Meet Max,

This is Max, he is almost thirteen years old and an absolute sweetheart. I just wanted to share with you what we have been going through with him for the last several weeks.

Max developed a bump on his head, not very big but I noticed it. After a couple days it got bigger and opened into a sore. Over the next week it just kept getting bigger, so I took him to the veterinarian to get checked out.

There was no obvious infection, like pus or fever, but our vet decided to start a round of antibiotic and steroids. She also insisted he get his rabies vaccine at that time, he was due. I expressed concern about giving the vaccine at that time, with him fighting whatever was going on but she insisted it was of no concern since he was not running a fever.

Now you know I'm a health coach and I'm all about the body's natural ability to heal when giving the proper nutrition and support. So, I did have concerns about starting these medications. But I deferred to the veterinarian as the expert in cats and I started the recommended medications.

After about five days (it was a ten-day course) things went really bad. Max was lethargic. The sore had not gotten better at all in fact it had gotten worse. I called the vet and let her know and she wanted to do surgery immediately to remove the lesion even though she confirmed that he may not make it through the surgery.

My gut feeling was, "No" this does not feel right. I needed to slow down and give this some thought. I insisted we do bloodwork first before jumping into surgery.

I took a step back and thought about what I would coach my client on and apply it to my cat. Whether moving forward with a doctor's protocol or not I would want my client to be in the best place possible for healing.

Knowing that about 3/4 of the immune system lives in the gut, it's crucial that gut health be first and foremost.

I started max on a probiotic for his gut. Support don't suppress.

I needed to lean into what I knew to be true.

A couple days later the blood work came back, and it was not good. His Liver enzymes were through the roof. He also has elevated heart values (this we knew from last year) The vet recommended we stop the medications, and said he was too sick for surgery. That same afternoon I watched Max wobble and fall. His backend just went out and he went down. I had to go pick him up off the ground, it broke my heart.

I called the kids that night and told them he may not make it, that was April 26th.

It was clear his liver was way overtaxed. It's hard to say what brought it on but his liver was in need of help. I decided to take a holistic approach and work on supporting him. I started him on Milk Thistle. Milk Thistle is a great herb for liver health.

Max's protocol

I used Manuka honey on the open wound. It took quite a while to scab over, but it eventually did. I was giving him probiotics and Milk thistle twice a day. He already eats a quality food, but I added in some canned liver and chicken blend as well.

I'm writing this on May 14th, not only is he still with us he is doing great. After about a week on a holistic protocol we started to see he was getting stronger, acting more like himself. Today he is acting totally normal, and the sore has scabbed over and is finally looking less red and irritated.