Freaking out vs "this is normal"

[donutte]

Yeah But, she seems to be feeling mostly ok right now. She is even walking around the house like she owns the place, haha. She is even eating the dry food on her own a bit, a couple days in a row now! She hadn't done that since before I took her to the vet last week.

I just want her to be happy. She seems happy. Which makes me happy.

 

[donutte]

Sigh. I think poor Sara Bear is having her pee problem again. I am seeing little spots of blood here and there pretty much all over my bathroom. She has this every now and then. Have taken her in several times that it happened and no infection. Between that and the perpetually bloody pee when they do urinalysis, and nothing on the scans, they figure it's cystitis.

Poor girl. I don't feel bad for the blood part, because that doesn't bother her (bothers me more than her) but I know she does this when it hurts. Which means she's stressed for some reason Unfortunately, I think it's because I have an entourage every time I go to the bathroom, and she doesn't like it. But, she wants to be by the vent in there.

 

[zed xyzed]

Would getting a heated cat bed and putting it in an out of the way place help? I hope she get better soon. I so wish they could talk, and tell us how they are feeling.  

 

[donutte]

I've been contemplating a heated cat bed. Need to find a good place for it. 

She has had this before, oftentimes in the past on my bed :/ She seems to have this every couple of months but I think it's been a good four months since this happened. I was even thinking about that this past week how long it had been. Probably because I know how much she hates the entourage.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Have you tried using a Feliway diffuser in the bathroom?  Or a calming spray or any other calming type device (calming chews, even harp music playing for her).  I'm guessing using a different bathroom isn't an option?

 

[donutte]

We have another bathroom, but have to go through my mom's bedroom to get to it, so going there at night or even in the morning usually isn't an option.

Last night (middle of the night) I discovered she had a little sore on her ear :/ I was not happy about that! I think she had it yesterday and starting to think that is where the blood is coming from. It seemed a little... different, but I couldn't figure out why. So if that is the case, she isn't having the bloody pee. But it does mean she got into a tiff with someone. I am guessing it would have been Oscar or Penelopy. Last night she kept hissing at them and of course, that set the stage for some unpleasant interactions And me being woken up a few times.

To make matters worse, Oscar and Penelopy use the shower in my bathroom (we don't use that particular shower for whatever reasons) as their personal play space. They, quite literally, bounce off the walls in there. They've been doing that for months now, so they also like to go in there occasionally on their own, but that's more during the day.

 

[donutte]

On the plus side of the mess though, Miss Sara has gained a whole 1/5 of a lbs since last week! She's about 7 lbs 1-1/4 oz now!

 

[jenny82]

On the plus side of the mess though, Miss Sara has gained a whole 1/5 of a lbs since last week! She's about 7 lbs 1-1/4 oz now!

Great news!  

 

[donutte]

Yep, that made me very happy! I might be over-feeding her a bit... but I'm paranoid about those times she doesn't eat.

 

[jenny82]

Im with you. Better a little more than not enough!

 

[donutte]

I think Miss Sara Bear is starting to tire of the k/d. I don't JUST feed her that, but she gets it twice a day. The last several days, she's had at least one of those two feedings per day where she didn't finish it all. I normally will leave her in there for 45 minutes but lately she's been meowing to be let out after less than half an hour (she's fed in my bathroom). I don't think it's an appetite issue, thankfully, but maybe more of a "hey I want to be out there too" or maybe even a boredom issue. Seeing as I brought her some of the Sheba that was left over from the other cats' breakfast this morning and she ate all of it. She's big into pates and unfortunately, most pates are pretty high in phosphorus. So, if I rotate something in with the k/d, I may end up having to put her on a binder. In which case she DEFINITELY needs to be locked in the bathroom. Or, I'll have to sit there and watch her. Or maybe I could feed her in another room during the morning/evening.

I'm probably over-thinking things. I got a postcard in the mail yesterday reminding me she needs to go see the vet in the next couple of weeks, so she'll be seeing the vet soon. I'm actually slightly relieved at the prospect of giving her other food, since even though she's not 100% on k/d, her muscle tone seems to have gone down drastically. Although, that could be because she's been hanging out in the bathroom all winter long and hardly moving (she likes the warmth in there).

