* Daisy found her forever home with a lovely person! *

Daisy came into Hamilton Animal Control as a stray. From the day she arrived at HAC, Daisy had the runs pretty badly. Shelter staff did some tests but didn’t find any parasites, so they put her on a food to help with intestinal upset. It worked for a few days, but then the problem returned. They weren’t able to put Daisy on any medications to help because they suspect that she may be pregnant and the medications could be detrimental to the health of her babies.
Thankfully, we had a foster home open up and we were able to rescue Daisy from HAC and take her to the vet. After spending the night at the vet, it was determined that Daisy was not pregnant. Her “pot belly” was likely being caused by her bowel issues. The tests done at the clinic showed that there were no obvious reasons for her poopy bum, other than there was a lot of bacteria found in the sample. So, she was put on medication and a special diet and she was sent to her foster home to see if this would help. It didn’t. Daisy went back to the vet several times. Extensive fecal testing showed nothing. Blood tests showed nothing. X-rays showed what the vet called an “angry bowel” but there wasn’t any obvious reason on the x-ray images that showed what was making Daisy’s insides to be as unhappy as they were. We basically did every test possible to sort out Daisy’s poop problem, all to no avail! It was frustrating to say the least. Though we did find out that Daisy is FIV and FeLV free thankfully!

We had Daisy spayed and had a biopsy done of her intestinal system. Turns out, Daisy has severe scarring in her small intestine. This could be caused by a long term allergic reaction to certain foods, or because she may have had a disease when she was younger called panleukopenia. Basically, Daisy has irritable bowel syndrome that cannot be corrected with surgery. Our vets started her on a new set of medications, and a gastro/hypoallergenic food, and after a few days, there was a huge improvement! Daisy’s foster mom was over the moon that after two months of  liquid poop, Daisy was finally having normal bowel movements! Our vets have advised that Daisy can live a pretty much normal life, but she will have to stay on the medication and special diet. This makes Daisy less adoptable than a kitty without these issues, but we know there is someone out there who will be willing to give Daisy the loving home she deserves!

Here’s a note from Daisy’s foster home:
“Daisy is the sweetest little lady-like kitty. She is calm and gentle and affectionate. She loves to lie on my lap in the evening and sleep at the foot of the bed at night. In the morning when we start to stir she comes up and lies on my chest and purrs away! She is wonderful with our dogs and cats. She was a little stand-offish with the dogs initially but got comfortable with them quite quickly. She loves other cats and thrives with another cat in the home. She likes to sleep in sunny spots and sticks close to her people.
She is very respectful of the door and has never tried to dart outside and is very tidy with the litter. She doesn’t like being carried and will go stiff with her legs splayed out but she does put up with it. She doesn’t seem to have an aggressive bone in her body. She regularly sits with her tongue sticking out of her mouth and will leave it out for long periods of time. She loves to eat! She gets wet food once a day and will rub up against your legs and meow when it’s time for her food.
Daisy does have IBD. Currently it is being controlled with a prednisone tablet once a day and a hypo-allergenic food purchased from the vet.
When she arrived she was having soft poops most of the time. They were always in the litter and at regular intervals- once or twice a day, but rarely solid. Within two days of going on prednisone she began having normal poops and they have been normal ever since. After two weeks the dose was halved and she has continued responding well.
The plan for her future in her new home will be to continue tapering down her doses of prednisone until she’s at the minimum dosage or perhaps even off prednisone completely!
Daisy is a lovely girl and even with the IBD she will make a wonderful family member for a very lucky family!”

Please adopt Daisy!