Last weekend (8/19/06) we rushed one of our cats, Boots (slightly over 10 years old) to the emergency vet (first time we’ve used these folks). He was there from Saturday night through Monday afternoon. They are so cool, so caring (so costly) but worth every cent.
About a month ago we had brought Boots to our regular vet. He seemed to be losing weight, and we were concerned, but the day we brought him in it was urgent. He’d stopped eating, wasn’t drinking water but was throwing up. Boots spent 2 nights there, after which, the vet told us Boots had a kidney stone, and that he’d most likely pass it and sent us home with antibiotic (Clavamox). He said “these things are common in older cats” (which is true, but so very limited in scope). The attitude was *NOT* “we’ll get to the bottom of this.” Boots, to his credit, seemed to recover and even gain some weight back — everything seemed fine… until last weekend when he went into crisis again. Same deal, wouldn’t eat, wouldn’t drink, but did plenty of hurking. We thought he was leaving us. We’ve since come to find out that Boots has CRF.
We’re giving him subQ fluids, plus antibiotics, a blood pressure med, stool softener, and antacid. Hopefully much of the pills will not be needed after Monday (when we go in for more blood work). His pressure may have been high last weekend due to the crisis, and we’re keeping fingers crossed it has returned to normal now.
I remember reading about others giving their cats subQ and wondering if we’d ever be able to deal with that sort of reality — but it’s not as difficult as I’d imagined. And Boots is just so good about it, just sits there and waits.
He’s so much himself the last few days, just back-to-normal Boots (though still way underweight). Prefers the dry k/d prescription food… but that’s our Boots. The difference between last weekend and this weekend is simply death and life. We’re so glad he’s chosen to stay and fight and as long as he’s feeling good and his quality of life is good, we’ll happily oblige him.