What's up with Artemis?
In May, we took the kittens in for their yearly visit, which we have been VERY BAD about doing yearly. I'm trying to get us back on track. Anyway, Artemis weighed less than she usually does, having dropped at least a pound since we had last taken them in, maybe more. But it had been longer than a year since we went in. I really noticed that she was thin and it worried me, especially with her sister, Athena, being the "fat" one. Now, neither is out of the range of weights. Athena is at the high end, and Artemis is at the low end, but nothing TOO worrisome, except to me.
As the months passed, I'm noticing Artemis is looking even thinner. I worry about this a bit, mentioning it to Lou a few times, and he's always said back, "the doctor says she's fine, she's within the weight, etc."
So Saturday evening, I get up to go to bed from the computer, and I head to the bathroom. Athena is sleeping on my side of the bed. I find a large quantity of cat vomit on the floor. Now, our girls could pretty much letter in cat vomit if they went to college. It doesn't help that we have carpets everywhere, both of us are long-haired, though thankfully the kittens are not. We have a lot of stuff that collects on the rug and we don't vacuum as much as we should.
This vomit looked like the cat had basically emptied their entire stomach contents, and then some, onto the floor. Not hairballs. Possibly just eating way too much too fast. But it really kinda freaked me out. I resolved to tell Lou that I wanted to take Artemis to the vet (99% sure it wasn't Athena, as she was peacefully resting on my side of the bed. She often follows Lou into bed as he goes in earlier than I do, and she'll lounge on my side until I boot her out). Artemis has a habit of seeing the bottom of the food bowl and then deciding not to eat anything. It doesn't matter that there's FOOD in there, because Athena likes to scoop out the food with her paw, eat it off her paw (rarely happens, because it falls to the floor immediately), or on the floor, which happens 99.9% of the time. so there can easily be a spot of silver (they have a metal food/water bowl; we free feed them with prescription diet for bladder health since Athena had an infection years ago while we were in North Carolina or at GenCon) on the bottom, and she won't eat unless you put more food in or shake it to have the bottom not be visible.
So if it's been a while, she tends to eat way too much too fast, and it all comes back up, barely digested. This was basically what it looked like on the living room floor. I clean it up, go to bed, and tell Lou about it the next morning.
He's still insistent that everything is fine, and I don't push. Maybe I AM being paranoid. But we're going away for a week to NC for our yearly visit, and I want to get her checked out. He eventually caves on his own and calls the animal hospital we've taken them to since we got them, and schedules an appointment for Monday at 5:15.
We leave work a little early to get home and pack up just the one cat, which was weird. They've always gone together in the large crate we have. Athena booked it once she realized we had put Missy in the box (Artemis=Missy, Athena=Beana), but we never went looking and I'm sure she was wondering WTF was going on. We take her in, the vet checks her out, and says that her heart rate is a bit elevated (possibly from her being scared about being at the vet's, maybe not), and did we want to do bloodwork. I do, so he does, and he TAKES HER AWAY FROM US OMG. Kinda freaked me out a bit, they've never been taken away when we've gone to the vet; everything happens in the room, normally. So eventually an assistant comes back with Artemis, who is doing her usual "if I don't move or have any reaction, maybe they'll go away" thing (as opposed to her sister, who growls and will attack anyone who comes near her, except us, thankfully). So the assistant is expecting her to step down out of her arms and is kinda tipping her toward the table, but Artemis is having none of it, and the assistant pretty much has to drop her on the table. Poor thing.
The doc comes back in a bit with 2 vials of blood he's taken, and says to call back tomorrow (Tuesday) after 10:00 a.m. for the results. It could be a thyroid thing, it could be something else, but he'll let us know. We put Missy back in the crate, take her home, Lou drops me off and goes to his game, and once we're inside, Artemis is basically at the gate/door anxious to GET OUT OF THE CAGE, MOM, LET ME OUT. So I carry her up the steps with her being active (it was good to see that, honestly) and pressing up against the door to get out. I put the crate down on the floor as soon as I get in, and open the door and she ZOOMS out. Athena hisses at her a few times, since she smells like that place they get the shots and such, but things settle down.
Tuesday comes and Lou calls after 10:00. It's not thyroid, or cancer, or anything. They ARE 13 years old after all (we had totally forgotten how long we've had them). But she does have elevated enzymes in her liver. So we have some medicine to give her; and antibiotic with some steroids in them (basically amoxicillin, the pink stuff we got as kids) and a blue pill, of which we have 15 pills. She's to be given the amoxicillin twice a day, and the pill once a day.
