Basil’s and Ollie’s story
Basil & Ollie, 15 year young brothers came into our care on the 9th of October 2014. Sadly their elderly owner had developed dementia and went to live with her daughter. The grandchildren were returning to the flat to feed Basil and Ollie, but only every 2-3 days. This had been the case for nearly 6 months, and all of the furniture and belongings had been moved or sold, so when we collected Basil and Ollie (within 24 hours of Goldie’s Cat Rescue being contacted) all that was left was two dirty cat beds and a litter tray out on the balcony that had not been cleaned for a good while.
Basil was in good overall health, apart from only having two teeth left, one of which can always been seen, hence his nickname ‘Snaggletooth’. Ollie however is not so fortunate. First of all, Ollie is deaf. The grandchildren had noted that he had had several seizures. They took him to a charity vet practice who prescribed him medicine to control his epilepsy. Thankfully as they weren’t there to give him the medicine everyday, they didn’t start him on the tablets, as when he came into our care our vet found that he also has stage two kidney failure. Had Ollie had those tablets for epilepsy, it would of further damaged his kidneys and he most probably would still not be with us this day.
We overhauled their diet, and instead of putting Ollie of medication, we decided to manage his kidney function by feeding him a high protein, no/low carb diet of only white meat and rabbit, and adding phosphorus to his meals to break down the protein in the meat.
Basil’s and Ollie’s happy ending
These boy’s ended up being added to the list of cats adopted by failed fosterers, as they were adopted by Ehren only a month after coming into our care. They have such funny personalities and she wouldn’t be without them now. Basil and Ollie are totally spoilt rotten. Basil loves to play with a red light laser, and will act much like a kitten in his attempts to ‘capture’ that pesky red dot. Basil will do anything for catnip or valerian toys. He is never far away, and as soon as you sit down on the couch, he will be on your lap. Basil is the first to tap your face every morning as he just cannot wait any longer for cuddles, well breakfast first then cuddles!
Ollie’s coat is looking much better and his kidney function is stable. His seizures go through stages, but he only a fit about once a month now. Ollie doesn’t really play with toys much, but will join in with chasing that annoying red dot on some occasions. Ollie loves to sleep on Ehren’s pillow, around her head, every single night, and all day while she is at work.
