Tracker, age between 15 and 18, to kidney failure. Nothing they can do. So we’re headed to the vet’s in a few minutes. Very sad day here. This is one of the two we brought from Jane’s sister’s place.
We’ve lost one of the kitties.
by CJ | Sep 10, 2018 | Journal | 49 comments
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Tanner’s an introvert, from other descriptions. I would guess he’s still grieving, but internalizing it. It sounds like he’s trying to sleep it off, as if to say, “Well, frell it and all the ruckus, I’m depressed so I’m going to sleep until I feel better.” And that can be a workable, healthy strategy if not taken too far, by humans or felines or canines. He’s eating OK, which people and animals can do, survival instinct helping despite emotional swings. He’s with humans and sees and hears there are other, somewhat known by now, felines in the household, so he’s not completely alone and things are not so dire. Once the basement repairs are done, and intermittently as possible, I’d say extra attention from both humans, and further socializing with Sei and Shu, which you have going on, is what’s needed. You know cats and you have enough idea what’s going on with him to handle things. With enough love and some chance from the other two cats, Tanner should pull through. I do hope he and they integrate fine.
It’s hard for me to believe that in a month and a half, we have Halloween, then Thanksgiving and Christmas, getting toward the end of a trying year. — I don’t know how cheerful or holiday-spirited I will be this year, but maybe a bit better than last year, despite intermittent misanthrope / curmudgeon feelings generated by the year’s events. Maybe I’ll do better. Despite some continued concerns, I think I’m making progress toward goals again, if I could only get the surrounding world / folks to go more smoothly, and get my own tendencies all going the right way more often. — But things are looking up, cautiously, despite my worries about income. I’m working toward solving it with not much expectation anything else but my own bootstraps will help.
Funny thing: The past few times I’ve played music from my iTunes library, its random playlist picks have included… Christmas music (carols and modern stuff) … in September, while we’re still in the upper 80’s and 90’s, hahaha. So iTunes is badly confused. (It never has had any concept that a random playlist might do better to avoid seasonal holiday songs when they are out-of-season.) Kinda off-putting sometimes, while at other times, I just look at it sidelong and want to laugh. 😀
(The holidays are all tinged with melancholy for me, these days, as I lost close family at one or the other of the major holidays, various years. So I kinda understand what it’s like. I also know, well, life has to go on, even when we feel down. I wish I had a really good answer for all those big questions, but I have more questions and still some aggravation about it all instead. But still, we’re all here in this world (or this cosmos), so we might as well be doing some good and some things we want to do and enjoy. It seems to me, if we’re going to be here, we might as well try to do something about it.)
Blessings for Tanner and for the whole household. A hug, a friend, is a good thing, no matter how many questions we have still.
Cindy is now home, resting in her carrier in my bedroom. She’s isolated from the other cats, especially Dusty. She has a feeding tube inserted through her neck into her esophagus, and I feed her 3 times daily, along with give her medicines through that tube. Makes it so much easier than trying to push a pill down her throat or squirt a foul-tasting liquid into her mouth.
Hi Joe, it’s good to hear that your cat Cindy is back home and hopefully recovering.
I didn’t know that they could do that with cats, a feeding tube like that.
What happened with her? I think I missed your post about it, and I can’t find it now.
Hanneke, a long story shortened considerably. I found her acting strangely on August 29, she wasn’t her usual chatty, bouncy self, and was hiding under a dresser. She wouldn’t eat or drink, and she seemed as if she were in a daze. I took her to the vet the next day and they did some tests on her, and found that her liver enzymes were elevated and she was jaundiced. They kept her overnight, and did an ultrasound on her abdomen. No abnormalities, other than her liver appeared to be irritated and slightly enlarged. They sent her home with 3 medications. She still wouldn’t eat, though, until about 10 days later, and then only sparingly. Then she stopped altogether, and I took her back to the vet to check again this past Monday. We had already discussed taking her to a specialist, and so they called ahead and let them know I was coming in with Cindy. I took her to a pet hospital through their emergency room, and then she was admitted to Internal Medicine. They did another ultrasound, chest X-rays, and took a liver sample for examination under a microscope. The internal medicine doctor (who is not just a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, but also a Ph.D. in a related field) said she examined the liver sample and it was full of fat cells. That meant that Cindy was taking fat from other parts of her body and bringing them to her liver to be metabolized. It’s called hepatic lipidosis, and the treatment is to feed her. Since she’s not eating, they gave her the feeding tube down her esophagus through an incision in her neck. For the most part, she’s still so weak she’s not fighting it, even when I give her the shot. We use a diluted wet pet food that is high in fat and protein through the tube. I measure out 28 ml three times a day, mix in whatever medicines she’s due to have at that time, and then 6 ml of water to flush the line, the food, and then 6 ml of water to flush it on down. She’s much more responsive to me this morning, and she knows where she is, she slept on my bed most of the night, and I heard her using the litter box early this morning. This feeding tube is not a permanent thing, either. She can eat normally, but I haven’t offered her any yet, until I see her moving a little better. Giving her the injection of B-vitamins is a little tricky, as the cap that holds the needle onto the syringe tends to fall off and the liquid doesn’t go through the needle. But she tolerates me giving the injections, too. This wasn’t cheap, and total for her so far has been over $6,000 for me. Don’t care about the money, I want her healthy.
