The oldest kitten in the world
Sorry, I just discovered that LJ has for some reason not saved replies I made to comments and now I can't even remember what I wanted to say. *kicks LJ*
Took my cat to the vet today as it has been constantly scratching at its mouth and I thought maybe it had a bad tooth. You should have seen the vet's face when I let what she obviously had anticipated to be a geriatric cat with rotten teeth out of the crate. Instead she got a kittenish bright-eyed 18 1/2 year old - albeit a nervous wreck (vet trips are traumatic, yo, plus she's always been neurotic and terrified of everything) - who, to quote the vet, had teeth like a teenager and was amazingly healthy. Her muscles are deteriorating a bit and she's got a mild form of arthritis but that's it.
The increased appetite could be a sign of hyperthyroidism though. (She basically stopped eating after her mother died and has only recently regained her appetite, with a vengeance.) Since she doesn't seem to be in any pain and there is no way we would be able to administer drugs to her every day (this cat will leave bleeding gashes wherever she can get at you and probably bite your finger off if you try to force her to do something she doesn't like, especially involving her mouth) we decided to let it be for now. She got a steroid shot and antibiotics in case there is something in her mouth or throat we couldn't see bugging her and if it doesn't get better we're taking her in again for a blood test. But the vet was basically like O.O at how healthy she seemed. By this (unusually high for a cat) age her mother was already blind, deaf and could hardly walk from arthritis. She only just reached her 19th birthday before we had to let her go. This one will be 19 in November and runs around, chases her tail and still jumps down from the balcony when she wants to take a stroll outside. Not saying she will live to be 30 but unless she really develops a bad thyroid problem we might have her for quite a few years yet. *crosses fingers*
I'm a bit worried now though about taking on mom's cat for three weeks while she is away, as I had promised her we'd do, since our cat is now on a special diet for her arthritis and it costs a fortune. Not going to let mom's healthy cat gobble that up, plus it might be bad for her. Even if we feed them in separate rooms my cat is a slow eater who eats a little at a time and then comes back again and again for more. Like I fed her the new food (which she thankfully loves, she is very picky and has refused to eat anything but gourmet food like salmon in sauce the last couple of weeks and I indulged her because I thought her teeth were hurting her, the sneaky little minx) and she has come back to eat probably five times in the last three hours even if it was just a regular portion. So not sure how we're gonna do that.
It's an experiment anyway, taking mom's cat in. If they don't get along at all we'll take her back and go over to feed her at mom's place. Not going to make my old cat miserable in her own home, not at her age. Plus I'm worried that mom's cat will escape through the window and get lost. Mom lives on the third floor and her cat has never been outside. We live only a bit up from the ground so an open window is just like an open door. (We live in a cul-de-sac though so there's very little traffic, thankfully.) But it can get really hot in here if the sun shines through the big windows in our living room and we really need to be able to open them if only a crack. In fact we usually keep the balcony door open when we're home, most of the summer.
Took my cat to the vet today as it has been constantly scratching at its mouth and I thought maybe it had a bad tooth. You should have seen the vet's face when I let what she obviously had anticipated to be a geriatric cat with rotten teeth out of the crate. Instead she got a kittenish bright-eyed 18 1/2 year old - albeit a nervous wreck (vet trips are traumatic, yo, plus she's always been neurotic and terrified of everything) - who, to quote the vet, had teeth like a teenager and was amazingly healthy. Her muscles are deteriorating a bit and she's got a mild form of arthritis but that's it.
The increased appetite could be a sign of hyperthyroidism though. (She basically stopped eating after her mother died and has only recently regained her appetite, with a vengeance.) Since she doesn't seem to be in any pain and there is no way we would be able to administer drugs to her every day (this cat will leave bleeding gashes wherever she can get at you and probably bite your finger off if you try to force her to do something she doesn't like, especially involving her mouth) we decided to let it be for now. She got a steroid shot and antibiotics in case there is something in her mouth or throat we couldn't see bugging her and if it doesn't get better we're taking her in again for a blood test. But the vet was basically like O.O at how healthy she seemed. By this (unusually high for a cat) age her mother was already blind, deaf and could hardly walk from arthritis. She only just reached her 19th birthday before we had to let her go. This one will be 19 in November and runs around, chases her tail and still jumps down from the balcony when she wants to take a stroll outside. Not saying she will live to be 30 but unless she really develops a bad thyroid problem we might have her for quite a few years yet. *crosses fingers*
I'm a bit worried now though about taking on mom's cat for three weeks while she is away, as I had promised her we'd do, since our cat is now on a special diet for her arthritis and it costs a fortune. Not going to let mom's healthy cat gobble that up, plus it might be bad for her. Even if we feed them in separate rooms my cat is a slow eater who eats a little at a time and then comes back again and again for more. Like I fed her the new food (which she thankfully loves, she is very picky and has refused to eat anything but gourmet food like salmon in sauce the last couple of weeks and I indulged her because I thought her teeth were hurting her, the sneaky little minx) and she has come back to eat probably five times in the last three hours even if it was just a regular portion. So not sure how we're gonna do that.
It's an experiment anyway, taking mom's cat in. If they don't get along at all we'll take her back and go over to feed her at mom's place. Not going to make my old cat miserable in her own home, not at her age. Plus I'm worried that mom's cat will escape through the window and get lost. Mom lives on the third floor and her cat has never been outside. We live only a bit up from the ground so an open window is just like an open door. (We live in a cul-de-sac though so there's very little traffic, thankfully.) But it can get really hot in here if the sun shines through the big windows in our living room and we really need to be able to open them if only a crack. In fact we usually keep the balcony door open when we're home, most of the summer.