Right now, at this moment, Mungo is improving. But over the last couple of days it has been quite a seesaw and I'm just trying to enjoy this for what it is. He wasn't eating well last night so I gave him a saucer of milk with digestive enzymes sprinkled in right before I went to bed--I figured it was better than another force feeding and might provide a little nutrition, but this morning he looked wretched and smelled worse than the worst container of milk I ever found in a boyfriend's refrigerator in my college days... and that is s a y i n g s o m e t h i n g my friends. He was unable to digest it and really didn't want to eat, again... which would be fine but he's averaging 6.5 lbs these days when he used to be 10+ and he just doesn't have any wiggle room to be skipping all these meals. I've been giving him baby food on saucers and also with supplements crushed in via feeding syringe. He doesn't like that but he's been fairly well behaved unless it contains something he doesn't want.
Yesterday I realized that the infection, of which the most notable symptoms were loss of voice and Eye Goo, may have been related to the recent disastrous leak of the a/c drain line in our house. For a little while after the leak was fixed the basement and kitchen smelled of mold (also the upstairs bathroom but that's really nothing new), and Mungo's Eye Goo resembled descriptions I read online of Florida Spots, which are a fungal eye condition people get in funky damp tropical places like our basement. I did clean the area (the basement, not Mungo' eyes) with hot soapy water and a liberal spraydown of high-test hydrogen peroxide, but maybe not quickly enough. Whether it's Florida Spots or something else, it needed a local treatment.
The Convenia administered ten days ago did not really much help this condition, but yesterday I began an eye cleaning regime with artificial tears (the kind in tiny one-use tubes, which had the fewest additives) and colloidal silver drops. Colloidal silver was an antibiotic/antifungal up until penicillin entered regular use in 1938. He has had three such cleanings and his eyes look considerably better. Nobody likes having drops put into their eyes by someone else but he seems to realize it's helping, so he cooperates. The problem is he's become so thin his eyes are sunken and so a lot of fluid has to be run into his eyes in order to really flush things out. It's a bit sad and disturbing, and reminds me of what we are really dealing with. Because with kidney failure, there really isn't a prospect for recuperation. There is only Managing Things until they become unmanageable, by which time you have poured your soul into trying to help this little creature that was your friend to begin with but has become, at least for a time, an important mission and sacred responsibility in your life. And it becomes a test of who you really are and what, and who, you care about.
Aaaaaanyway... I really believed today I would end up calling Dr. M to make the visit for last rites, but in the course of the day Mungo accepted eye cleanings and a little subcutaneous fluid (with serious complaints) and a syringe feeding and at the end of the night did respectable duty to some Before Grain beef and Gerber's ham baby food. It was the most he has eaten at once voluntarily in two days, perhaps two whole ounces. I hope his stomach is able to handle it, and I'm not going to think about the calcium or phosphorus because starving to death is a more immediate concern for this poor scrawny fellow. His legs went wobbly again almost as soon as I wrote about them resuming strength, and I cringe when he gets out of my grasp on the "procedure table". Until recently I welcomed his escapes as much-needed exercise in his sedentary little basement life but now I am lowering him gently to the floor like the delicate flower he has become.
In other news, yesterday the Manwich got a big tub of powdered egg whites to support his bodybuilding regimen, and today his personal size blender arrived. Actually I just wanted one for the basement but his recent need for soft foods was a perfect excuse. It's not that he has lost all his teeth, far from it. His choppers may be khaki in color but they are impressively complete for a man his age. It's his stomach that has required all this mush suppage, and I hope that soon he will be able to handle something more substantial, as the baby food doesn't have the kind of nutrition he really needs.
BREAKING NEWS!!!!! A RACCOON has just breached the cat flap!!! I repeat, a full-sized ADULT RACCOON has just breached the cat flap!
