TMI about my kitty
This is a long-ish health-related post about my kitty, the oldest of our current pack (best guess is about 16 years old), and the younger of the two from before I met Michael.
It's looking like my cat has lost most or all of her hearing. Which might explain some of her very loud yowling when she wants something.
It's also looking like she's got some big dental/periodontal issues again. Which might explain some or all of the weight loss - we've mostly been free-feeding kibble and giving a tiny bit of wet food. I hadn't noticed her eating less kibble in part because all of the cats eat out of all of the bowls, plus she's been going downstairs more and more, so we figured she was eating more kibble from the boys' bowls. It would also explain some or all of why she's been waking me up at night - she's hungry, and asking for wet food. The last few months, when she wakes me up, I've been giving her wet food, and she lets me go right back to sleep. The catch, of course, being that it's happening multiple times per night. And as I'm the most reliable in responding to her (my MIL sleeps pretty soundly, and Michael takes out his ears at night), I'm doing most of the nightly feedings.
She's been having more issues recently with barfing. We try to feed her a little at a time so it's easier to process, plus it's less to clean up at a time, but it still adds up to a lot of barf. We're also now at the year-and-a-half mark of her pooping on my bed. Our best guess is that she's got some issues with the physical process, and the bed is a fairly safe place to do it (safe = the pesky cat doesn't bother her there as much). So I'm dealing with daily poop on my bed and routine vomiting. Which has resulted in me putting a tarp on my bed when I make it in the morning. At least with the tarp, I can clean it up fairly easily. Otherwise I'm doing ridiculous amounts of laundry every week.
The tarp is all well and good except for when she finds her way under the tarp. Last week, she had about five rounds of barfing between midnight and 4:30am. Followed by a couple of bouts of diarrhea between 4:30 and 5am. I got it all cleaned up, called in a half-day to work, and took her in to the vet. When I got home from work, I found out she'd gotten under the tarp while I was getting dressed in the morning, and she peed on my bed. Of course, I didn't didn't find this out until eight or nine hours after the fact. *sigh*
The doctor gave her some anti-nausea medicine so she could at least keep food down and regain the weight she lost that morning. He also found out she had a GI infection and a possible kidney infection. I also found out she's lost way more weight than I'd thought, not just because of the barfing and such that morning.
She's barfed a handful of times since then, but I keep finding dried puddles of thin barf, so it's hard to tell when they're happening - all the same day? once a day over several days?
We've also been realizing she's spending more time sleeping or laying down though it's hard to know just how much her pain meds are directly factoring into that.
She's got another vet appointment this coming weekend. Hopefully we'll figure out more about the kidney situation and the overall weightloss situation.
I'm feeling really bad that it's taken me so long to figure out some of what's been going on with her. I wish I'd noticed her dental issues earlier - I would have been happy to start giving her more wet food if I'd realized kibble was giving her problems. We were so happy when she started losing weight (she was kind of, erm, round) that I didn't notice what was causing it or that she'd lost too *much*. I also feel bad that I didn't respond to her midnight yowling at me in a more constructive fashion. I kept figuring it was her being bored or annoyed with the pesky cat sleeping on "her" bed. I kept getting mad about it when she was trying to tell me something important. Feh. What a great cat mom I am.
So I'm slowly figuring things out and trying to be positive about doing the right things from here out. Working on not letting it trip up the BPD too much. There will be plenty to be depressed about as she eventually gets worse. Working on cuddling the cat, making sure she gets fed, trying to make sure she gets her meds (she hates meds, go figure!), and try to listen to her better.
It's looking like my cat has lost most or all of her hearing. Which might explain some of her very loud yowling when she wants something.
It's also looking like she's got some big dental/periodontal issues again. Which might explain some or all of the weight loss - we've mostly been free-feeding kibble and giving a tiny bit of wet food. I hadn't noticed her eating less kibble in part because all of the cats eat out of all of the bowls, plus she's been going downstairs more and more, so we figured she was eating more kibble from the boys' bowls. It would also explain some or all of why she's been waking me up at night - she's hungry, and asking for wet food. The last few months, when she wakes me up, I've been giving her wet food, and she lets me go right back to sleep. The catch, of course, being that it's happening multiple times per night. And as I'm the most reliable in responding to her (my MIL sleeps pretty soundly, and Michael takes out his ears at night), I'm doing most of the nightly feedings.
She's been having more issues recently with barfing. We try to feed her a little at a time so it's easier to process, plus it's less to clean up at a time, but it still adds up to a lot of barf. We're also now at the year-and-a-half mark of her pooping on my bed. Our best guess is that she's got some issues with the physical process, and the bed is a fairly safe place to do it (safe = the pesky cat doesn't bother her there as much). So I'm dealing with daily poop on my bed and routine vomiting. Which has resulted in me putting a tarp on my bed when I make it in the morning. At least with the tarp, I can clean it up fairly easily. Otherwise I'm doing ridiculous amounts of laundry every week.
The tarp is all well and good except for when she finds her way under the tarp. Last week, she had about five rounds of barfing between midnight and 4:30am. Followed by a couple of bouts of diarrhea between 4:30 and 5am. I got it all cleaned up, called in a half-day to work, and took her in to the vet. When I got home from work, I found out she'd gotten under the tarp while I was getting dressed in the morning, and she peed on my bed. Of course, I didn't didn't find this out until eight or nine hours after the fact. *sigh*
The doctor gave her some anti-nausea medicine so she could at least keep food down and regain the weight she lost that morning. He also found out she had a GI infection and a possible kidney infection. I also found out she's lost way more weight than I'd thought, not just because of the barfing and such that morning.
She's barfed a handful of times since then, but I keep finding dried puddles of thin barf, so it's hard to tell when they're happening - all the same day? once a day over several days?
We've also been realizing she's spending more time sleeping or laying down though it's hard to know just how much her pain meds are directly factoring into that.
She's got another vet appointment this coming weekend. Hopefully we'll figure out more about the kidney situation and the overall weightloss situation.
I'm feeling really bad that it's taken me so long to figure out some of what's been going on with her. I wish I'd noticed her dental issues earlier - I would have been happy to start giving her more wet food if I'd realized kibble was giving her problems. We were so happy when she started losing weight (she was kind of, erm, round) that I didn't notice what was causing it or that she'd lost too *much*. I also feel bad that I didn't respond to her midnight yowling at me in a more constructive fashion. I kept figuring it was her being bored or annoyed with the pesky cat sleeping on "her" bed. I kept getting mad about it when she was trying to tell me something important. Feh. What a great cat mom I am.
So I'm slowly figuring things out and trying to be positive about doing the right things from here out. Working on not letting it trip up the BPD too much. There will be plenty to be depressed about as she eventually gets worse. Working on cuddling the cat, making sure she gets fed, trying to make sure she gets her meds (she hates meds, go figure!), and try to listen to her better.