Sad Sick Kitties

My poor little kitty is not doing so well these days.  I hadn't wanted to post about it earlier, until I knew what her problem was.  I didn't want Riley to read it and have her and the other kids be upset about their fuzzy little buddy.  They kept her at the Vet Clinic for 3 days before they were finally able to determine that she is in the early stages of Kidney failure.  It wasn't showing up in the initial tests they did.....in fact, nothing showed up.  The Doctor was afraid that perhaps she had cancer of some sort.  I was pretty upset.

She still isn't eating, which was the initial problem.  She hadn't been quite herself for a few days before we left to go camping for a long weekend and we got home to find that she hadn't eaten a bite of food!  When I picked her up, I could feel every bone in her teeny body.  She'd really a petite little Persian and barely hit 8 lbs even with all that hair of hers.  I weighed her on Monday and she was 5.7.  By the time I could get her to the vet Wednesday AM at 7, she was 5.4.  She's been a little quieter and more subdued than usual, but other than that she seemed fine.  And she continued to be that way while at the vet clinic.  She was showing no other symptoms, other than the lack of appetite.  Her blood work all came back good, so then they had to wait for a urine sample to do more tests and when they finally got that, they then found the indication of kidney failure.  Apparently, at certain levels, it won't show up in the blood work.

Anyway, there is medicine she can take but she can't start on that until she starts eating again.  Then it will be daily meds and a special diet.  I have been giving her every sort of cat food under the sun, trying to get her to eat.  They gave me teeny tiny doses of Valium to give her twice a day, as that is supposed to be a super appetite stimulant for cats.  Mostly, she staggers around with dilated pupils, meowing and purring a lot.  She did finally take a couple bites of food this AM and just now she ate a bit more, but not enough.  Sigh....

They want to start this medicine as soon as possible, before her condition deteriorates.  I can't seem to make her understand that she MUST EAT!! She is functioning at about 70%.....if it drops any more, she's in trouble.  Years back that happened to the cat of some friends of ours and they went through a long and difficult year of IV's and all sorts of awful things.  I will not put the Princess through all that.  Not her.  Not us. 

She has been our little companion for almost 12 years.  She traveled with us on the dash of our motor home for many years, navigating our travels.  From Alaska to Key West to New York to Texas.  You name it.  And she raised several dogs while she was at it!  Max and Nugget, Lily and now Gus.  Gus wouldn't miss her much.  They don't interact a lot.  I think by the time he came along, she had had her fill of pups.  But her and Max were great buddies for years and one of these days her little remains will share Max's little cedar chest.

  I just hope it's not for a long while yet........