I was just sitting here working on this blog and saw something come in through the cat flap, which I fashioned into the window sash a few years ago using a standard flap and a sturdy piece of plexiglas. The window is [obviously] higher up from the ground than a door flap would be, which I assumed would make it less likely--I guess I thought it a LOT less likely!--to be vulnerable to Woodland Creatures of the squirrel, possum and raccoon variety which are so very common in our river-area neighborhood. The window (in our "dining" room) has a table butted up to it that is mostly used as a kitty highway, since we always eat on the couch (excepting special occasions).
I saw and heard something shadowy come through the window flap, right next to which is a sherpa bed lately occupied by our 15-ish mostly-blind kitty, Bumper.
I saw that Bumper was in the sherpa bed.
I saw that Zoe was on the other end of the couch from me.
I saw that Cosmo was in the chair across from me.
I knew that Mungo was in the basement and hadn't used that flap in months.
That's our entire roster of cats.
Then I saw the mask, and realized what I was looking at, and realized it was INCHES AWAY from our mostly-blind kitty.
When I screamed ("OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!") , the racoon had an internal, yet visible, debate on jumping down off the table and into the room (!!!), which makes me think it's done this before (!!!!!!!). But THANK GOODNESS it instead went back out through the flap. Cosmo (who hates noise, particularly loud humans) disappeared and I still don't know where to. Zoe got curious and ran around trying to find the source of the panic (she is usually the center of attention, especially when she brings in pets of her own through the flap). Bumper wandered around on the table sniffing the air, realizing something was up but having no idea what. My husband almost had a heart attack and ran downstairs to see what I was yelling about. I'm still freaked because I locked the flap but Zoe will be able to unlock it whenever she feels like it (she learned that trick on the very first day). And who knows what will happen when both of the primates are in bed and the flap is open once again??
It's time to replace this with one of those flaps that opens with magnetic key collars, even though we might end up having to replace lost keys a lot.
That experience was just RIGHT OUT. I think I hurt my pipes.
Good luck sleeping...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
One step forward, two steps back.
Mungo's progress since the Convenia has been stops and starts, and last night I ruined a perfectly good trend by making him take a little of the aluminum hydroxide powder. I should have listened to him. He didn't mind it mixed in his food the first night but rejected it thereafter, and his phosphorus levels are so high I was anxious to give him this ph. binder to get the levels down (and calcium is now an issue too so I couldn't give him calcium based binders). ALOH is also an antacid so I hoped that would replace the calcium-rich slippery elm I was giving him.
His appetite and more importantly interest in drinking had improved since I dialed back the fluids he was getting. However his nausea has clearly been worse--no vomiting, just 'urping' and acting like anyone with a queasy tum. I'm reading elsewhere that ALOH not only contributes to constipation (which has been an uncomfortable issue for Manwich) but often ruins their appetite. Lately I've seen variations of "treat the cat, not the numbers" on the feline CRF pages and I think I need to return to doing that, doing what seems to make Mungo feel better.
I have to start listening to this cat more and also my own gut. The things that are supposedly good for him are causing more problems than they're solving.
Last night we got some Fancy Feast appetizers and some baby food so I could start getting the ALOH and other stuff into Mungo via syringe feeding. After watching him listlessly nose around some turkey dinner, I decided to put down the tilapia appetizer and follow it with some ALOH mixed into chicken baby food (the ALOH needs to be in the tummy along with the food to bind the phosphorus). So Mungo attacked the tilapia with great excitement, even looking back at me to let me know how much he was enjoying it, and I promptly destroyed the experience by giving him something that brought his system to a screeching halt. I put down other food and changed his water again but between bedtime and this morning he did not touch any of the food or the water. He consented to a little salmon and water this morning and I tried to make him understand how sorry I was.
No more. I'm going to do what makes him feel and look good until his time comes. The point is quality of life and if I keep doing things he hates neither the quality nor quantity will improve.
