Squirrel cat

Every once in a while I hear this weird gravelly crying.

And it’s the cat, at the sliding glass door, looking intently at birds.

She sounds like a squirrel.

Convalescent

The kitty came home yesterday late afternoon.

Her incision looks like it should.

She’s mostly sleeping it off, occasionally coming out for some attention.

No more stone

Kocka went through surgery just fine, and although she was not well-pleased to have a catheter taped to her leg, she was eager to eat and seems to be recovering well so far. She will likely come home tomorrow.

During the surgery, the vet found that the bladder was small, not very elastic, rather thick, and malformed, a little indented on top. They are sending away a piece, I suppose for biopsy.

The stone was quite small; perhaps it irritated things by dropping into the urethra and blocking it.

Stone

There was no feeding of the kitty tonight. No purrs or snuggles. There will be no litterbox scrabbling waking us up now and then.

The kitty is boarding at the vet’s, where she awaits surgery to remove a stone. We could have tried a different prescription food for a month that might have dissolved it, but after three months of medications and discomforts and collecting samples, I am ready to be done with this, and to get this kitty feeling better as soon as possible. I feel like we’ve wasted so much time (and money), and if she ever has any urinary tract symptoms again, I’m going directly to x-rays and sterile (vet-collected) urine samples.

The vet was planning to collect urine directly from the bladder, via a needle. They were going to try at the appointment this afternoon, but we all knew that this kitty is so irritated in that area that she wouldn’t have a nice full bladder to work with.

As the vet was checking her out, she noticed lots of little hard stools and an empty bladder, and decided not only would they keep her overnight, they’d give her an enema. Not long after Amy and I got home, they called us to say that they did an x-ray and found that there was a stone, and gave us the two options.

This is a fair amount of money to spend on an animal. We are not so bound up in our pets that we’d do absolutely anything no matter what, but this kitty is a very good kitty, is not old, and is otherwise pretty healthy. I wouldn’t feel right putting her down just because we don’t want to / can’t afford to spend the money for this surgery.

Whatever happens, the vet says she should stay on the prescription diet forever, to prevent future stones. I don’t really like that idea. Expense is a small part of that, but mainly it’s got lots of crappy ingredients and smells kind of nasty. I might want another few opinions on that, but it can wait until her health has settled down some.

From the camera of…

My mother-in-law got these nice pictures while visiting this weekend:

Accidentally taken with the “night scene” setting, I think; must have been a long exposure and a moving kitty.

Our little family just about ready to leave for church.

Kitty time

6:00am

Mark starts to get ready for work. I get ready for kitty urine collection attempt #2.

Last night I had cut apart some of those clear filmy plastic bags the grocery store has for produce, and taped them together to fit in the litter box on top of the litter. Vet suggested plastic wrap, but I had a hard time maneuvering that and using the bags allowed me to prep in advance.

I spent the next couple of hours knitting in bed and watching / listening for the kitty to use the box, at which point I’d get up, get the syringe and the storage container, and suck up any little offerings. There was one decent squirt at first — about one milliliter, nice and yellow — and then lots and lots of drops here and there, more bloody than the first squirt.

8:15am

Finally collected 2 ml. Got Amy up and dressed and fed and otherwise got ready to go.

9:30am

Left the house around 9; several inches of snow meant the roads were slower. Hung around the vet’s office waiting for the results — meanwhile the vet carts Amy around to look at puppies and the office kitty, Lips, and a few dogs come in and out.

The results: obviously there’s still blood in the urine. That and the lack of crystals and the proper pH and the fact that the first squirt was yellow and only the later drops red, suggests a sterile (not infected, in other words) inflammation. We can’t know for sure without taking a urine sample directly from the bladder, which would mean boarding the cat overnight. If we can’t afford that, we can continue the current antibiotic (just in case) and also add a course of steroids (in case it’s inflammation) — which would mean TWO pills a day.

10:30am

Amy and I arrive home and life goes on. There was playing and reading of books and making and eating of lunch and changing of diapers and napping.

