Whoa, LiveJournal!
It seems I have not actually read much on LiveJournal lately. In fact I had only skimmed some of the posts on the extreme lower end of my friend's recent 25? posts.
It's stinkin' hot today so I don't much feel like posting. So just a quickie.
Yesterday, I found out that all is not well with my [parent's] cat, Velcro. He's had kidney failure. One of his kidneys is completely ka-put and the other one is working on it's reserves. I have to do a bit of research on this. But now the fat black cat is on a restricted diet. No red meat (so no more steak or lamb chops) and no fresh fish.
Velcro ran away after the earthquake and didn't come home for 2 or 3 days. Even when he did he still avoided my parents and hid out in the other bedroom.
When he went to the vet he was dehydrated... and they had to keep him overnight. He's never been kept overnight anywhere before (even when he was neutered).
So now he has special food that he doesn't particularly like. But they've only been giving it to him for a couple of days now. He wasn't eating much for awhile and was pretty listless. But he was doing better yesterday.
The last time he went to the vet... well, he's lost 4 or 5 pounds. Well, maybe more... at any rate he's about 21 pounds now.
The vet says it's just an 'old' thing. Velcro's only a year younger than Elliot, and he's just over a year older than Cybil. So my family's black pack is getting old. Velcro's the only one who isn't a greybeard... so it's hard to remember that he's no baby.
The vet said she knew two cats who lived 2 and 5 years after kidney failure. So he's not done in yet. I'm still dismayed by that because I thought he still had much more than 5 years to go. :(
My sister says that Cybil may NOT be diabetic. A day long visit at the vet's without insulin for a few days and Cybil's blood glucose levels were below what's even considered normal for dogs (which is higher than what's normal for humans). So who knows what's going on there.
Elliot is not doing so well. His hindquarters are weak and he's had arthritis for a long time. He doesn't have the power in his hindquarters to jump so he has to be helped into the car. He still goes to the beach almost everyday for a swim and a lil' tennis ball chasing. He's been having some problems breathing -- the vets thought that it was the flap at the top of the esophagus losing function. But now I heard one side of his larynx is paralyzed. So poor Ell hacks and chokes. And for several years now Elliot has had the oldfolks selective hearing problem. When he comes over to my dad's house during family get togethers he sometimes just does not hear when his family calls him to leave. Hehehe...
Ugh, it's sad. The main pets are all getting older. Granted they all have backups... but it's still not the same.
It's stinkin' hot today so I don't much feel like posting. So just a quickie.
Yesterday, I found out that all is not well with my [parent's] cat, Velcro. He's had kidney failure. One of his kidneys is completely ka-put and the other one is working on it's reserves. I have to do a bit of research on this. But now the fat black cat is on a restricted diet. No red meat (so no more steak or lamb chops) and no fresh fish.
Velcro ran away after the earthquake and didn't come home for 2 or 3 days. Even when he did he still avoided my parents and hid out in the other bedroom.
When he went to the vet he was dehydrated... and they had to keep him overnight. He's never been kept overnight anywhere before (even when he was neutered).
So now he has special food that he doesn't particularly like. But they've only been giving it to him for a couple of days now. He wasn't eating much for awhile and was pretty listless. But he was doing better yesterday.
The last time he went to the vet... well, he's lost 4 or 5 pounds. Well, maybe more... at any rate he's about 21 pounds now.
The vet says it's just an 'old' thing. Velcro's only a year younger than Elliot, and he's just over a year older than Cybil. So my family's black pack is getting old. Velcro's the only one who isn't a greybeard... so it's hard to remember that he's no baby.
The vet said she knew two cats who lived 2 and 5 years after kidney failure. So he's not done in yet. I'm still dismayed by that because I thought he still had much more than 5 years to go. :(
My sister says that Cybil may NOT be diabetic. A day long visit at the vet's without insulin for a few days and Cybil's blood glucose levels were below what's even considered normal for dogs (which is higher than what's normal for humans). So who knows what's going on there.
Elliot is not doing so well. His hindquarters are weak and he's had arthritis for a long time. He doesn't have the power in his hindquarters to jump so he has to be helped into the car. He still goes to the beach almost everyday for a swim and a lil' tennis ball chasing. He's been having some problems breathing -- the vets thought that it was the flap at the top of the esophagus losing function. But now I heard one side of his larynx is paralyzed. So poor Ell hacks and chokes. And for several years now Elliot has had the oldfolks selective hearing problem. When he comes over to my dad's house during family get togethers he sometimes just does not hear when his family calls him to leave. Hehehe...
Ugh, it's sad. The main pets are all getting older. Granted they all have backups... but it's still not the same.