His appetite and more importantly interest in drinking had improved since I dialed back the fluids he was getting. However his nausea has clearly been worse--no vomiting, just 'urping' and acting like anyone with a queasy tum. I'm reading elsewhere that ALOH not only contributes to constipation (which has been an uncomfortable issue for Manwich) but often ruins their appetite. Lately I've seen variations of "treat the cat, not the numbers" on the feline CRF pages and I think I need to return to doing that, doing what seems to make Mungo feel better.
I have to start listening to this cat more and also my own gut. The things that are supposedly good for him are causing more problems than they're solving.
Last night we got some Fancy Feast appetizers and some baby food so I could start getting the ALOH and other stuff into Mungo via syringe feeding. After watching him listlessly nose around some turkey dinner, I decided to put down the tilapia appetizer and follow it with some ALOH mixed into chicken baby food (the ALOH needs to be in the tummy along with the food to bind the phosphorus). So Mungo attacked the tilapia with great excitement, even looking back at me to let me know how much he was enjoying it, and I promptly destroyed the experience by giving him something that brought his system to a screeching halt. I put down other food and changed his water again but between bedtime and this morning he did not touch any of the food or the water. He consented to a little salmon and water this morning and I tried to make him understand how sorry I was.
No more. I'm going to do what makes him feel and look good until his time comes. The point is quality of life and if I keep doing things he hates neither the quality nor quantity will improve.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Modern Convenia
At Dr. M's request, I took Mungo in Saturday to get a shot of Convenia, an antibiotic which works for two weeks and does not require oral followup, though he wants to see the orange boy again in two weeks to see if another shot of Convenia is called for. Dr. M understands Mungo's hatred of Being Handled™ and thought this would be a better approach than forcing a vile tasting liquid on him multiple times a day for several days when he was already feeling like crap. I appreciate that consideration, and I'm sure Manwich does too.
He got bound up instantly from even tiny amounts of the aluminum hydroxide powder, requiring yet more assistance with a small feeding syringe from the Other End, so I just stopped giving him any ALOH at all, especially since he was having enough trouble with this infection.
Another thing that came up last week was a helpful note from someone on the feline CRF group, explaining that the amount of fluids we had him on (as advised by the vet) was quite a lot, and certainly a lot at once... I tried breaking the 200ml up into two sessions but he h-a-t-e-d being stuck twice (even with the great new ultra-thin-walled needles) and then I saw today that Washington State's veterinary school recommends even less fluid altogether. I realized that Mungo's recent premature boltings from the Drip Zone had been wise and I should have listened to him on it.
Between the bolting and the intentional scaling back, he got tapered down to about half of what he was getting, and instead of the sort of shock that resulted when we skipped a day of heavy fluids, Mungo had a chance to adjust more gradually and he began drinking water substantially (though not desperately) again, which he had all but sworn off of. I think 200ml may have been fine when he was critically dehydrated, as is the usual case when a vet is administering, but over the long term I think he will do better with WSU's recommendation of about 60-70ml each day based on weight, now that he's drinking water again.
I stopped by the store on the way home yesterday and ended up with some homeopathic remedies for him, which he already seems to be responding to. I was just planning to pick up more of the glycerin-based Rescue Remedy for Pets which Manwich likes having massaged into his ears (and keeps him happier when I have to go off to work), but a young woman working in the newly expanded herbal section alerted me to some Newton Labs homeopathic blends in the pet section. Of these, I got the Energy/Immune Assist and Detoxifier blends. Because they're in an alcohol base I decided to start out giving him very little, just 1-3 drops of each in his water (about the recommended oral dosage) and giving it a second to disperse in the dish before setting it down for him. He did not object to the taste at all, and although there's a chance the antibiotic decided to suddenly kick in last night after three days, he actually seemed to perk up quite a bit after drinking the homeopathic water and seems even better today. His appetite is good, taking in about 6oz of wet food a day this week.