Do they know the underlying cause of this? What set off the liver trouble? And if you get her fed up and stable will she be okay, poor girl? The fact you are able to do all this to her means she must really be poorly, as cats are generally rotten patients. Get well wishes for Cindy.
Teasel, our main theory is the 16-month old is a bully. She terrorizes Cindy, and it’s supposedly play, but when she runs down the hallway, and then smacks directly into her like a linebacker after the quarterback, Cindy doesn’t know what hit her. I believe Dusty has been attacking the other cats at the food dish, and Cindy just was too afraid to eat or drink. She doesn’t want Dusty around her and you can see it in her body language when she sees Dusty. So, she’s isolated, Dusty is still roaming the house, but the oldest cat doesn’t take anything off Dusty, and the teeth and claws get displayed prominently when Dusty bothers Sydney. She backs off, quickly. Cindy is just kind of weak, and until we get the calories back into her, she’s going to be fairly docile. She is aware of where she’s at, and she’s behaving more comfortably. I was surprised that she let me give her the B-vitamin shots, but the needle is so small, it’s probably practically painless, and it’s a subcutaneous injection, to boot. I expect her to get more feisty as she gets to feeling better.
Joe, thanks for answering. When my previous cat’s heart disease manifested, he was very sick and weak, and wouldn’t eat, just lay on his blanket looking pitiful.
The vet figured out what was wrong, and got him medicated, but he was still so weak he’d essentially given up and wouldn’t eat.
I fed him with a plastic syringe without a needle, squirting sips of diluted enriched wet “astronaut food for invalid cats” (as my vet called it) into the back of his mouth three times a day. After several days of that, and his heart medicine twice daily, he perked up and started eating on his own again. He had another four good years after that.
If Cindy’s tube has to come out and she’s not eating well yet, you could try feeding her that way a little longer. My vet said, if a cat doesn’t eat for three days, her liver is in danger, as happened to your Cindy; so better to take preventative action after a day or at most two, rather than waiting for them to start eating when they get hungry.
At the moment, I’m wrestling that problem with my present cat Pippin, who’d been spitting up bile more and more often, at last almost daily. Last week the second vet, at the bigger clinic where they could make an echo of her belly, concluded she had probably become allergic to or intolerant of her kidney diet food. So now I’m cooking for her daily, trying to figure out what she’ll eat (not always the same as what she did eat yesterday) and what she’ll tolerate. If she hasn’t eaten her food at the end of the day, I cook her some tuna – so far she eats that every time I’ve made it for her, while she totally disdains salmon, and will only eat whitefish and chicken sometimes. But the tuna is not only the most costly, it’s hard to find, and not always available. As for the carbohydrates she’s also supposed to eat, I’ve given up mixing those in with the fish, as she then refuses to eat anything. So far she’s refused all the things I’ve tried (rice, spelt, wheat, maize) – next up is pumpkin. Does anyone here have good kidney-diet cat food recipes, preferably without poultry as that was the main ingredient in her diet kibble?
I hope your Cindy makes as good a recovery as my Julius did.
It sounds as if separate territories might be in order, after that: a special refuge for her in your room, perhaps, the way Tanner has his own place in the basement with the new windows, with CJ and Jane.
Cat behaviour is not my forte, (I’m better with hedgehogs) but it seems like more than one feeding dish would be a good idea. Even if Dusty managed to block off and sew terror in all locations, he may then be too exhausted to wreak too much havoc. Unless he’s just bird-dogging poor Cindy wherever she goes.
Dusty is female. I gave her the name because she looked like a dust bunny, all gray fur with tan highlights on her forehead and chest. She does birddog Cindy, and it’s getting old. She’s gone after two of the other cats, the 6 year olds, and they aren’t quite at the point where Cindy was, but I might have to isolate Dusty for a while. I’d rather not have to rehome her. I’ve tried to catch her in the act and hit her with the spray to chill her out. Well, she can’t get into the bedroom to harass Cindy.
I think the plan is to leave the feeding tube in until she exhibits signs of eating, will go to the dish herself, and will eat and drink. The feeding tube doesn’t interfere with those functions. She’s also getting mirtazapine, which should stimulate her appetite. The food is a prescription only food, high in calories, and she gets fed 3 times a day with a full 28 ml, and then in the times when I have to give her medicine in between meals, she gets about 7 ml of food. She’s perking up a bit, but I don’t want to push her too hard. It’s probably going to have to come down to being separated, or else, I separate Dusty from the other cats. Either way, someone has to be separated, it appears. I can’t put her in my basement, there’s too much down there that I don’t want her near, some of it is harmful to cats. My radio and weather station is there, and Dusty tends to chew on cables and these are NOT cheap.
