stacey ewing

Well, George Bush and the IRS “stimulated” us on friday and nearly all of it was spent within 24 hours… on our sick, geriatric kitties… sigh, oh well, so much for being able to attend the ALA conference in California this summer. :\

On Friday, Tim took Pris to the vet because she was looking pretty bad and leaving what Tim calls the “trifecta” (a combo of vomit, urine, & feces) right outside the litter box every morning (and sometimes in the afternoon) while I was away at the conference (so sorry to have missed that! har har!). Oh man, are we ever glad to have tile floors in that area! [If you need a good stock tip- buy lots and lots of shares in Chlorox... our household alone has exponentially increased the company's value over the last twelve months! Seriously, we go to Sam's and they just bring out a pallate on the forklift and load it directly into the station wagon...]

Poor kitty, tim was giving her subcutaneous fluids every other day and had increased her prednisolone dosage per doc’s instructions from last week but she still wasn’t doing very well. We were both worried that the vet was going to say that it was finally time for the “pink juice.” sigh.

Well, turns out there was good news and bad… it’s not time for the “pink juice” but she DOES have a urinary tract infection. Her white blood was so high that the vet suspects it may have travelled to her kidneys so another special test was ordered with results coming in on Monday. She’d lost another pound since January so she was down to about 4lbs. If she’s not doing better by next week, they’re going to take more blood to send off to Michigan State’s endocrinology lab for thyroid testing since her t-4 level was up from 3 to 7. They juiced her up with some subcu. fluids before sending her home so she looked pretty good by the time I got back Friday evening.

She is now on 1.5 doses of pred, 2 cans of science diet KD, 1 tsp of plain metamucil, clavamox antibiotics (for infection), and glyco-flex (for arthritis) …all of this is given daily… in addition to 150ml of lactated ringers (subcu. fluid) as needed. I swear, we’re like a freakin’ full-service vet hospital here at home.

Then, this morning, we had to take Mort in to see Doc Nichols. Apparently, all week while I was away at the conference, he suffered from “the diarrhea” and looked like he was losing weight. (Did I mention that everyone who works at Millhopper Vet knows us all by name??). He’d recently had a blood test in Feb. so she didn’t order another one today but they gave him a full exam (he LOVES the part where they take his temperature… oh yeah.). His heart murmur is up from a 1-2 out of 6 to a 2-3 out of 6. He’s got two really nasty looking teeth so those will have to be taken care of as soon as we can save up for the surgery. They’ll have to give him an ultrasound beforehand to figure out what kind of special anesthetic to use.

Meanwhile, she sent him home with 3 cans of science diet ID (mild diet for his stomach for the next coupla days), Pro-Pectalin (which smells like total ass but is supposed to work kind of like Imodium. It is chicken flavored and looks like tan caulk… blech!), and 150ml of subcu fluids to help him rehydrate. oh man, I hope all of this works.