Dusty, Cinders and Soot
A number of people on our flist know that we have three cats [littermates, 11 years old], two males and a female; named Dusty, Cinders and Soot. The two males are grey and look a lot alike [they have been mistaken as being Russian Blues] and seemingly are close genetically in other ways as well, as they both developed diabetes about five years ago. We need to give them both insulin shots twice a day, at 6am and 6pm. *sigh* Unfortunately, with the diabetes, they will not live as long as if they didn't have it, but otherwise until then, their quality of life is good.
On the other hand, the female is your typical all black American short-hair who has been very healthy until just recently.
We had taken her in for what we thought was a routine vet checkup about 2-3 weeks ago and found out to our horror that she has congestive heart failure. At the time, she had water on her lungs and an enlarged heart. Fortunately it was caught early and we have the services of not only our vet [who specializes in cats], but also the Vet School Clinic at the Vet School in town. She has to be given five different drugs twice a day: two sprinkled on soft food that she usually wolfs down, a syrup and a suspension that have to be squirted into her mouth, and finally, a rather large tablet that has to be shoved down her throat [covered in cream cheese so it goes down easier]. The bad news is that she will have to have these meds for the rest of her life. The good news is that since the vet caught the problem early [we hadn't noticed anything wrong--she must have still been in the 'covering-up' phase that pets often go through before they're too sick to fake health any more], she should be able to live as long as she would have otherwise. She doesn't understand, of course, why we grab her twice a day and shove things into her mouth and make her swallow them. *triple sigh* We're getting the pill-giving routine down and, with time, she may get as used to it as the two guys have gotten used to getting their two shots a day.
While this was going on, we had our first real snow fall of the season with about an inch of snow accumulating on the ground. This is traditional here--Thanksgiving weekend usually ushers in our snow season and plants that weren't frozen before are frozen now. We are now looking at winter lasting until sometime in March [or later, it depends]. Our lakes [of which we have a number] will freeze solid several feet down and snow will stick around more or less constantly. It's a good place for winter sports, which unfortunately we have never been able to get into. At least, we now know the general weather forecast for the foreseeable future: cold, getting colder, and snow [sometimes ice] always possible. At least it makes summer and autumn that much more appealing [we don't really have spring here--it just gets slowly warmer and muddier until the trees finally leaf out].
So much for our Thanksgiving...
[Click on image above to see it at full size. Credit for the banner goes to icons_whispered.]
On the other hand, the female is your typical all black American short-hair who has been very healthy until just recently.
We had taken her in for what we thought was a routine vet checkup about 2-3 weeks ago and found out to our horror that she has congestive heart failure. At the time, she had water on her lungs and an enlarged heart. Fortunately it was caught early and we have the services of not only our vet [who specializes in cats], but also the Vet School Clinic at the Vet School in town. She has to be given five different drugs twice a day: two sprinkled on soft food that she usually wolfs down, a syrup and a suspension that have to be squirted into her mouth, and finally, a rather large tablet that has to be shoved down her throat [covered in cream cheese so it goes down easier]. The bad news is that she will have to have these meds for the rest of her life. The good news is that since the vet caught the problem early [we hadn't noticed anything wrong--she must have still been in the 'covering-up' phase that pets often go through before they're too sick to fake health any more], she should be able to live as long as she would have otherwise. She doesn't understand, of course, why we grab her twice a day and shove things into her mouth and make her swallow them. *triple sigh* We're getting the pill-giving routine down and, with time, she may get as used to it as the two guys have gotten used to getting their two shots a day.
While this was going on, we had our first real snow fall of the season with about an inch of snow accumulating on the ground. This is traditional here--Thanksgiving weekend usually ushers in our snow season and plants that weren't frozen before are frozen now. We are now looking at winter lasting until sometime in March [or later, it depends]. Our lakes [of which we have a number] will freeze solid several feet down and snow will stick around more or less constantly. It's a good place for winter sports, which unfortunately we have never been able to get into. At least, we now know the general weather forecast for the foreseeable future: cold, getting colder, and snow [sometimes ice] always possible. At least it makes summer and autumn that much more appealing [we don't really have spring here--it just gets slowly warmer and muddier until the trees finally leaf out].
So much for our Thanksgiving...
[Click on image above to see it at full size. Credit for the banner goes to icons_whispered.]