Maybe the nicest thing is that he doesn't seem to be having as much trouble with his hind legs, where he had been sitting strangely with them sticking out as if he couldn't bend them comfortably under him in the way cats do. It's no doubt good for him to feel like he has his legs back again, especially since being deaf makes him feel so vulnerable. Of course, I am giving him a lot of deep spinal stroking with my fingertips and even nails these days, which seems to stimulate his appetite and maybe helps his arthritis. When I hit the lower spine he has those "hel-LOOO-oooo!!!" nerve surge moments like I always get when a good CMT hits a really tight knot on my own crookedy old back. There's not much meat to massage on him but what there is certainly seems to be enjoying it. I wish I'd been able to break him in for the delights of toe-pad rubs like Zoe and Cosmo but he was too old by the time he met me. I'm lucky he lets me do this much.
The strange thing is that his voice has become... *small*, somehow, as if he were a kitten again or got ahold of some helium. No trouble swallowing or anything, just making small peeps.Other than that, he seems like he's feeling better, but it is a wee bit concerning.
Overall, though... doing well.
He got bound up instantly from even tiny amounts of the aluminum hydroxide powder, requiring yet more assistance with a small feeding syringe from the Other End, so I just stopped giving him any ALOH at all, especially since he was having enough trouble with this infection.
Another thing that came up last week was a helpful note from someone on the feline CRF group, explaining that the amount of fluids we had him on (as advised by the vet) was quite a lot, and certainly a lot at once... I tried breaking the 200ml up into two sessions but he h-a-t-e-d being stuck twice (even with the great new ultra-thin-walled needles) and then I saw today that Washington State's veterinary school recommends even less fluid altogether. I realized that Mungo's recent premature boltings from the Drip Zone had been wise and I should have listened to him on it.
Between the bolting and the intentional scaling back, he got tapered down to about half of what he was getting, and instead of the sort of shock that resulted when we skipped a day of heavy fluids, Mungo had a chance to adjust more gradually and he began drinking water substantially (though not desperately) again, which he had all but sworn off of. I think 200ml may have been fine when he was critically dehydrated, as is the usual case when a vet is administering, but over the long term I think he will do better with WSU's recommendation of about 60-70ml each day based on weight, now that he's drinking water again.
I stopped by the store on the way home yesterday and ended up with some homeopathic remedies for him, which he already seems to be responding to. I was just planning to pick up more of the glycerin-based Rescue Remedy for Pets which Manwich likes having massaged into his ears (and keeps him happier when I have to go off to work), but a young woman working in the newly expanded herbal section alerted me to some Newton Labs homeopathic blends in the pet section. Of these, I got the Energy/Immune Assist and Detoxifier blends. Because they're in an alcohol base I decided to start out giving him very little, just 1-3 drops of each in his water (about the recommended oral dosage) and giving it a second to disperse in the dish before setting it down for him. He did not object to the taste at all, and although there's a chance the antibiotic decided to suddenly kick in last night after three days, he actually seemed to perk up quite a bit after drinking the homeopathic water and seems even better today. His appetite is good, taking in about 6oz of wet food a day this week.
Maybe the nicest thing is that he doesn't seem to be having as much trouble with his hind legs, where he had been sitting strangely with them sticking out as if he couldn't bend them comfortably under him in the way cats do. It's no doubt good for him to feel like he has his legs back again, especially since being deaf makes him feel so vulnerable. Of course, I am giving him a lot of deep spinal stroking with my fingertips and even nails these days, which seems to stimulate his appetite and maybe helps his arthritis. When I hit the lower spine he has those "hel-LOOO-oooo!!!" nerve surge moments like I always get when a good CMT hits a really tight knot on my own crookedy old back. There's not much meat to massage on him but what there is certainly seems to be enjoying it. I wish I'd been able to break him in for the delights of toe-pad rubs like Zoe and Cosmo but he was too old by the time he met me. I'm lucky he lets me do this much.
The strange thing is that his voice has become... *small*, somehow, as if he were a kitten again or got ahold of some helium. No trouble swallowing or anything, just making small peeps.Other than that, he seems like he's feeling better, but it is a wee bit concerning.
Overall, though... doing well.
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