Running late (surprise!), but here’s a detailed update if you are interested in the nitty gritty details of Maggie’s health. Long story short: I was offered the choice of expensive surgery or euthanasia. The only way around this is if the stones in Maggie’s ureter pass on their own, which isn’t expected to happen.
Ureteral Stenting described by University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School
Maggie’s kidneys are failing. All the details are here:
I was so sad last night. It’s really been a doozie of a summer.
This morning when we woke up, I took Maggie to the vet for the first of two days of dialysis. I spoke with the vet about the fact that I have planned a party for myself tonight. She said I could either leave Maggie at the vet overnight or pick her up at 5:45pm before they close at 6pm. She said Maggie would probably just sleep a lot, so the fact that I will be out of town for a few hours shouldn’t be a problem. In short, THE BLARTY’S ON!
Here are a few pictures from this morning (settling into the car and the drop off):
During a better week.
My kitties are having a really rough time. Maggie hasn’t been eating at all. She’s been to the vet twice. There are calcium oxalate crystals in her urine, but no stones were visible in her x-ray. They put her on special food, but she isn’t eating it at all, and now she’s just not eating anything. Yesterday, she weight 8 ounces less than she weighed 10 days earlier. What’s weird is that she isn’t acting all that strangely. She’s still peeing outside the box sometimes, and she’s definitely staying close, but she’s willing to play, and she seems happy. It’s weird. She just won’t eat. I got her to eat a bit yesterday and the day before after buying her a different type of food, but today, it’s back to no eating at all. Earlier, when she woke me up, I tried feeding her, but she didn’t want to eat. So finally, I gave her the appetite stimulant pill the vet game me. She then proceeded to puke it up. Sigh… The pill was whole, so I cleaned it off and crushed it up into her food. She still wouldn’t eat more than a bite or two. She just woke me up again, and I tried to get her to eat. No dice.
Jeep is another story. She’s kind of crazy. When I take Maggie to the vet, Jeep freaks out completely. Yes, you heard right. Jeep gets very stressed by the smell of Maggie after she arrives home. So she was already stressed by Maggie’s vet trip, and then she herself had to go to a new vet. This has been scheduled for several weeks. She is participating in a pain study at the NCSU vet school. So I take the poor girl over there. She HATES the car (got some audio of that)…
Once we arrived, there was a lot of paperwork for me. And meanwhile, in the same exam room, Jeep was tested for arthritis. This was sad and kind of funny, too. They basically stretch her in various ways to test for pain. My question was this: “I know she’s going to growl at you the entire time, so how will you know when she’s in pain?†Apparently, the growl from pain is different than the regular growl. Poor girl, to see her arms being pulled, along with the crescendo of growls… She was NOT happy. They found what I expected they’d find: pain in her hips. They kept her for a few hours. She was sedated and x-rayed. The x-rays revealed visible signs of mild degenerative joint disease in both hips. She was given a collar that monitors her activity level, and I received detailed instructions about what I need to do to until my next visit there.
The bad part of all of this is that because Jeep was sedated, she now has dilated pupils, poor vision, and is really sensitive to light and noises. She also seems to have no balance at all. So she’s pissed, walking into things, hissing constantly, a real delight. And Maggie doesn’t really know what to do with her. Jeep has been hanging out in my closet with the lights off, and Maggie has been following me around wanting attention, but not food.
I’m glad I have nowhere specific to be today. Think I might take Maggie back over to the vet (it’s very close by) and see if they can get that appetite stimulant down her without her puking it back up. That might make the day a little better. Since I’m stuck in, it might be a nice movie/reading/photo editing/cleaning day… although I REALLY want to vacuum, but I don’t see that as a good idea, given Jeep’s fragile state.
Oy Gevalt!
I spent the latter part of yesterday watching Jeep and doing little tests. Her allergies are now treated, so she’s no longer got the runny nose, but she has still been hanging out under the bed, under the chair – just low to the ground. She hasn’t had that growly demeanor she has when she’s feeling bad. I kept her out in the living room with the bedroom door closed for a few hours. She’s avoided any chance to jump up on to furniture on her own. I put some little bits of food up on her favorite chair. She was interested, but it took a LOT of cajoling to get her to jump. She also was really reluctant to chase the laser pointer “bug.” Watching her get up, I noticed she seemed a little wobbly.
I think my little girly has arthritis. The doc had mentioned glucosamine for kitties (we had gone through all the possibilities), and looking it up, it seems like the right way to go. I think one reason she’s been feeling bad is that she’s had a few things bothering her (allergies AND arthritis), so when any actual bug gets her, it really knocks her out. It also explains the more frequent “accidents” just outside the litterbox.
I looked it up. A kitty cat that’s 11 years old is like a 60 year-old person. It’s hard for me to think of my girls as seniors, but the truth is, they are.
I am now spending a lot of time following Jeep around, attempting to anticipate her needs. When she looks longingly up at a chair, I pick her up. If I notice she’s been sleeping a while, I help her get down and walk with her to the litterbox. I could be making this up, but she totally seems to think I’m her hero now. She seems to be feeling better for the first time in a long while, and whenever I help her out, she purrs really loudly and gives me noogies. It’s nice to be appreciated! And it’s great to be able to finally help her out. I’ve been feeling pretty helpless to do that recently.
