Luxor and Excalibur

The Life and Times of Luxor and Excalibur

A Whiskers Special Feature

Luxor and her brother Excalibur were adopted on 11/24/07.

Luxor and Excalibur were only a few weeks old when rescued, and they suffered from severe eye infections that left them visually impaired. They were bottle-fed and have grown accustomed to lots of love and attention in their foster home.

While they like to run and play, just like regular kittens, Luxor and Excalibur need a special, safe place to live because they have a hard time seeing where they are going. Their foster parents love them very much, but don't feel that their home is perfect enough for these little guys as the design of the house includes open staircases and cat-walks that a kitten could easily fall from onto the hardwood floor.

Their ideal home will be one without high places to fall from or other hazards. They will need to be kept safe from running out a door accidentally left open. Most of all they need to be part of the family and don't want to be isolated in one room. They must be adopted together, as you will see how they have bonded.

This is the incredible story of Luxor and Excalibur over the last 5 months.

May

When Luxor (left) and Excalibur were rescued on May 11, 2007, their eyes were ravaged with a terrible infection that had invaded their corneas. Excalibur's left eye was bulging and looked extremely painful.

At barely 3 weeks old, they needed bottle feeding every few hours and medication several times a day.

By the end of May, Dr. H was pleased with their progress. The red tissue was completely gone on Luxor's eyes and almost all gone on Excalibur. We weren't sure how much they could see, but were hopeful things would improve as they grew up.

June

By June, the infection seemed to be under control. Excalibur's left eye is noticably smaller than his right eye -- a sign of permanent damage.

Luxor and Excalibur pose for pictures.

Despite their foggy eyes and poor vision, Luxor and Excalibur are an incredibly cute and loving pair!

Luxor looks like she has blue eyes, but it's really the cloudy corneas. We hoped that some of this cloudiness could be removed by the vet when they got a little bigger.

July

With their infections cleared up, Luxor and Excalibur were scheduled to be spayed/neutered on July 25. While they were under anesthesia, the vet was going to see if any scar tissue could be removed from their eyes so they could see better.

While the vet was able to clear a litle cloudy tissue from Luxor's eye, at about 3pm, one of the vet techs noticed that Luxor wasn't breathing right - then they lost her pulse.

Luxor was in cardiac arrest! Dr. H devoted the next two hours fighting to saving Luxor. When Luxor's heart stopped again for a SECOND time, Dr. H injected epinepherine directly into her little heart. After heroic efforts, Luxor finally was breathing on her own. But she wasn't out of the woods yet -- Luxor still wasn't waking up.

At 6:00 pm, Luxor's foster moms transported her to the emergency clinic so that she could be given oxygen and monitored overnight and return to the vet's office in the morning - if she survived...

The 11 pm Luxor Email Update

Hi all:

I spoke with Dr. P on the phone at 11 pm last night before I went to bed, to see if Luxor's condition had changed any. When Laurie and I brought her in to the emergency clinic she was breathing, but unconcious after her two heart attacks and subsequent resuscitations.

Dr. P steadfastly refused to be positive. Her update was as follows:

Luxor was about the same at 11 pm, still out of it
her temperature had come down to normal (it had been slightly elevated)
they had her outside of the oxygen cage while they hooked her up to an IV and all that. She did stay pink during this time
She did move around a little, some stretches actually, she said her reflex to having her toes pinched is working
they did draw some blood and Luxor did make a little vocal noise at that time
She is still not picking up her head
Dr. H had called in around 10 pm to see how Luxor was doing and was disappointed she wasn't doing better

I'm going in this morning to get Luxor (they haven't called me overnight, so I assume she's still alive) and will go to Central with her, as per Dr. H If they let her go home, I will take her to my house (she was at Laurie's house) as I can rearrange my schedule to be with her most of today and Friday. Laurie, we can talk about if you want her at night, weekend, whatever. I'm sure my husband Alan will fill in when I need to go do cat sits.

I am willing to nurse her for a few days and see if she can come back and at least be force fed and hydrated. I'm sure Laurie feels the same way.

I'll email after I get back from Central this morning.

Lori

The next morning Lori picked Luxor up from the emergency clinic. They told her Luxor had lifted her head and cried a little, but she hadn't really come around as she should. It didn't sound good. Luxor was flat on her back when they brought her out and stayed that way for the ride to her regular vet.

While waiting in the exam room for the doctor to arrive, Luxor managed to pick herself up and walked out of the carrier. She was yelling, more than meowing. Dr. H was very pleased, particularly based on the bad news she got last night from the clinic. She mentioned how unlikely it is for a cat to survive after two cardiac arrests. Luxor spent the day meowing loudly until one of the girls in the office picked her up and held her.

She got to go home that night, but she continued the yelling-meowing. She calmed down when she was held like a baby and took comfort in a bottle of kitten formula.Finally she settled down, but the next day she was confused and shakey - still coming out of the anesthesia.

Luxor is comforted by her brother on her second night home from the hospital.

66 hours later, Luxor is still emerging from a daze.

Although she's still shakey, Luxor is powerless to resist the rustling of the magic tassle.

Hanging out 5 days after Luxor's trauma.

August

The calm between two storms... Luxor is feeling better, but the infection in Excalibur's left eye is starting to flare up again.

Just when everything seemed under control... Excalibur's right eye became swollen and irritated, practically overnight. It wasn't much of an eye at all anymore, and Dr H said it needed to be removed.

And as if she hadn't been through enough, poor Luxor's eyes were also reinfected.

On August 20, Excalibur had his left eye removed. He had to wear his collar for a week and a half.

September

Both kitties are on the mend. Excalibur's wound healed nicely, and he's a happy boy. Luxor beat the odds and has no apparant neurological damage from her trauma two months before. Unfortunately, her last bout with the eye infection left her with even more tissue damage.

Excalibur and Luxor relaxing together.

Luxor likes to arch her tail over her back and point it at her head.

Luxor can't see much, but all her other senses help her stay oriented and allow her to play, run and do all the other things that kitties do.

Sweet Affectionate Luxor Handsome, Playful Excalibur

So Happy Together.

Click Here to see more of Luxor and Excalibur on YouTube