I think there is also the whole issue of her being upset because of the youngin's being here. Unfortunately, that part doesn't seem to have gotten much better. Feliway has failed me in that department, I think.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

If you feed her something she REALLY likes (i.e. Sheba), she might actually eat it up a lot faster, so having her in there 45 minutes might not be an issue, so putting in phos binders might not be too much of an issue either. 

I just don't understand what it is with kidney disease

  With Sven, he never ate much when he got sick, so I got why he turned into skin and bones. But with Callie, we fed her good, high quality, high protein food, and she  STILL turned into skin and bones

  And we could never get her to gain weight, even though towards the end she started eating almost twice what she used to eat...for several months.  The Vet tried to explain why this happens, but it was all over my head. 

 

[donutte]

I've heard of that actually, cats suddenly eating a lot toward the end of the disease. But it was always the VERY end, as in days, not months.

I need to figure out another more inventive way of pilling her again. The pill pockets in crushed-up Temptations worked for almost a week! But she got wise to that. I think I saw someone mention American cheese on another thread, I may try that. I also got some of that "pill paste" that you can wrap around any shape pill. Someone on a FB group mentioned she does that and puts it between two Temptations.

Goodness, can you imagine if we REALLY put our minds to it all the inventions we could come up with? Because we sure have to get creative with pilling/feeding this kitties.

I think I'll throw some Sheba into the rotation for her tomorrow. I'm thinking, for her, I may get those individual packs. Not a fan of that because it's more $$$ but I think she'll do better with non-refrigerated stuff.

 

[jenny82]

The pill paste is great!! It's by far the easiest way to pill that I've found.

 

[donutte]

The pill paste is great!! It's by far the easiest way to pill that I've found.

I ordered that actually, I think it will be arriving today. I've had success shoving pills in the food though so far. I am afraid to grind it up, so just breaking the methimazole in half and putting the halves in there.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Try the soft Whiska Lickins treats also.  NOT the ones with cheese though...they don't work well.  But the soft ones you can manipulate so you can wrap a pill in them.  The trick is to  not let any of the pill smell or flavor touch the outside of whatever you are putting the pill in

On the Sheba, I HATE those individual serving packet things....can't get the sauce out of them because they're so narrow.  I just buy the cans and refridgerate the leftovers, then take the next portion out about an hour before mealtime.  Let's it get to room temp with no fuss

 

[donutte]

I don't really have the option of getting the food out an hour early. I feed them (usually) first thing, and I'm not waking up an hour early to bring the food out of the fridge :lol3: Then they get fed again when I get home from work, which is sometimes later than they would like as it is.

Sara is so easily stressed out, so I really need to get her when she's just waking up. Or, first thing in the morning, assuming no one wakes up before me (like this morning and tomorrow morning). All the other cats will be up and about earlier, so it will be a bit more difficult.

I'll have to try those other treats you mentioned, thank you. I have as many ways of pilling Sara now as I do types of food available. Plus a pill popper for the very difficult situations, but I'd so much rather NOT use that with her. I still need to remember to buy American cheese one of these days.

 

[donutte]

So, Sara Bear had her vet appt today. She weighed in at 7.65 lbs! The vet was so very pleased! He didn't even feel blood work was needed, he will go ahead and do it in three months. However, she seemed kinda off, hard time walking and jumping. Decided to put her on pain meds. I forget what exactly, something injectable.

Anyway, all was well and good, then at 3:50pm I get a text from mom saying Sara was limping. I was leaving at 4 anyway so I could go vote, so did that and then got home. She's not only limping, but holding up her right hind leg quite a bit! I called the vet and he just wants me to watch it for now, she hadn't fallen or had anything traumatic happen (she doesn't get up high enough usually for that to happen these days) so very unlikely something was broken. Not to mention she's like a slippery eel - I swear I question if she even has bones sometimes! Said it was likely a soft tissue injury, similar to a twisted ankle. So I have to call tomorrow to let him know how she's doing.

My poor little girl!

 

[sweetdz99]

Maybe since she had such a hard time jumping earlier she landed wrong.  Before my kiara she landed wrong on her paws and hurt her shoulder.  It went away after a few hours.... like a sprain.  But she never ever jumped crazy like that again.  She was 17 when she did that.

 

[donutte]

Sara's only 14 (ha, only) but she's pretty small and has just seemed off for a few days. The vet feels it's something like a sprain too. I'm hoping she gets better by morning, I hate the idea of her in pain. The cry she makes when she walks on it the wrong way just makes me want to cry.