This post is sponsored by Assisi Animal Health
When my dear friend Rita and her husband Rob came across a six-month old kitten who had just given birth in an Oklahoma City parking garage, they were not looking for another pet. After taking her to a vet to get her taken care of, they planned to find a good home for her. They named her Kitty Girl because they didn’t want to become too attached. However, as many of us know, the best laid plans don’t always pan out when it comes to cats. Kitty Girl fell in love with Rob. 18 years later, he is still her one and only love. For more about Kitty Girls history, read When You Get the Cat You Need, Not the Cat You Want, in Rita’s own words.
Multiple health issues in a senior kitty
Even though Kitty Girl wasn’t showing any signs of pain, and still performing all her usual activities, including jumping up onto a favorite napping spot on top of a 5-foot tall dresser, her vet told Rita that she was starting to have some mild stiffness from arthritis when she was about 14 years old. She had some muscle loss in her back legs, as well. Her vet recommended Dasuquin and fish oil.
Over the past few years, Kitty Girl slowed down a bit more, and she no longer attempted jumping up on the dresser. Her back legs showed some stiffness while walking. In February of last year, Kitty Girl was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, and was started on Methimazole. Once her thyroid levels were back in the normal range, a follow-up blood test a couple months later revealed that her kidneys are also comprised. Her vet recommended AminAvast and EpiKitin (a phosphate binder) to support her kidney function.
“Kitty Girl has never liked handling and will tolerate it only from her favorite human (her papa), and only for a limited time,” said Rita. “To get her to take any medication, we have to make it tasty for her, and she needs to think it’s her idea.” Rita and her husband tried giving her pills early in her life “and it was a disaster. Her fear aggression causes any forceful medical intervention to be too stressful for her, and rather dangerous for us.” Thankfully, she loves chicken-flavored Pill Pockets, and readily gobbles up her tiny piece of thyroid pill twice per day in what we call her “Special Treat”. She will usually lap up the AminAvast and Epikitin powders mixed with the juice from canned tuna, canned salmon, and sometimes mixed with nutritional yeast or ground up freeze-dried chicken (a favorite treat).
“As far as the Dasuquin and fish oil, we never found anything that she would take them in, so her arthritis remained untreated,” said Rita. “When we learned about the Assisi Loop Lounge, we were hopeful it would be a gentle way to help her old body feel its best.”
Using the Assisi Loop Lounge for Kitty Girl
Rita is a big fan of Lil BUB and had first heard about the Loop from BUB, arguably, the Loop’s most famous customer. She had also heard me talk about its benefits both here on The Conscious Cat and in conversation. Rita didn’t think Kitty Girl would take to the Loop, but when she saw the Loop Lounge, she thought that she might want to try it. I brought back information on the Loop Lounge for her from the American Association of Feline Practitioners Conference, and Rita asked Kitty Girl’s vet for a prescription. “He was happy to prescribe it, but a little skeptical at how it might work,” says Rita. “His thought was ‘why not try it, as it won’t do any harm, and it might just help.’”
The original Loop Lounge was designed to be used with the Sleepypod Air or Atom carriers. Rita already had a Sleepypod Air, so she started out using the Loop Lounge in the carrier. (Editor’s note: the Assisi Loop Lounge is now available as a stand alone therapy pad, see below for more information.)
“We were hoping that Kitty Girl would take to the SleepyPod Air carrier so that we could use the Loop Lounge as designed. She always liked lying in her old soft-sided carrier. No such luck,” said Rita. Rita tried putting toys and treats in the carrier, but she just wasn’t interested, “and physically zipping her into it several times a day was not on her agenda, either.” Rita confirmed with Assisi Animal Health that the Loop Lounge could be effectively used outside of the carrier, so she placed it (in the SleepyPod cover) under her favorite bed, where she typically naps in the afternoons and evenings. “When she’s in her bed, we will press a little button to turn the Loop on.” The Loop Lounge is set to run for 15 minutes, then automatically shuts off. Kitty Girl gets two sessions a day, afternoon and evening, most days. She often falls asleep during her treatments. “She makes the cutest little snoring noises when she is getting ‘looped’,” says Rita.
Getting results with the Assisi Loop Lounge
While Rita didn’t feel that the results were dramatic, she did have an overall increased sense of Kitty Girl’s well being. “We were trying to be very objective and not read anything into any differences right away,” said Rita. “That said, it only took a few days of using the Loop before we noticed that she seemed more energetic and interested in things in the evenings, after her sessions. She prefers the second floor of the house, but had stopped venturing downstairs at all in the previous months. Now she will take a little jog downstairs to have a look around and zoom back up them like she used to. She seems to move more comfortably after treatments, and she jumps up onto the human bed with ease. She also plays more frequently and is interested in her toys again. As well as feeling more comfortable physically, she seems more mentally alert and engaged with us as well.”
Kitty Girl’s kidney function is holding steady, according to follow-up blood work done in April. “We think a combination of the supplements and Loop sessions are keeping her kidneys in check,” says Rita. ” Because of Kitty Girl’s personality, she would never be a good candidate for sub-Q fluids, so it makes us happy that not only is the Loop helping keep her joints comfortable, it may be helping stave off worsening kidney issues as well.”
Once Rita reported back to her vet that she thought the Loop was helping, he agreed that it probably was. He is now recommending the Loop to other clients with older, arthritic pets. “The best part about using it is that we have something we can actively do for her, since she would not be agreeable to most medical intervention,” says Rita.
How the Assisi Loop Works
The Assisi Loop, created by Assisi Animal Health, is a non-pharmaceutical, non-invasive device provides targeted pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (tPEMF™). tPEMF, which was first studied in the 1970s and is FDA-cleared for use in humans, uses low-level pulses of electromagnetic energy to stimulate the body’s own healing mechanisms to help relieve pain and swelling. This therapy can benefits cats with pain associated with arthritis, pancreatitis, wounds, or post-surgical swelling as well as many inflammatory conditions. The Loop is well tolerated by most cats. In fact, many cats really enjoy receiving Loop treatments. Because the Loop stimulates the body’s own healing process, rather than introducing a new substance (like a medication), even a sensitive cat body can handle it easily.
The Assisi Loop Lounge Therapy Pad
Featuring the same pain control of the Loop via targeted pulsed electromagnetic field therapy (tPEMF™,) the Loop Lounge™ is the only therapeutic pet bed backed by scientific research. Click here to read more about the Assisi Loop Lounge.
For more information about how the Assisi Loop or the Assisi Loop Lounge could help your cat, visit http://www.assisianimalhealth.com or contact Assisi Animal Health at [email protected], 866-830-7342.
*FTC Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, which means that I was compensated to feature this content. Regardless of payment received, you will only see products or services featured on this site that I believe are of interest to our readers.