Seven Oaks

We finished the latest kitty antibiotic several days ago, so I decided it was time to check in with a vet again. This time we went to the Seven Oaks clinic, the only one in Plymouth we haven’t tried yet.

I wasn’t able to collect a urine sample before we went, but the kitty obligingly peed on the floor in the exam room, so they were able to use a syringe to suck up a nice fresh sample to analyze.

Looking at the kitty, at her pee, and at her records, the vet decided on three things to try: first a blood test for FIV / feline leukemia, which turned out negative; then two simultaneous treatments, the Hills C/D diet and another antibiotic (Baytril).

I’m not terribly happy about the prescription diet — not so much because it’s expensive, as because the first several ingredients in the dry food aren’t meat, and both the wet and dry contain by-products and other low quality ingredients. But at this point, my main concern is to get the cat’s urinary tract unirritated again, and this diet is designed to do that. And the Wellness dry food, Natural Life wet food, and ground beef didn’t make any difference except to lose her a quarter pound of weight.

I am happy with the clinic — Amy and the kitty were both much calmer there than they’ve been at previous vets.

Needless to say, I’m also not happy about having to give 21 more pills to the kitty. They did give us a pill gun, and these pills are also crushable, so we have some options.

One-nap Day #2

Today didn’t go quite as swimmingly as yesterday.

Amy got a little tired and fussy earlier than yesterday, but we made it through naked time, diaper changes, breakfast, lunch, tub soak, and I managed to make the coconut oatmeal cake for tomorrow — although the dishes are still piled up in the kitchen and I haven’t iced it yet.

She only slept from 1 to 3. She is cheerfully babbling in her crib, so I’m leaving her there for now.

I did manage to tune my dulcimer and get a shower. The laundry basket of diapers is not folded, and the load of baby clothes is still sitting in the dryer. Amy’s lunch tray and bib are still lying on the table.

The cat ate her dry food in the morning and threw it up. She ate maybe half of the wet food mixed with ground beef at lunchtime. She tried to visit with me during the morning, but Amy is not at a stage where that works out well while she’s up — she is not gentle with the kitty so the kitty has to avoid us both. After the tuning and shower I played with her for a few minutes, and that’s about all the attention she’s had.

It takes two of us now to get the kitty pill in the kitty, and last night it took us many many times before it stayed down.

Amy’s rash looks maybe 1% better. This, after almost two weeks.

I am so tired of everything taking so much longer for me than everyone else. The cat’s illness, Amy’s rashes, tuning my dulcimer… none of these things should last so long. And it seems I don’t get much of a break in between — seems especially that Amy’s normal state is to have a rash.

Whine, complain, grumble, humph. But it could be worse. Sigh.

I guess I’ll go get Amy up and try to tidy, maybe ice the cake. Going to the dining hall for dinner, which is nice since it means no cooking and no extra dishes.

Tuesday

I just realized I just missed the first new episode of House M.D. in ages. Drat.

This morning Amy and I stayed in.

Between breakfast and morning nap was entirely naked time. I am tired of the rash she currently has, two little but nasty-looking sores. When we were at the doctor’s last week he confirmed my suspicion that yeast has gotten involved, but the Lotrimin has yet to show much effect. The sores look best to me after a good long naked time, so I’m trying to maximize that. Not much fun (for me; she doesn’t mind), though, to be confined to a double-sized comforter on her bedroom floor, even with all the toys transferred in there from the living room. The sores don’t seem to bother her except when you have to touch them (i.e. bath, diaper changes), so I’m not acutely concerned, but it’s just getting old and tiresome and it wears on me.

And thanks, but no thanks, I doubt it has anything to do with cloth diapers. The doctor didn’t bat an eyelash when he saw that’s what she was wearing. I am changing her frequently and even when it’s not naked time I am maximizing air by having her just in a diaper with no cover, or else with nice breathable wool covers.

This afternoon we went out for a string of tiny errands.

