Last week, Tuesday evening, Brian’s cell rings. It’s his brother. Uncle Steve is in the hospital, most likely won’t be coming home.
Uncle Steve and aunt Caroline moved in to Brian’s mom’s house a few years ago (she died about six or seven years ago, it’s just around the corner from us; Brian’s bro lives in the house next door). Caroline had been diagnosed with breast cancer. They sold their house and were looking for a place to rent, so they rented this one.
They visited their RWNJ son when Covid was high, son was someone who believed that Covid was a hoax. Mom and dad both caught it and uncle Steve ended up in the hospital and rehab. He almost died. But he didn’t, with lots of medical care he got better and was able to return home. But was never full strength.
Anyway, last year Caroline passed away from the cancer. Steve was in the process of making arrangements to move in with his daughter earlier this year. One night she didn’t call when she usually did, Steve kept trying to get a hold of her with no luck. Brian’s brother and wife went with Steve to the daughter’s home and since there was no response, had someone break in (legally). She had passed away.
Present time, on Saturday, April 2, Steve asked Mark (Brian’s bro) to take him to the hospital. One look at Steve and Mark called the EMTs. They took him to the hospital, I believe they said congestive heart failure. He’s since gone into rehab, but the chances of him coming back are slim.
So, the reason Mark called was “Can you take Steve’s cat”.
She’s old, between 16 - 18 years old. She’s in the same bathroom as the Avenger kitties were. She has some health problems, I’m thinking kidneys aren’t functioning correctly, some weakness in her back legs, constipated (I started her on lactulose five days ago, and per the phone call to the vet on Tuesday morning 50ml of lactated ringers (subQ fluids)). She has a 10:00 appointment this morning.
Anyway, here’s a short video of the little old tuxedo kitty. This is when we were trying to weigh her so we could get the correct dosage of fluids (the box is on a scale).
She’s going to be a daddy’s girl. She responds so much better to him than to me.
@lisaviolet In late summer 2018, our elderly black kitty, Sunfall, who had long been Lee’s lap barnacle, stopped eating. We didn’t notice right away, because she always showed up for The Opening Of The Cans, but she’d been getting really thin - and then I noticed that she was only sniffing the food, not actually eating it. Lee was in bad shape; the cancer was back, and I didn’t want her to have to go through losing Sunfall, so in desperation I started giving the kitty what she considered special treats; chopped raw meat. For several months, it worked; she perked up, wasn’t as skeletal, and could jump up on Lee’s lap again. Then, on the evening of Thanksgiving Day, the cancer took Lee. Sunfall went back on the decline, and nothing I could do seemed to help. She only lasted until a little into 2019 before seeing her condition continue to deteriorate got to be too much. I said goodbye, and her ashes are in a small urn next to Lee’s.
@lisaviolet I’m so sorry. It looks as though maybe she will be content for her last days being surrounded by people who can give her love and attention
@lisaviolet That is a lot of tragedy for one family in a short period of time. Any way you can take the kitty to visit her person before you put her down? Or even have a vet come to put her down in his arms (if he can handle that)? Always so very hard.
Thank you all. She’s doing a little better this morning, it was awful last night. The vet “visit” really did a number on her.
Because her kidneys are in such bad shape, her body is no longer manufacturing red blood cells as it should. So, the kidney values are way too high (creat is scary high, BUN is off the chart), her RBC and other blood values are too low.
We were able to get 85ml of fluids into her, but not without a fight. 25ml when we got home, 50ml late yesterday afternoon. The vet said 100ml a day would be okay. Chloe also has a 1-2 stage heart murmur.
We did give her 50ml of fluids this morning, she’ll get the rest this evening.
She’s also on lactulose 3x daily (a stool softener) because she has bad constipation. The added fluids help with this, since this softener draws fluids from the body to soften the stool. The first couple she had when we got her, were about the size of the top of the thumb, hard and dry. Definitely a bad thing. At this point, she hasn’t pooped since Wednesday afternoon, but then, she hasn’t eaten much.
I do have a webcam going and during the night, she drank quite a bit of water (more than she had that day) and actually ate almost all of the Fancy Feast she got yesterday morning, so that’s good.
