
FAT TISSUE – strong dis-balance
RADIATION POLLUTION – which is not surprising to me regarding to the number of wireless gadgets my husband has set up at home. In fact, I’m surprised not to glitter in the dark all the time.
SKIN – light problems
CNS (central nervous system) – it is clear that given everything, CNS is in the problem
The biorezonance opened up some new “fronts” and forced me to renew all the school-based knowledge about the reproductive system. It forced me to google a lot which, of course, created an additional amount of questionnaires.
What you need to know is that a biorezonance notice the problem at the cellular level, and that symptoms does not have to be visible at the time of the finding.
I was primarily concerned about pituitary results that was more than logical. Because … The pituitary gland controls the function of other endocrine glands and stimulates them to create other hormones. If it is in hyper-function, it may, among other things, give a strong signal to the adrenal gland, which then produces more hormones, in this case testosterone. The problem may be external and internal. Internal is not visible but it can be dysfunctional. There are various medications, depending on what is happening. An external reason would mean that there is a tumor that may be inactive or active. Hormone-active adenoma (a benign tumor that may become malignant) of the pituitary gland thus can produce, beside all, a lot of testosterone, at least in the beginning. But this is a cat and in Europe (I don’t know for America) don’t operate it (even small dogs don’t) because it’s too small. The two ultrasound exams we made right after the hormone test, found nothing: the cat is small and it is really difficult to find the problems surrounding these tiny organs. To find anything, there must be a very good ultrasound, a very good doctor and sedated cat for a fair amount of time during the search. We had a good ultrasound and a good doctor, but anyway … I decided next. If I already have to sedated Uri, then I would like a deeper insight into everything. In agreement with the veterinarian, we decided to do the last search: CT. A new problem has emerged… It is sad that there is no CT in Croatia (I later learned that one vet. has is but it’s pretty new so…) as well as MR for animals. The closest to us is the MR or CT in Slovenia. We decided for Postojna in Slovenia. This saga is soon to come to an end and additional interesting areas will be opened.
Two days after the decision we found ourselves in Postojna with Uri. The hour of waiting time resulted in a general increase in cortisol both in me and my husband and when vet. came out with the first results, I thought I would jump out of the skin.
So the first news was: the little one has something in the right inguinal canal. It looked like testicle with all the signs typical of it, but CT can not tell for sure what it is. Another interesting story emerged: cryptorhids usually have a higher level of testosterone than males whose testicles are normally in the scrotum. Anyway, Uri had huge hormone production but again: we talk about Uri. He’s unusual and he’s definitely different that we’ve always known. But we did not know that it is so different that there is something that cats do not usually have. There is so little percentage that most veterinarians did not even hear that is possible. Namely, CT showed that Uri has os penis. This bone is common in dogs, but in cats it is not. But I repeat: it’s Uri. And that was not enough for him, so the CT showed something else: he has a thymus. The thymus or chest gland is the central organ of the immune system, well-developed in newborns and children and young animals, but disappears somewhere during or after puberty when it comes to its involution and conversion to fatty tissue. As far as I can understand, it is not expected too much from a two years old cat to has it. So there was the possibility that it was not thymus but tumor (thymom) and anything else.
Well … CT was more than productive and purposeful. It turned out to be good that we went to CT because we found out where we had to cut during surgery and that there was no need to cut “from tail to head”.
My unusual little boy, case for Dr. House, and more, was ordered to surgery a few days later…
The operation has gone well with the following results (I will not write about the tears of joy after the surgery and the broken nails due to the expectation of the result):
- Yes, Uri has the third testicle. Kid has decided to improve world written statistics and become (with two dogs and two horses) 3. recorded cat case in the world with the third testicle. Just in case, the testicle was sent to the analysis to Laboklin. With Uri, you never know.A week later came Laboklin’s results. It was an atrophic testicle that does not have a tumor cells. This was our last worry cause of possibility of metastases. Later by digging through the literature and through talking to the Uri’sveterinarian, we came to the conclusion that the level of testosterone after the first castration was likely to have fallen (there was no longer any urine markings and mating of the Vai and “vocal exhibitions”, although this vocal stuff continued to few months). Then, after about 5 months, testosterone likely became higher (rougher games that followed, and the consequential “cooling” of Uri if he exceeded) because retained testicle compensated for the work these ones which have been taken out. Then, after a total of ten months after castration, Uri completely “went crazy” and became aggressive towards Vai. I wonder what it would be if we did not have another cat. Perhaps the aggression would be redirected towards the dog or maybe even to us. Or maybe he wouldn’t be aggressive to any of us but there would happen something to organism because of all that stress that would shorten his life or he would become ill, and we would never find out why.2. Yes, Uri also has the thymus for which the biopsy was made and has not shown any abnormalities so far, but we will control it for a year.3. Yes, Uri has a penis bone (os penis).4. Yes, Uri is different. But it is unique in everything: my dear sweetie full of life.