To the neighbor’s who has an in-home hair salon (tidied up Amy’s cut that I botched in the fall) and who goes to the same Creative Memories consultant I do (the consultant is an hour away if I remember right), to buy from her two 7×7 pages and protectors to finish Amy’s First Year album.

To the doctor’s because I forgot to give them our new insurance cards.

To the post office, where I continue to get no mail for myself and lots of mail for people who no longer rent their my box. Actually, it’s less now than it was at first. Hopefully even that trickle will eventually dry up.

To Kroger’s, where I turned in circles in the baking aisle, first hunting down the coconut (I got a small bag of unsweetened and a small bag of sweetened, which I will mix to reduce the sugar) and then the evaporated milk (didn’t know it came in such small cans — perfect since I just need a quarter cup). These are for a cake for Friday playgroup; it’s my turn to host.

To Logen’s Pool Supply, where I bought some pool test strips that, among other things, indicate pH. The owner or manager was really nice — I’d called first, yesterday when they were closed, and left a message explaining what I was looking for and why. She called back and wanted to know what kind of kitty, what was wrong, etc. She asked if it was leukemia — apparently she’s had experience with purebred Siamese (our kitty is just a regular kitty) getting that, and the symptoms apparently included urinary problems. Huh.

Finally home again. More naked time, then afternoon nap.

Meanwhile I’ve spent some time online looking up “how to get cat to eat meat” — our kitty has not been interested in the ground beef I’ve made her, per vet friend’s recommendations. One site I found, by a vet, had some suggestions that seemed sensible to me. Made more sense than what vet #2 (Parrett’s) says. And seems to complement what vet friend says. Essentially, instead of putting down some meat in the morning and leaving it until the kitty eats it (however long it takes), this vet suggests putting down new food at 2-3 meal times and removing whatever isn’t eaten in twenty minutes or so.

It aggravates and stresses me that Every. Area. Of. Life. is so not self-evident. Everyone has their own reasoned or unreasoned philosophy and advice and research and case studies and arguments and common sense and so on and so on, about the obviously complicated things like parenting and politics as well as the supposedly clearer things like science and nutrition and veterinary care. Sheesh. I’m not so good at trusting my own instincts and intuition and knowledge, and yet it’s difficult to determine who to trust instead. Everyone has an agenda and a bias, and since I’m not an expert in many fields, I just have to guess who and what I think makes most sense.

Amy and I had cold leftover ham (yum) and corn muffins for dinner; she had leftover green beans and I had leftover salad. I couldn’t bear more naked time, so she just wore a diaper and we played in the living room until bath time. Lately she does NOT like having her face and hair washed. We’ve been using those little narrow rectangular burp cloths as mini blankets, and I had one for her to cuddle while I dried her off, and that seemed to help a lot.

Mark got home (swim meet kept him late) during the bath and ate his dinner while Amy had yet more naked time, then Mark and I had a tiff about the cat and then he put Amy to bed while I tried unsuccessfully seven or eight times to get the antibiotic pill into the cat until she bit me and drew blood, then folded laundry, then worked through the tiff, then tried the pill again with Mark’s help.

As I reminded myself around lunch time, Jesus says that life is worth more than food and clothes, and so it’s not needful to worry over them; Amy and the kitty are both doing quite well, are content and even happy most of the time. I’m doing my best about the one’s sores and the other’s urinary tract, and meanwhile I can be thankful for their life.

There’s a ___ in the house!

Sheba, my mom’s kitty, is a lovely blue-point Siamese. She is shy around strangers, and absolutely avoids children.

We have been here for almost a week, and that cat stays hidden exactly until Amy is in her pack and play for naps or bedtime. Then out she comes to do her business and all.

This morning, it must have been rather quiet. Amy was standing by the couch as my mom was reading to her.

The cat came out and headed to wherever she was going.

All of the sudden, she and Amy became aware of one another.

The cat froze.

Amy’s hands flew up in delight, she squealed, and started toddling forward.

The cat retreated, of course.

How we wish we had a camera at the moment!