So, I've been posting periodic updates on my Facebook page, but I decided to post this one here because I know not everyone follows the fan page.
To try & summarize - a few weeks ago Frisky got quite sick and after taking her to the vet for what appeared to be a bladder infection the blood tests that we did found extremely elevated liver enzymes. She's always been small but had gone down from 5.9 to only 4.6 lbs. because her body is basically not absorbing calories properly. She was very lethargic & refusing to eat, dehydrated even though she was drinking a lot - we honestly weren't sure if she would last the weekend. She got an antibiotic shot at the vet as well as fluids for the dehydration & we took her home.
She got a bit better, then a bit worse, back & forth for a few days, before starting a steady upward trend. By the next weekend we'd realized she wasn't leaving us quite yet & decided to start the long-term supplement the vet recommended for her liver. She is HELL to pill, I feel so bad but she forgives me right away - she doesn't run off once I'm done almost like she knows I'm trying to help.
She's still very picky what she will eat, flat out refused the special diet that the vet initially sent home, so we are experimenting to see what she A - will eat & B - can eat without throwing up while C - trying not to give her too much protein in consideration of her liver condition.
This past weekend she started having trouble again, roaming the house from cat pan to cat pan but not really doing much but sitting in them. She was dehydrated again & this seemed to constipate her, plus there was a little bit of blood clot in her urine which showed the bladder infection wasn't quite gone. Saturday morning was another trip to the vet, another round of antibiotics & some more fluid - & mom learned how to give the fluid at home to keep her hydrated. Mom is awesome by the way - I'm not quite sure I could do it, even for Frisky.
Today was the first time we gave her fluid here instead of at the vet. It was actually not traumatic, although it's handy to have more than one person. One to handle the needle & the injection site, one to help hold her & manage the fluid bag. Frisky sat still & polite through the several minutes it took for her little transfusion.
At over 20 human years old they said she is about 100 in cat years - and at an age that less than 1% of cats live to reach. I really like our vet, they didn't even charge for the most recent office visit, just for the supplies - I think they were glad to see her still around too & probably a bit curious as well. We got a pill-popper to save my fingers being bitten as well as the fluid which is good for 10 "doses."
Anyway, all that to say, the outlook right now is actually pretty good. With the supplement to help with her nutrition & giving her fluid subcutaneously a couple times a week to combat the dehydration, who knows how much longer she'll stick around =) She's sleeping on her blanket in the chair behind me right now, something like this:
I am still doing my nails as I have time, & I actually have still been doing some vids even with all this going on, but something about editing pictures is just not that inviting to me lately & I apologize I haven't done the catching up I keep talking about. When it comes it will be like an avalanche or a tsunami of NOTD pics LOL.
So stay tuned, thanks for sticking with me - and as always, thanks for reading.
~Colette