She was at her door this morning, hissing at the cats waiting in the hallway to get into the office for their morning treats (the easiest way to do a headcount), so she’s definitely not ready to say goodbye if she’s showing this much fiestyness.
@Kidsandliz, that’s a sweet suggestion about taking her to see Steve, but after yesterday, I can’t see taking her anywhere because it’s super hard on her.
And I’m kind of reluctant about letting Steve know at this point what’s going on with her. He has enough on his plate just trying to survive without the added guilt that this could have been prevented. I knew from the minute she stepped out of the carrier that there were problems with her. The damage is due to long term poor health care. (The person who adopted one of his daughter’s cats spent $2000 on vet bills to get her healthy again. So pets were not a priority in this family.)
Anyway, I just wanted to update you all on her progress.
@Kidsandliz@lisaviolet Wow - that’s wonderful what you’re doing for her and how she’s responding. I hope she recovers enough to spend some time living in Lisaviolet’s Cat Paradise!
@Kidsandliz@Kyeh I want to share the results of her blood tests and you can see how bad they are and why the vet said what she said and asked if we wanted to make the euth appointment for next week, or just call (we said “just call”).
Relaxing cat…
Relaxing cat does not want to be disturbed:
@Kyeh Bookends?
@detailer Or parentheses?(
)
I got the down throws that were sale here last year. Shortie really appreciates them
@kjady Good camouflage!
@kjady @Kyeh Catmeowflage.
@kjady @narfcake Har.
Ying and Yang
Oh wait. Ying and Yang
Why I can’t do laundry
Relaxing with a friend (not my lizard)
PS notice the lizard tail coming out from under my cat on the white wall side.
Small box, big cats.
@radi0j0hn That looks about right. I have a cat tree photo that resembles that.
Finally! A relaxing cat in a cat bed. My purchase a number of years ago was justified after all!!
@Kidsandliz
Wow, such a pretty bed, too!
My brat boy wants to chime in, always.
There’s a new kid in town. Her name is Chloe.
Last week, Tuesday evening, Brian’s cell rings. It’s his brother. Uncle Steve is in the hospital, most likely won’t be coming home.
Uncle Steve and aunt Caroline moved in to Brian’s mom’s house a few years ago (she died about six or seven years ago, it’s just around the corner from us; Brian’s bro lives in the house next door). Caroline had been diagnosed with breast cancer. They sold their house and were looking for a place to rent, so they rented this one.
They visited their RWNJ son when Covid was high, son was someone who believed that Covid was a hoax. Mom and dad both caught it and uncle Steve ended up in the hospital and rehab. He almost died. But he didn’t, with lots of medical care he got better and was able to return home. But was never full strength.
Anyway, last year Caroline passed away from the cancer. Steve was in the process of making arrangements to move in with his daughter earlier this year. One night she didn’t call when she usually did, Steve kept trying to get a hold of her with no luck. Brian’s brother and wife went with Steve to the daughter’s home and since there was no response, had someone break in (legally). She had passed away.
Present time, on Saturday, April 2, Steve asked Mark (Brian’s bro) to take him to the hospital. One look at Steve and Mark called the EMTs. They took him to the hospital, I believe they said congestive heart failure. He’s since gone into rehab, but the chances of him coming back are slim.
So, the reason Mark called was “Can you take Steve’s cat”.
She’s old, between 16 - 18 years old. She’s in the same bathroom as the Avenger kitties were. She has some health problems, I’m thinking kidneys aren’t functioning correctly, some weakness in her back legs, constipated (I started her on lactulose five days ago, and per the phone call to the vet on Tuesday morning 50ml of lactated ringers (subQ fluids)). She has a 10:00 appointment this morning.
Anyway, here’s a short video of the little old tuxedo kitty. This is when we were trying to weigh her so we could get the correct dosage of fluids (the box is on a scale).
She’s going to be a daddy’s girl. She responds so much better to him than to me.
Back from the vet, she’s in pretty bad shape, bad enough that she most likely won’t recover.
Vet advised euthanasia in the near future. Like next week.
