May
30 , 2003
My Timex
I sometimes refer to Puss as my Timex. You may be too young to remember, but a long time ago they had a slogan "takes a lickin', and keeps on tickin'". It boggles my mind to think I've been giving her fluids for almost two years. As difficult as she was in the beginning, she's easier to give fluids to than Cleo ever was now.
Her latest bloodwork shows her maintaining:
BUN 55 (down from 73)
Creatinine 4.8 (up from 4.7)
Phosphorus 4.7 (up a little)
HCT 25 (down from 31)
I'm keeping an eye on her gums for anemia. So far they're nice and pink. One other time her HCT dropped that low, then rose again. I'm hoping that will happen again, and we can keep stalling the Epogen. She absolutely does not like having her mouth looked at, but she's getting a little better about it.
We've switched to giving her fluids in the evenings. It just sort of happened naturally. It's kind of hard on me — I am NOT a night person, but it works for her; it seems to help keep her stomach acid down. She almost never throws up bile in the mornings these days. Hair balls are a different story.
She's eating pretty well. I've been able to decrease the Cypro to about 1/8 tablet again. But she has to have something on top of it to entice her to eat — Wysong's PDG and Halo's Beef Dinner Party are her current faves.
I've also started to make her meals very soupy; that may account for the lowered BUN. It's almost as though she's drinking her meals nowadays.
Occasionally you hear about cats who are 20, 21, 22 — even older, who were diagnosed at the same age as Puss. I love her, and I want her with me that long — longer, in fact. But it's tiring, too. I've been dealing with this for three years now. Puss is just about 19. I can't imagine doing this for another three years. But of course, as I often write, I can't imagine not doing it.
In a very small way, it's like having an infant. She gets frequent, small meals. I clean the litterbox several times a day (of course, I'd be doing that if she was sick or not). I have to feed her and give her meds if I'm sick or tired. But of course, I can also leave the house and leave her alone.