The Pet Thread

[Road Guy]

It’s like close encounters of the 3rd kind around here...

 

[Supe]

Happy 9th birthday to Ursala and Annie!  Yesterday was their b-day.  Can't wait to pick them up from the sitter's tonight.  They're big vanilla Frostee fans.

 

[goodal]

  We recently adopted Beau's big brother.  They are both about 3.5 yrs old and hate birds.  Took a couple weeks for them to figure who the boss is, but they get along great now.  

 

[JayKay PE]

Update on P2: She keeps growing (that's a normal bathmat and she isn't stretched out).  I don't a normal house cat is supposed to get this big...

 

[leggo PE]

My normal housecat is pretty darned big. He's 15 lbs without that much extra weight on him.

But typically, female kitties are smaller, I think.

 

[Ble_PE]

Well, today was the day we'd been dreading for a while. Our little, sweet basset Bella crossed the rainbow bridge . She'd been having a hard time for a while and yesterday was especially bad, so we scheduled a vet to come to the house to put her to sleep. She went peacefully with the family hugging her this afternoon. I know it was the right thing to do, but I'll be damned if it isn't the shittiest thing in the world. I see a lot of beer in my future...

 

[Supe]

So sorry to hear, Ble.  Can't begin to imagine what you and the family are going through  

 

[Flyer_PE]

Sorry to hear it, Ble.  It's never an easy thing.

 

[MA_PE]

X3.  that sucks.  so sorry for you and your family.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

I'm really hoping my cat didn't go looking for the rainbow bridge when we let her outside this morning...

The last few days has seen her losing weight and yesterday she definitely had a weak/frail feeling to her. She had spit up a few times yesterday evening and it was all bile (no food or hairballs like normal cats). Definitely to the point that I was planning on arranging a vet visit within the next day or two. Put her in bed with us at 11 and she was not doing well. All she could do was lie down. About midnight she woke us up by vomiting again, so I got up to take clean it up and make sure she got back to bed OK. Tried to feed her some chicken from the fridge and a couple of her treats but she didn't want them (very unlike her). Put her back to bed only for her to wake us up again a few hours later. Mrs Dex couldn't find the mess so she put the cat outside.

Woke up this morning to discover that she had thrown up blood a couple times. She's normally on the front porch in the morning when she gets put outside at night. Not today, can't find her.

Between the lack of sleep and worry for the cat I'm a zombie at work. This sucks, I hope we can find her and get to the vet in time. 

Edit/update: kitty came back and her vet appointment is later this morning.

 

[Dleg]

How old is she?  Sounds like kidney problems, if she's old.

Our goddamned cat is 16 and I thought for sure she would be crossing the rainbow bridge a few months ago, but we started giving her sub-cutaneous fluids and proper kidney diet and she has sort of bounced back. Very weirdly, she had become super athletic. We have been keeping her out of the upstairs using a baby gate just to limit where she pees (kidney disease thing), but it seems all that has done is serve as a gym of sorts, and now she's able to jump really high (gate has been extended and fortified several times). 16 years old and we never had to worry about her on the kitchen table or counter, but now she just jumps right up. 

But she's still clearly nearing the end of the road, and despite gaining some weight back she's still super skinny and her fur doesn't have that young cat fluffiness at all.  I am guessing this strength thing is more a side effect of some aging weirdness where she has become obsessed with getting out / accessing everything in the house, maybe out of restlessness or something. I am worried that it is pain that is driving her behavior, but none of the other indicators are there.  Maybe it's just dementia (it happens).

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

We honestly have no idea how old she is. When we were dealing with her eye problem 6 months ago, we speculated she was somewhere around 3-5yrs. The first round of blood tests yesterday indicated she may be closer to 10yrs but still doesn't really tell us what's wrong. She stayed at the vets overnight while she got IV fluids and she's supposed to get xrays and scans this morning. The only thing we know for sure is that she was severely dehydrated and she lost over 2lbs since her last visit (about a third of her body weight).

 

[Dleg]

10 years - easily could be the kidneys. Symptoms all match. 

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Once again my wife schools me in the ways of medicine and she's the one talking directly with the vet. I only know what she tells me, which is relayed info and dumbed down to my non-medical stupidity level. According to this morning's update, the cat has really high thyroid and liver enzyme levels and the thought is that the cat has hyperthyroidism and got hit with a severe infection. It's speculated that the eye infections are just outward symptoms of a larger immunity problem (FIV maybe). So kitty will be spending a 2nd night at the vets with more IV fluids & antibiotics and an ultrasound tomorrow. Depending on the outcome of that, kitty will either be sent home with meds or will stay a 3rd night.

 

[Ble_PE]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! There's still a Bella-sized hole in our home, but thankfully our other dog hasn't been too affected by her passing. We were worried because he's never been a single dog because when we got him I had my German shepard from college and then we got Bella a few years later, so we weren't sure how he would react. So far, so good.

Dex, I hope that everything works out for your cat!

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Vet called this morning and said kitty is responding very well to the treatments. They think it's a liver infection that is responding to the meds, which is good. Also means she probably doesn't need the ultrasound. She'll still need meds moving forward to treat the thyroid, but that's manageable. Hopefully kitty will be able to come home today.

 

[Road Guy]

Sounds like good news? Hope kitty gets to come home Soon And feel betta!

 

[JayKay PE]

Ah!  I hope kitty comes home soon!  I had an older cat who, at 15, was told that her kidney levels were high.  We had her on prednisone for a while, but it was making her eat a ton (and she wasn't gaining weight) and making bathroom issues worse, so we changed her diet a bit and made her comfortable.  She stuck around until she was almost 19, then she was put to sleep at the house after a major seizure when she was no longer there/responding to her name.  Thyroid issues should be easier and liquid medication (versus pills) are waaaaaaaaay easier for old cats who are too wily for their own good.

 

[leggo PE]

Glad to hear the kitty is doing well, Dex.

Hope Bella shows up soon, Ble.

My cat is dumb and won't teach himself the lesson that eating the plant makes him throw up.

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

Kitty came home last night.  She's still a bit lethargic, but definitely on the mend. She's on a half dozen different medications (antibiotics, thyroid, liver, & anti-nausea) that will each run their course over the next couple of weeks. After that she'll only have her thyroid meds. Vet did confirm she is FIV negative which is good news, just seems to be some sort of infected liver flare up. She doesn't seem to have any issues taking pills as long as they're balled up into some chicken.

The whole experience has made her a bit more cuddly. Will jump up into our laps now. Glad to have her home again.