You can see where this is going, can't you? Yes, we leave for North Carolina on Saturday. No, we can't take the cats. And we have Lou's mom come in every other day to look after them, normally, when we go away. This is not going to work.
Lou asks if we can start her on the medicine, then stop and start back up once we get back. I also suggest to him later (in the car on the way home) that we could just wait to start her on the medicine when we get back. He says no, he sees no reason to keep her from medicine that she needs to get better.
Our only viable option, suggested by the person at the animal hospital when we picked up her medicine, is to board her there while we're away.
Now, Lou's parents have boarded their dogs there for YEARS. Lou's mom, in fact, calls it "going away to camp," such as "the dogs are at camp, we'll be in whatever city, and back on X date" when she calls us to let us know that they're going away. They've never boarded their cats, simply because, well, they're cats. Usually someone to come by every few days and check the food/water supply and clean the litter box is fine.
But this is the first time we will have done this with our cats. The first time they'll EVER be "sleeping away from home." In a strange place, with all those smells, and those barking dogs. We've gone ahead and done it, made reservations for BOTH of them (we really could not see just putting Missy there). I'm REALLY hoping they can stay together in a cage/crate. Usually they put the cats in their own crates, but OMG, they wouldn't have each other to support themselves if we do that. I don't know if I can handle that, never mind them.
Of course, I started worrying today that they'll give the wrong cat the medicine. They look alike, but not enough alike that you can't really tell them apart. Never mind their size: Missy is like 7 lbs 9 oz (btw, she had lost 3 ounces since the May visit), and Athena is like nearly double that, at 13 lbs some oz. I forget. They also don't wear collars currently; we fell out of the habit. And since they never leave the apartment except when they're in a cage, it's okay to have them uncollared. They'd have to get out of the apartment, get down 2 flights of stairs, and then another door to "escape" outside.
So anyway, Lou and I are stressing over this mightily, in our own quiet ways. Lou feels like he failed in listening to me, that we could have gotten her checked out earlier if he hadn't kept dismissing my feelings. Then we wouldn't have had to board them, etc. I'm stressing that I didn't push the issue harder earlier. I just kinda panicked with something happening to Artemis while we were gone.
We're taking them in on Friday after work, and we'll pick them up on the Tuesday after we get back. I know they'll be fine. We both know they'll be fine. But that doesn't keep us from worrying and stressing and being those things that "parents" are when their "kids" are going away for the first time.
Have to make sure the animal hospital has our cell phone numbers, though.
As the months passed, I'm noticing Artemis is looking even thinner. I worry about this a bit, mentioning it to Lou a few times, and he's always said back, "the doctor says she's fine, she's within the weight, etc."
So Saturday evening, I get up to go to bed from the computer, and I head to the bathroom. Athena is sleeping on my side of the bed. I find a large quantity of cat vomit on the floor. Now, our girls could pretty much letter in cat vomit if they went to college. It doesn't help that we have carpets everywhere, both of us are long-haired, though thankfully the kittens are not. We have a lot of stuff that collects on the rug and we don't vacuum as much as we should.
This vomit looked like the cat had basically emptied their entire stomach contents, and then some, onto the floor. Not hairballs. Possibly just eating way too much too fast. But it really kinda freaked me out. I resolved to tell Lou that I wanted to take Artemis to the vet (99% sure it wasn't Athena, as she was peacefully resting on my side of the bed. She often follows Lou into bed as he goes in earlier than I do, and she'll lounge on my side until I boot her out). Artemis has a habit of seeing the bottom of the food bowl and then deciding not to eat anything. It doesn't matter that there's FOOD in there, because Athena likes to scoop out the food with her paw, eat it off her paw (rarely happens, because it falls to the floor immediately), or on the floor, which happens 99.9% of the time. so there can easily be a spot of silver (they have a metal food/water bowl; we free feed them with prescription diet for bladder health since Athena had an infection years ago while we were in North Carolina or at GenCon) on the bottom, and she won't eat unless you put more food in or shake it to have the bottom not be visible.
So if it's been a while, she tends to eat way too much too fast, and it all comes back up, barely digested. This was basically what it looked like on the living room floor. I clean it up, go to bed, and tell Lou about it the next morning.
He's still insistent that everything is fine, and I don't push. Maybe I AM being paranoid. But we're going away for a week to NC for our yearly visit, and I want to get her checked out. He eventually caves on his own and calls the animal hospital we've taken them to since we got them, and schedules an appointment for Monday at 5:15.