@lisaviolet :
sad
@lisaviolet Oh, wow - that’s a whole lot of tragedy for one family in a short time!
Condolences for all of them, including the pretty little kitty.
@lisaviolet In late summer 2018, our elderly black kitty, Sunfall, who had long been Lee’s lap barnacle, stopped eating. We didn’t notice right away, because she always showed up for The Opening Of The Cans, but she’d been getting really thin - and then I noticed that she was only sniffing the food, not actually eating it. Lee was in bad shape; the cancer was back, and I didn’t want her to have to go through losing Sunfall, so in desperation I started giving the kitty what she considered special treats; chopped raw meat. For several months, it worked; she perked up, wasn’t as skeletal, and could jump up on Lee’s lap again. Then, on the evening of Thanksgiving Day, the cancer took Lee. Sunfall went back on the decline, and nothing I could do seemed to help. She only lasted until a little into 2019 before seeing her condition continue to deteriorate got to be too much. I said goodbye, and her ashes are in a small urn next to Lee’s.
It’s never easy.
@lisaviolet @werehatrack That’s great that she lived long enough to keep Lee company. It seems almost like she hung on just for that.
@lisaviolet I’m so sorry. It looks as though maybe she will be content for her last days being surrounded by people who can give her love and attention
@lisaviolet That is a lot of tragedy for one family in a short period of time. Any way you can take the kitty to visit her person before you put her down? Or even have a vet come to put her down in his arms (if he can handle that)? Always so very hard.
Thank you all. She’s doing a little better this morning, it was awful last night. The vet “visit” really did a number on her.
Because her kidneys are in such bad shape, her body is no longer manufacturing red blood cells as it should. So, the kidney values are way too high (creat is scary high, BUN is off the chart), her RBC and other blood values are too low.
We were able to get 85ml of fluids into her, but not without a fight. 25ml when we got home, 50ml late yesterday afternoon. The vet said 100ml a day would be okay. Chloe also has a 1-2 stage heart murmur.
We did give her 50ml of fluids this morning, she’ll get the rest this evening.
She’s also on lactulose 3x daily (a stool softener) because she has bad constipation. The added fluids help with this, since this softener draws fluids from the body to soften the stool. The first couple she had when we got her, were about the size of the top of the thumb, hard and dry. Definitely a bad thing. At this point, she hasn’t pooped since Wednesday afternoon, but then, she hasn’t eaten much.
I do have a webcam going and during the night, she drank quite a bit of water (more than she had that day) and actually ate almost all of the Fancy Feast she got yesterday morning, so that’s good.
She was at her door this morning, hissing at the cats waiting in the hallway to get into the office for their morning treats (the easiest way to do a headcount), so she’s definitely not ready to say goodbye if she’s showing this much fiestyness.
@Kidsandliz, that’s a sweet suggestion about taking her to see Steve, but after yesterday, I can’t see taking her anywhere because it’s super hard on her.
And I’m kind of reluctant about letting Steve know at this point what’s going on with her. He has enough on his plate just trying to survive without the added guilt that this could have been prevented. I knew from the minute she stepped out of the carrier that there were problems with her. The damage is due to long term poor health care. (The person who adopted one of his daughter’s cats spent $2000 on vet bills to get her healthy again. So pets were not a priority in this family.)
Anyway, I just wanted to update you all on her progress.
@werehatrack It’s hard. We were thinking we’d be happy if she made it for another year. But a week?
Just damn. I’m googling so many things, looking for some good news and it’s just not there.
A part of me believes that she is depressed from all that’s gone on in her life. I can’t wrap my mind around how bad she is.
It’s something how Sunfall waited ~ tears…
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet Wow - that’s wonderful what you’re doing for her and how she’s responding. I hope she recovers enough to spend some time living in Lisaviolet’s Cat Paradise!
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh I want to share the results of her blood tests and you can see how bad they are and why the vet said what she said and asked if we wanted to make the euth appointment for next week, or just call (we said “just call”).
@Kidsandliz @lisaviolet
Not promising. But you do such wonders with cats - maybe she’ll get a little more time?
@Kidsandliz @Kyeh I hope so. Thank you.
This stopped being my water glass immediately. I know what she licks.