Until this moment, I did not mention any name of all those who helped us because they really deserve a special place, and where better to put it than at the end where sugar is coming. I can only say the enormous words of praise to everyone who found themselves in this whole saga, some quite accidentally, some not, but all wonderful. I’m blessed to find them all the in one time point to help …
I’m going in aplhabetical order (you will see that there are many angels who hides their wings somewhere):
Bruno Ljolje from Buba ambulance (because of him I’m still alongside my precious Gunna, now 16 year old border collie) who will probably put my phone number in a blacklist at one moment and block me because he has suffered the 1001 questions (meaningful and meaningless) that arised during the massive googling. We talked through sms, live conversations and mailings. Who tried to respond patiently to each of my 1001 questions and even listened to a telephone answering machine in the german language, which he don’t speak, on the phone of the Kleintierklinik der Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München, dialing (listening my advice) wrong number 1. Bruno, who still enjoys his profession and who called everything he needed, from veterinarians to labs.
Deni (veterinarian Deana Basar who do a physiotherapy for my dog): mine and everybody’s angel. The one who suffered (and suffer) my entire emotional escapade ready to answer all of my questions (more and less stupid) and dilemmas and showed the guidelines with bioresonance which guide to CT. She is a veterinarian and also a psychiatrist for all of us who come to her. I hope that we will somehow in some universe repay her because this life is too short for it …
Veterinarian Jasna Marušić who raises even when you are not her patient and whose spirit for me is the most important in ambulance (Dr. Pezo). The case of her cat castrate which was no castrate gave me a bug into my ear that was crucial.
Veterinarian Nikica Prvanović from the Veterinary Faculty in Zagreb who I did not even met, but to whom Deni was referring to me and to whom dr. Bruno Ljolje spoke. The woman struggled with the total stranger and I thank her and hope it will somehow come to her.
Veterinarian Sanja Hrenar, that warm and patient soul which is there whenever it needs and knows something what many do not know: listen. She is an angel.
Hospital for small animals in Postojna (dr. was probably choosing between food or sedation) from where we even got a souvenir :-).
Friends where sugar come…
My Ana, angel and warm human soul with whom I have gone through all that a friendship can make. And who is there for me even in the worst moments and still stays with me. And I know, Ana, that this is a terrible pathetic for you and you do not enjoy it, but I don’t ask for permission: I love you and that’s it :-).
My Katica who I do not know for so many years but I think we are from the same nests of souls. She is an angel as well as her husband and has a special place in my life. I know they both hide their wings somewhere.
Dear Marina Han (Vai’s and Uri’s breeder) without whose inputs I would have no idea where to go with the research and who listened to my plain and uncommon monologues as no one breed would. Marina, you are The Breeder.
And finally, she deserves a special place: my mom who jumps on every request of mine and searches for me in all weather conditions and with a sick hip to get all answers for me. She do it because she is my mom but this was way too much. And she did every thing that was needed. Mom, I love you! You are my greatest angel.
I’m sorry about the emotions and the pathetic (I know that there is too much of it) but this was a really difficult time for me and it accumulated tremendously…
For a thousands times confirm the sentence which should take us all:
“When the little hands are in place …”
I feel blessed with people around me: to friends and to all those who are always here. I love you all and I hope that I will be there for you when I need it and I will not turn you back. If I accidentally do this, give me a big kick ass and refer to these words written here.
Love you all…