We leave work a little early to get home and pack up just the one cat, which was weird. They've always gone together in the large crate we have. Athena booked it once she realized we had put Missy in the box (Artemis=Missy, Athena=Beana), but we never went looking and I'm sure she was wondering WTF was going on. We take her in, the vet checks her out, and says that her heart rate is a bit elevated (possibly from her being scared about being at the vet's, maybe not), and did we want to do bloodwork. I do, so he does, and he TAKES HER AWAY FROM US OMG. Kinda freaked me out a bit, they've never been taken away when we've gone to the vet; everything happens in the room, normally. So eventually an assistant comes back with Artemis, who is doing her usual "if I don't move or have any reaction, maybe they'll go away" thing (as opposed to her sister, who growls and will attack anyone who comes near her, except us, thankfully). So the assistant is expecting her to step down out of her arms and is kinda tipping her toward the table, but Artemis is having none of it, and the assistant pretty much has to drop her on the table. Poor thing.
The doc comes back in a bit with 2 vials of blood he's taken, and says to call back tomorrow (Tuesday) after 10:00 a.m. for the results. It could be a thyroid thing, it could be something else, but he'll let us know. We put Missy back in the crate, take her home, Lou drops me off and goes to his game, and once we're inside, Artemis is basically at the gate/door anxious to GET OUT OF THE CAGE, MOM, LET ME OUT. So I carry her up the steps with her being active (it was good to see that, honestly) and pressing up against the door to get out. I put the crate down on the floor as soon as I get in, and open the door and she ZOOMS out. Athena hisses at her a few times, since she smells like that place they get the shots and such, but things settle down.
Tuesday comes and Lou calls after 10:00. It's not thyroid, or cancer, or anything. They ARE 13 years old after all (we had totally forgotten how long we've had them). But she does have elevated enzymes in her liver. So we have some medicine to give her; and antibiotic with some steroids in them (basically amoxicillin, the pink stuff we got as kids) and a blue pill, of which we have 15 pills. She's to be given the amoxicillin twice a day, and the pill once a day.
You can see where this is going, can't you? Yes, we leave for North Carolina on Saturday. No, we can't take the cats. And we have Lou's mom come in every other day to look after them, normally, when we go away. This is not going to work.
Lou asks if we can start her on the medicine, then stop and start back up once we get back. I also suggest to him later (in the car on the way home) that we could just wait to start her on the medicine when we get back. He says no, he sees no reason to keep her from medicine that she needs to get better.
Our only viable option, suggested by the person at the animal hospital when we picked up her medicine, is to board her there while we're away.
Now, Lou's parents have boarded their dogs there for YEARS. Lou's mom, in fact, calls it "going away to camp," such as "the dogs are at camp, we'll be in whatever city, and back on X date" when she calls us to let us know that they're going away. They've never boarded their cats, simply because, well, they're cats. Usually someone to come by every few days and check the food/water supply and clean the litter box is fine.
But this is the first time we will have done this with our cats. The first time they'll EVER be "sleeping away from home." In a strange place, with all those smells, and those barking dogs. We've gone ahead and done it, made reservations for BOTH of them (we really could not see just putting Missy there). I'm REALLY hoping they can stay together in a cage/crate. Usually they put the cats in their own crates, but OMG, they wouldn't have each other to support themselves if we do that. I don't know if I can handle that, never mind them.
Of course, I started worrying today that they'll give the wrong cat the medicine. They look alike, but not enough alike that you can't really tell them apart. Never mind their size: Missy is like 7 lbs 9 oz (btw, she had lost 3 ounces since the May visit), and Athena is like nearly double that, at 13 lbs some oz. I forget. They also don't wear collars currently; we fell out of the habit. And since they never leave the apartment except when they're in a cage, it's okay to have them uncollared. They'd have to get out of the apartment, get down 2 flights of stairs, and then another door to "escape" outside.
So anyway, Lou and I are stressing over this mightily, in our own quiet ways. Lou feels like he failed in listening to me, that we could have gotten her checked out earlier if he hadn't kept dismissing my feelings. Then we wouldn't have had to board them, etc. I'm stressing that I didn't push the issue harder earlier. I just kinda panicked with something happening to Artemis while we were gone.
We're taking them in on Friday after work, and we'll pick them up on the Tuesday after we get back. I know they'll be fine. We both know they'll be fine. But that doesn't keep us from worrying and stressing and being those things that "parents" are when their "kids" are going away for the first time.
Have to make sure the animal hospital has our cell phone numbers, though.