Cat news: she’s staying one more day at the vet’s because he wants to put more fluids in her. He says she is showing some improvement — the problem was her kidneys shut down and she was dehydrated, but he seems to think she can do fine if I give her fluids subcutaneously twice a week. He didn’t mention the possibility that this might be more than she can bear and thus bring up the “put her to sleep” scenario, but I’m going to talk to him when I go over there tomorrow morning. It’s not that I can’t see myself giving her an IV (I already force a pill down her throat twice a day and clip her nails — which she hates and struggles against — so what’s one more thing), and not even so much the expense — me doing it will be less expensive than the alternative of bringing her to the vet twice a week. It’s that I don’t want her to be as miserable as she’s been. It’s not that she was lively and active before, but she showed an interest in things and seemed content; this past week was different, she was still basically a fur paperweight but you could tell she was feeling really bad, as opposed to momentarily pissed off because I bothered her to make her take her pill. And the lack of interest in food was the real alarm; food was her main interest in life. (That and growling at my other cat.)
Anyway, I’m going to talk seriously to the vet about this tomorrow. If she continues not to eat that will be a clear signal to me at least that she’s not interested in living anymore. I don’t want to prolong her suffering just because I’m squeamish. In the meantime… I just took a look at my bank account and oh boy I’m in the red again! I’d like to thank all of you who have already donated to my Paypal account. This sort of thing couldn’t have come at a worse time (which is why it occurred now — I never have these emergencies when I’m flush with cash). As for finding a job, it looks like the rest of the year is a washout — this is such a bad time to find a job. I could get a temporary holiday job at some store but those positions pay little over minimum wage — and with all the things they make you go through here (drug tests, background checks, weeks of waiting while they sift through seventy thousand other candidates applying for the same position) it’s probably too late to get one of those jobs anyway. I’m better off staying on unemployment, which will carry me through January and then that’s it.
Gah, what a week.
4 Responses to “Fundraiser for the cat, and, well, me”
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December 20th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
My 15 year old was just diagnosed with CRF. She was not interested in eating at all. After a couple of days of IV fluids and SubQs she got a little better. I give her 1 SubQ daily, use a phosphorous binder in her food and try to get her to eat enough kidney friendly food to keep her protein input down.
There are medicines to reduce nausea that help with the appetite. A half of a 10mg Pepsid AD also keeps the acid in the stomach under control. I got her to eat by giving her some very not kidney friendly fancy feast at first and then mixing in the low protein stuff in greater proportion.
Greenies pill pockets work great for getting pills into cats, btw.
This site has very good information on feline kidney disease:
http://www.felinecrf.org/
I hope everything works out for you.
December 20th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Thanks for the website! I’ll be checking it out. The vet said I should give her subcutaneous fluids twice a week so I’ll be going by there Monday for the stuff and for him to show me what to do. I figure if she won’t eat I’ll try mixing it with some of her usual stuff. I’ve gotten so that I don’t have a problem getting the pill down her — I can use the same method with bits of food. I’ll check with the vet about anti-nausea stuff too, as she occasionally barfs.
December 20th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
The phosphorous binder is important but the vet will explain that, the pepcid and probably Mertazapine for the nausea (it will also stimulate the appetite and make the cat sing, rly).
I was apprehensive about giving SubQs to a cat (her name is Jones) who hated to be picked up and was always up for a little
fisticuffs when she needed to be handled. Fortunately she really doesn’t mind it. Quite a relief. Buried in the links on the website is a video of a vet doing the SubQ and it is actually that easy when you get the hang of it.
December 20th, 2008 at 8:22 pm
I’ll ask the vet about stuff for her stomach. I did get her to eat a tiny bit of food and water just now, which is better than she was doing before. She’s still very weak, though. I had to take the lid off the litter box because she’s too weak to maneuver herself out — she g0t stuck! So I’m going to buy a bunch of those puppy pads, because she’s also a bit shaky when it comes to aim. And she’s been walking from the bathroom to the main room of my apartment in short stages with rest between. I hope she gets stronger. At least she seems more alert.