The government is focusing to upgrade primary and secondary healthcare institutions, while presence of doctors and availability of medicines is being ensured to provide best treatment facilities to the patients, said Punjab Advisor to Chief Minister on Health Salman Rafiq while addressing a seminar held at Mayo Hospital to observe World Epilepsy Day on Wednesday.
Talking on the occasion, Professor Nasrullah said that epilepsy has an old history and great personalities like Aristotle, Alexander, Isaac Newton suffered from this disease.
He said that prominent cricketer Jonty Rhodes was also a patient of epilepsy. He said that various prominent personalities of Pakistan are also patient of epilepsy. He disclosed that two million people in Pakistan are suffering from epilepsy and majority of these patients belong to rural areas. He said that epilepsy is a curable disease and the medicines used for its treatment are of low-price but our society has various superstitious believes about this problem and instead of consulting doctor, they go to the so-called spiritual healers.
He said that there is a dire need of creating awareness amongst the masses about diseases.
I was put in a similar situation when I found my youngest cat. No local shelters could take him and I have 4 other cats that do not have the virus. I opted to keep him because I felt even if his life was shortened he could still have a quality life. A lot of people give the other cats the vaccine and have everyone co exist. I decided to go a different route. While I realize that the chances of my other cats getting the virus is very low I personally did not feel right putting my 4 healthy indoor cats at risk. Even if it was a small risk I just felt it was unfair to them. So my solution was to set up separate quarters for the cat with the feline leukemia. I have an enclosed Florida room ( like a sun porch but totally closed in with glass windows that open). Its not insulated so he's not there full time. He lives in my bedroom full time in the winter and in warmer months I let him out in the Florida room during the day to birdwatch. The bedroom is 10×15 and the Florida room is 10×8. Neither room is huge but you only have what you have. I've tried to make up for it by A. Doing the Florida room playtime. As a cat he obviously LOVES a room made of windows lol. I put plenty of birdfeeders around it so he can check out the wildlife. B. Vertical spaces! A lot of people feel bad about keeping a cat in one room, especially if its not huge. Don't! Its better than euthanasia! Cats like to go up anyway so let em! Most cats would be happier in a smaller room where they can climb than a large room with no vertical space for them. You can buy all sorts of cat trees or special shelf type mods for cats. Or, if like me, you can't drop money on these things you can make stuff too. I'm lucky enough to have a very handy husband but if that's not your situation that's fine too. A lot of things can be built with very minimal carpentry skills ( by that I mean the ability to hammer and work a hand saw lol) there's TONS of free plans available online if you don't have a vision. Just doing a Google image search for "cat trees" or " vertical space for cats" will provide a lot of inspiration. Other than that all you can do is give them lots of love and reduce stress for them as much as possible. In conclusion, keep the kitty. Its the right thing to do. It will involve a bit of modification to your life but its worth it. My recommendation to anyone in this position is to separate cats that have feline leukemia unless there's REALLY no other option to be fair to the healthy cats. There's nothing wrong with having a bedroom cat lol. Just do what you can to make the space enriching for him. Way I see it…my other cats get my attention during the day and my feline leukemia cat gets to cuddle with me at night. Given that most adult cats are pretty independent and tend to be more into cuddle time anyway I think the feline leukemia cat has the better deal as far as time with me , even if he has a bit less space go play than my others so it all works out. I live in a little cape cod so if I can make it work anyone can!
Comments are closed.