PRATT
Pratt is quite simply a miracle cat.  She suffered from chronic herpes sinus infections, which resulted in difficulty breathing for most of her life. She overcame stomatitis twice, and held off a vicious sinus cancer for six months longer than the specialist said she would, all due to integrative treatment.

When Pratty initially started screaming when she tried to eat, we had no idea what it could possibly be.  We had never heard of stomatitis. We learned that in cats it is a difficult disease to manage.  In Pratt's case, it appeared a virus with no known cure caused her immune system to attack her her gums and soft tissue in the mouth.  The condition can be excruciating. When our veterinarian informed us that the options were to remove her teeth or place her on immunosuppressive drugs for long periods of time, we decided to look for other options from an integrative veterinarian who had helped us with our other cat. They began treatment by scrupulous attention to her oral health.  Pratty had two surgeries, removing all but her front teeth, and the stomatitis did not go away.  In fact, it got worse, and we were forced to wrap her in a towel and force feed her through a syringe, just to try to get food into her to keep her alive.

We told the veterinarian that there HAD to be a better way and that we were willing to try untested holistic agents. The veterinarian loved our cat and said he would think about it and see what he could do. During that examination, Pratty confronted the vet, stared him right in the eye as if demanding he come up with something to help.  And he did.

We began a regimen of weekly acupuncture and (heaven help us!) essential oil suppositories. He also prescribed a series of whole food nutritional agents.  Once again we were skeptical but as we listened to things it made more sense than just pulling out all of Pratty's teeth. I’ll admit I was once again highly skeptical of how effective essential oils would be in curing this horrible disease, but the doctor showed us how pharmaceutical companies are researching oils for just these reasons and how people have used oils for medicinal purposes for centuries.  He could promise nothing and he was honest about that.

As skeptical as we were we did the suppositories and initially we joked that at least it did make the cat’s butt smell fabulous.   Nevertheless, in a matter of weeks, Pratty was eating independently again.  Slowly but surely her condition improved, and we weaned her off of the suppositories, and it did not return.  We breathed a sigh of relief.  The doctor named the formula for Pratty and now we understand that several cats with stomatitis have responded similarly. We are so happy that Pratt's Formula could be used this way.

The stomatitis recurred 11 months later.  For some reason, the suppositories did not have the same effect, so once again Pratty demanded our integrative doctor love her enough to come up with something.  And once again, he did.  He included her in a trial for a natural supplement that boosts the immune system and helps it fight off viruses.  After a few short days of treatment the horrible oral inflammation receded, Pratty's pain subsided, and she began to purr and eat with abandon. She was so affectionate. It completely disappeared within about 2 weeks!  We've come to learn that this treatment had the same positive effect on several other patients as well and  the group of veterinarians involved are preparing a scientific paper to report their findings.

Sadly, we'll never know if it would have been gone for good.  Pratty was diagnosed with terminal, non-treatable sinus cancer about six months later. The oncologist told us that this was likely due to her chronic Herpes virus infection and chronic inflammatory disease state.  The specialist said we couldn't even try surgery because the brain scan showed that the tumor had already penetrated the brain cavity and they felt that chemotherapy would not be helpful and could even make Pratty worse at this late stage.  Since Pratty seemed to have no inclination to die, she/we rejected the “non-treatable” diagnosis and again demanded that our integrative doctor pull a rabbit out of his <cough> hat.  He said the prognosis was grave and that he knew of nothing to help such an advanced state, but since Pratt was a fighter and had proven her ability to defeat severe things before, we should look and see what we could do.

As this was going on our veterinarian encountered new research about a Palladium-Lipoic acid-B vitamin supplement , and we  started her on a regimen at two to three times the normal recommended levels. Pratt stabilized and began to feel better and towards the end of her life, a new essential oil suppository (yes, her butt was winter-fresh this time!!) was added.  The treatments caused the cancer to recede – the tumor started melting away and flushing out.  Unfortunately it had already dug too deep into her brain.  One small growth spurt over the course of a single day caused it to grow into her brain, and overnight made continued life untenable.  But the treatments did give her an additional six months beyond what the specialist had predicted she could have, stalling what he believed was the inevitable and imminent growth of the tumor into the brain.  She lived well until her disease advanced and she passed gently in our arms. She lived a good life. We all miss her but she left us with quite a gift.
This was a happy 6 months for Pratty with a good quality of life.  She purred and played up to the last few days. If we had caught it earlier, who knows what we might have achieved with the alternative treatments.  But in all, integrative medicine gave us almost two extra years with the most precious, sweet little orange tabby you could ever have hoped to meet, and that can't be counted as anything other than success.

Michal Rogson and Grey Blavin, Los Angeles