Pumpkin update - Monday
This is exhausting. The short version for today's vet visit is that Pumpkin lives another day.
It's been an intense and emotional time as we've been trying to assess Pumpkin's quality of life and the cost to him of his current medication (2 x 5mg Prednistone daily i.e. A Lot.). Part of the problem is that Pumpkin's baseline for quality of life is enormously high - he's always been a happy, smoochy, friendly, and quietly playful kitty. Anything less than that is heartbreaking, particularly when he falls attempting to rush towards one of us humans, then drags himself to get closer. Every time he flinches or his whiskers droop it's hell.
That said the steroids have been a success - his pain levels are definitely better than a week ago, and his reflexes showed signs of improvement today. He seems to have figured out how to walk slowly in a straight line, and this is the key here.
The vet acknowledges that Pumpkin will not get better, and that the steroids are only a short term solution. The end is most definitely in sight, and we are to take one day at a time. But in the meantime he might have a few more days if he can adapt to his changed circumstances, by moving less, and more cautiously. When put on the floor for a test run in the surgery he managed to negotiate the room and many turns while staying on his feet almost the entire time. It was his best set of movements we've seen in ages, possibly because he was thinking hard about it in the strange environment. (As I write this I hear thumping and dragging as he falls then pulls himself around the couch and into sight. *sigh*) Earlier though he did seem to adopt a wide-legged stance which seemed to be more stable.
So he got another shot of Cartophen today, and a full hit of steroids as I brought this morning's dose along to be professionally administered. He gets a week of further observation, and then I imagine it becomes a race between steroid dosage and pain management. The vet agreed that kidney failure was a most unpleasant way to go.
With every step along this journey I marvel anew at how mothers can cope with seriously ill children. Pumpkin can't even cry "Please Mummy make them stop!" during treatment. That would tear me apart.
It's been an intense and emotional time as we've been trying to assess Pumpkin's quality of life and the cost to him of his current medication (2 x 5mg Prednistone daily i.e. A Lot.). Part of the problem is that Pumpkin's baseline for quality of life is enormously high - he's always been a happy, smoochy, friendly, and quietly playful kitty. Anything less than that is heartbreaking, particularly when he falls attempting to rush towards one of us humans, then drags himself to get closer. Every time he flinches or his whiskers droop it's hell.
That said the steroids have been a success - his pain levels are definitely better than a week ago, and his reflexes showed signs of improvement today. He seems to have figured out how to walk slowly in a straight line, and this is the key here.
The vet acknowledges that Pumpkin will not get better, and that the steroids are only a short term solution. The end is most definitely in sight, and we are to take one day at a time. But in the meantime he might have a few more days if he can adapt to his changed circumstances, by moving less, and more cautiously. When put on the floor for a test run in the surgery he managed to negotiate the room and many turns while staying on his feet almost the entire time. It was his best set of movements we've seen in ages, possibly because he was thinking hard about it in the strange environment. (As I write this I hear thumping and dragging as he falls then pulls himself around the couch and into sight. *sigh*) Earlier though he did seem to adopt a wide-legged stance which seemed to be more stable.
So he got another shot of Cartophen today, and a full hit of steroids as I brought this morning's dose along to be professionally administered. He gets a week of further observation, and then I imagine it becomes a race between steroid dosage and pain management. The vet agreed that kidney failure was a most unpleasant way to go.
With every step along this journey I marvel anew at how mothers can cope with seriously ill children. Pumpkin can't even cry "Please Mummy make them stop!" during treatment. That would tear me apart.