Missing her already
We took Missy -- who, as several of you know, has had chronic kidney disease for over three years now -- for her regular (as in every few months) checkup. Her appetite has been decreasing for a while, and B and I could both see that she was getting thinner. But when we got her in to the vet and they put her on the scale, she had lost almost a pound. In six months. (Which is a lot for a cat in such a short time, especially when that cat is only eight-and-a-half pounds to begin with.) We were stunned; we hadn't realized it was that bad. Going carefully through our records later, we found that she'd gone from consuming an average 100g a day to about 50g. No wonder she'd lost so much weight.
The technicians took blood for various tests, checked her blood pressure (normal) and did x-rays (which the vet said was not essential, but given the past concerns about cancer, we decided to do). Her kidneys looked small and shriveled, which is to be expected, and she does have some arthritis around her spine, but no sign of tumors, thank god. She was a little dehydrated, which is not uncommon for a cat in her condition, but probably contributed to the fact that the techs weren't able to get enough urine for testing. So she had to stay for an hour or so to get sub-Q fluids. (We thought that would be less stressful for her than bringing her down another day.) We went and had lunch, and Missy did fine. (The technician who brought her out to us said she’d just burrowed into her big bath towel where she felt safe. Which is why I’d insisted it go in with her.)
That evening we were seriously worried about her, though. She's usually a little off after a vet visit, but she was even more clingy and anxious than usual. She finally dozed off in my lap, but kept jerking awake, meowing as if she'd had a bad dream. And she didn't want to eat. But she was fine in the morning.
When the blood results came back, they weren't what we were expecting. The kidneys appeared to be doing OK, relatively speaking. Some of the substances in her blood (phosphates, sodium? I can't find the damn notes I took) are a little out of whack, though. Dr. Yank and I discussed some of the possibilities, cancer and hyperparathyroidism being a couple. Nothing is showing itself enough to take any action at the moment, though; they're just maybes.
Dr. Yank started Missy on mirtazapine as an appetite stimulant. She gets a pill every three days. It did help a lot in the beginning, but today I calculated her daily consumption for the last few weeks (since she started on the drug) and it appears to be dropping again. Sometimes she eats a lot one day (100g+) and very little the next (50g or less), and the variation doesn't seem to be related to the days she gets the drug.
Missy's changed a lot in the past few months or so. She's stopped going outside, which she used to love. I can't remember when I last saw her grooming, although she still asks to be brushed and/or combed several times a day, so her coat is still in good condition. Once in a while she does lick her nose, although not very thoroughly; she pushes her nose and mouth right into the food when she eats (slurping it up like a shop vac sucking up water), and I have to clean the food off of her nose most of the time (which she does not appreciate). Her walking is increasingly unsteady, although she's still able to leap into her favorite chair and scramble onto the bed at 3 AM. And she's completely uninterested in playing. Even if I drag a string back and forth, she barely gives it a glance.
She yowls several times a day. Often, covering her with a blanket seems to be what she wants. But sometimes she just wants cuddles and petting. I think that that and sunning are her favorite pleasures in life now. Every morning, she toasts her tummy for a couple of hours in the space between the window of the bedroom sliding door and the thick drapes -- B and I call it "the cat cooker" -- and then moves to a chair next to the living room slider where she can really get blasted until the sun goes down.
We're almost out of her prescription, and I need to discuss a lot of things with Dr. Yank. So I'm going to get Missy an appointment for next week.
I knew when Missy was first diagnosed with CKD that it was going to get difficult, and now it is. There are decisions coming that I really don't want to think about. I just want to cuddle my baby girl and listen to her purr while she kneads and pokes holes in my good shirt. So I'm doing a lot of that.
The technicians took blood for various tests, checked her blood pressure (normal) and did x-rays (which the vet said was not essential, but given the past concerns about cancer, we decided to do). Her kidneys looked small and shriveled, which is to be expected, and she does have some arthritis around her spine, but no sign of tumors, thank god. She was a little dehydrated, which is not uncommon for a cat in her condition, but probably contributed to the fact that the techs weren't able to get enough urine for testing. So she had to stay for an hour or so to get sub-Q fluids. (We thought that would be less stressful for her than bringing her down another day.) We went and had lunch, and Missy did fine. (The technician who brought her out to us said she’d just burrowed into her big bath towel where she felt safe. Which is why I’d insisted it go in with her.)
That evening we were seriously worried about her, though. She's usually a little off after a vet visit, but she was even more clingy and anxious than usual. She finally dozed off in my lap, but kept jerking awake, meowing as if she'd had a bad dream. And she didn't want to eat. But she was fine in the morning.
When the blood results came back, they weren't what we were expecting. The kidneys appeared to be doing OK, relatively speaking. Some of the substances in her blood (phosphates, sodium? I can't find the damn notes I took) are a little out of whack, though. Dr. Yank and I discussed some of the possibilities, cancer and hyperparathyroidism being a couple. Nothing is showing itself enough to take any action at the moment, though; they're just maybes.
Dr. Yank started Missy on mirtazapine as an appetite stimulant. She gets a pill every three days. It did help a lot in the beginning, but today I calculated her daily consumption for the last few weeks (since she started on the drug) and it appears to be dropping again. Sometimes she eats a lot one day (100g+) and very little the next (50g or less), and the variation doesn't seem to be related to the days she gets the drug.
Missy's changed a lot in the past few months or so. She's stopped going outside, which she used to love. I can't remember when I last saw her grooming, although she still asks to be brushed and/or combed several times a day, so her coat is still in good condition. Once in a while she does lick her nose, although not very thoroughly; she pushes her nose and mouth right into the food when she eats (slurping it up like a shop vac sucking up water), and I have to clean the food off of her nose most of the time (which she does not appreciate). Her walking is increasingly unsteady, although she's still able to leap into her favorite chair and scramble onto the bed at 3 AM. And she's completely uninterested in playing. Even if I drag a string back and forth, she barely gives it a glance.
She yowls several times a day. Often, covering her with a blanket seems to be what she wants. But sometimes she just wants cuddles and petting. I think that that and sunning are her favorite pleasures in life now. Every morning, she toasts her tummy for a couple of hours in the space between the window of the bedroom sliding door and the thick drapes -- B and I call it "the cat cooker" -- and then moves to a chair next to the living room slider where she can really get blasted until the sun goes down.
We're almost out of her prescription, and I need to discuss a lot of things with Dr. Yank. So I'm going to get Missy an appointment for next week.
I knew when Missy was first diagnosed with CKD that it was going to get difficult, and now it is. There are decisions coming that I really don't want to think about. I just want to cuddle my baby girl and listen to her purr while she kneads and pokes holes in my good shirt. So I'm doing a lot of that.