The instruction sheet they sent home with Cindy says that I can offer her a variety of foods, including meats that aren’t seasoned. I was surprised to see rice, pasta, and potatoes on the menu, as long as they aren’t fried.
My parents’ last two cats would lick the bowls that had had bean soup in them. And one of the cats loved the milk that had been on cereal so much that you had to guard the bowl from her, or she’d be shoving the cereal out to get at that milk.
(My cat wasn’t really especially interested in anything, as far as I could tell. Not milk or cheese, not chicken or fish.)
Mr. Junior, my old man kitteh, has pancreatitis. He’s been on digestive enzymes for at least the last 5 years, and has gotten rather finicky about his meals, being a crotchety senior citizen. What is acceptable one day will get rejected the next. I may pick up a small bit of fresh ahi tonight and see what he thinks of that, although I don’t want him getting in the habit of expecting $20/lb fish!
Meanwhile, I am trying to get Zorro back onto her old diet to see if she can be taken off the special order canned food. She has been eating mostly her old diet for the past week and a half, and hasn’t gone back to the bad scratching and gnawing at inflamed skin. I have a stash of the special food in case she starts developing a bad reaction again, but so far so good.
One more B-vitamin shot to give (6:00 AM). She’s still not trying to eat, but she is getting nutrition by the syringeful. Three of the meals are 35 ml, then when I have to give her medicines at 10:00 AM and 6:00 PM, she gets between 10 – 20 ml depending on how many “additives” I have to put in the food.
This morning, she was kneading after the 10:00 medication, and purring. I got a face-bump, and she chirped at me. She’s still not all that steady, but I do put her on my lap while I sit on the bed and give her the food/medicines. Then I let her walk a little on the bed, and that’s where she does the kneading. I think that’s a good sign, as she did it before she got sick. I know she knows where she is, and that she’s home, but as long as I can keep Dusty away from her, she should improve. Unfortunately, Dusty has turned her attention to Sophie, who is bigger than her, but much more timid. If I find her doing to Sophie what she apparently did to Cindy, I will have to isolate her from the food dish until the other cats have eaten.
This afternoon, Miss Cindy jumped up on the bed beside me, and started purring, kneading the bedcovers again, and let me give her the 2:00 PM feeding/medication. Still not eating on her own, but gaining weight and getting stronger. Eyes are clear and bright, and now the pupils are the same size, so the nerve irritation must have cleared up. When we were done, she started chatting at me, so that’s an even better sign. I will feel better when she starts hitting the food dish on her own, though. Right now, she’s out in the living room with the other cats, but she’s still staying away from them. She’s rediscovered the new cat tree and found a spot she likes. I’ve already warned Dusty several times, and then she decided to chase the other cats, until I got the spray bottle and soaked her with it……
One hopes that Dusty isn’t the type of cat who doesn’t care if she gets watered; a spray bottle won’t matter to her if that’s the case. If the indoor cats start feuding, I keep a stash of clothespins handy to throw into the melee. They clatter nicely, and are too lightweight to do more than startle.
Good to hear Cindy is perking up!
Me, I’d feel better when that feeding tube is removed and chances of infection are so greatly reduced.
An update. It’s Friday, 10/5, yesterday, I took her for her follow-up at the hospital. She’s gained a little weight, up to 2.6 kg from 2.55 kg. Her liver enzymes are still a little elevated, but coming down. She’s much more active, more alert, and she’s chatty at times. She spends a lot of time with me on the bed during the night, so I have to be careful where I move. Last night, she jumped down twice and “attacked” the food dish in the room, so she’s eating on her own, and eating plenty, on top of the prescription supplement food I’m giving her 3 times daily. She gets 49 ml each “meal” along with the medications mixed in. Only one medication cannot be mixed in, and must be given alone on an empty stomach and she can’t have anything for an hour after. I crush that pill, dissolve as much of the interior as I can in warm water, and throw the enteric coating away. The hospital said as long as she’s getting the majority of the medicine, it’ll be fine. The enteric coating just refuses to dissolve in water, and I don’t want to try anything acidic, either. But the eating is a good sign, the nestling up with me is a good sign. When I bring in the food supplements in their syringes, I sit on the edge of the bed, and she jumps up and comes over to my lap. She’s generally really good about letting me give her the supplements. Once we get the results of her blood test from yesterday, the doctor can make a determination on when the tube can come out. As for me, as long as I’m giving her that liver pill, I’d prefer the tube be in. Less stress for her, and fewer scratches for me.
Good to hear that she’s perking up and also eating on her own too.
Thanks for the update Joe, that’s good to hear.