That’s better

The kitty is better. Woo-hoo! I haven’t noticed too much litter box scrabbling or discomfort, she’s eating well, and she’s even friskier and out and about more.

Progress

Yesterday the kitty seemed rather more herself.

She ate well, was more alert, and didn’t seem quite as uncomfortable in the litter box.

We’re feeding her Natural Life canned food, mixed with extra water, and a little of her Purina One dry food mixed with water.

I called the vet yesterday afternoon to talk about Wednesday’s visit to the other vet; they said they’d get the other vet’s info faxed over. I’ll call again today to see if they want to see Kocka today or next week or later.

My good kitty

My good kitty,
Slow and lethargic today
(Reacting to yesterday’s
Prenisone? Or sub-cutaneous fluids?);
With lots of enticement
And lots of cajoling,
You still
Only ate a few mouthfuls.
The litter box
And food and water
Are all in our room now
Where your bed is,
To make things easier.

The eating you did
Reassured me;
Dry food mixed with water,
Plain yogurt in a bowl,
New good-ingredients canned food,
With extra water mixed in.
And you’re still using
The litter box.
And you spent a half hour
Purring with me.

But tomorrow
I will call your vet,
To see if we can do
A blood test,
To look for the cause(s)
Of your FLUTD.
I don’t know
If we can
Because
The antibiotics
Are still in your system.

This is pretty lame
Poetry
But my sadness
And concern over you
Moved me to verse.

I should have
Paid more attention.
I should have
Noticed.
I’m sorry,
My good kitty.

Please get better,
My good kitty.

FLUTD

This is an update on our kitty’s condition; she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection two weeks ago at Parrett clinic. This was based on her observed symptoms only, as we weren’t able to collect a sample. The treatment was two weeks’ worth of amoxicillin.

The kitty hasn’t tried peeing on the tree skirt again, but is loyal to her litterbox again. However, she’s still going down there rather frequently, and it’s not very dirty in there. When she returns, her tail is frequently damp, and she usually washes herself.

I talked to a playgroup friend who is a former vet, and she advised two additional ways of collecting a sample (last UTI, which was years and years ago, we tried that pearl litter, and she just didn’t go… maybe she would now but I wanted alternatives).

First, saran wrap on top of the litter. And it took me a while to realize that a) of course the kitty likes the corners best, so I’ve got to get the saran wrap to stay in the corners, and b) it is permissible to use scotch tape to hold the saran wrap in place. I collected a bit last night that way.

This morning, I tried the other method — cleaning out the box and leaving it empty. I collected a bit more that way.

Off we went to the vet. This kitty does not travel well in her carrier, so I thought I’d try her in collar and leash. I brought Amy’s sling, and the cat carrier just in case. The good kitty let me perch her over my shoulder while I carried Amy in the sling, and that worked pretty well.

Unfortunately the vet is closed on Wednesday afternoons.

Since I’d gone to all the trouble, I figured I might as well drive a bit further to the Plymouth clinic where I’d taken Kocka for her shots in September. I hadn’t been all that pleased with the fact that they hadn’t given her a physical, but maybe they’d be better with this.

A physical exam showed she has no blockage. They did a urinalysis and a sediment test and found no crystals (good — unlikely she has stones), but a fair lot of red blood cells and cells from the bladder lining and a few white blood cells.

The vet’s diagnosis is Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD). There’s no real cure, but treatment can include a variety of things such as increasing fluid intake and reducing stress.

I don’t know that my cat is stressed… she’s only peed outside the box once, and that was pretty obviously pain, so any attention-getting was likely just trying to get me to notice her pain.

Yes, a big move and a new baby and new routines are all stressors, and perhaps they’ve all contributed, but all those things are fairly old new things — Amy’s a year old now, and we’ve been here for five months.

I do need to pay more attention to her, and try to play with her more often. Now that Amy’s not putting everything in her mouth, and understands no, I can leave kitty toys out and about all over the house, so that should help.

How unfortunate, the timing, though — we’re going away for the holidays. I have a neighbor who is ready to look in on the kitty, but it’s not the same.

Poor kitty

I had to take the kitty to the vet today.

While Amy and I were playing, the kitty came up and crawled under the Christmas tree and started digging in the tree “skirt” (just a blanket wrapped around the stand), then squatting as if to pee. She is very good with her litter box, so I was quite surprised and alarmed. I didn’t find any pee, but I did find a couple drops of blood.

Off to the vet we went — a different one this time.

Poor Amy, once we got into the examining room, she got all upset, apparently thinking she was going to get examined and maybe given shots, too.

We came home with amoxicillin, the same flavor Amy had (do they think cats will like that flavor? ugh), and eye drops, too — this kitty has chronic eye drainage and the vet suspects some kind of recurring infection.

Had to give the kitty a bath, too, since she’d messed her carrier rather badly. Poor thing.

It took Mark and I a LOT of effort to get that medicine into the cat; the morning doses I’ll have to manage by myself somehow. I doubt that the kitty will learn to like it, like Amy did.

Kitty Memories

Seeing our kitty sticking out from under the sliding door drapes reminded me of childhood kitty Tiggy; that was one of her many favorite places. Others included behind the couch where there was a heat register, behind the woodstove, and a box on top of a heating duct in the basement. Tiggy liked to be warm.

Vets

What does your vet do at your pet’s annual check-up?

In NY, we got a complete physical plus shots and a stool sample analysis (in case of parasites).

At the clinic I took the kitty to today, we just got shots. They did very kindly clean up the kitty and the carrier since she’d thrown up on the way there. And they were very nice. But no physical exam. Just seems odd to me. I think next year we’ll go somewhere else.

Bottle, bottle bottle bottle, bottle

Tonight Amy and I sang the bottle song.

Verse 1, 2, 3, and so on –

Me: Bottle…, bottle bottle bottle, bottle…

Amy: Bah l

We’re more and more sure that she is making some sounds meaningfully, even though most of them are still very distorted.

Among the first almost-words have been “kitty” (kee kee, keesh, and variations) and “bottle.”

Most clear is “uh-oh,” which she makes when she drops something, when someone else drops something, or when she is thinking about dropping something. She also makes this sound at apparently non-meaningful moments, too.

Today I am pretty sure I heard “milk,” along with the sign, which we’ve been demonstrating to her at lunchtime when she drinks her formula from a sippy. Of course she also clenches and unclenches her fists at other times, so we can’t yet be sure she understands the connection of the sign and the spoken word.

Then there’s “Daddy” (da da, da doo, da boo, and variations), which again sometimes seems clearly to signify Daddy, and other times seems to be random vocalizing.

“Mama” only rarely seems to have any connection with me. Sometimes it seems to mean something about food. (And nope, she’s bottle-fed, and Mark feeds her at dinner and sometimes other times, too.)

A ponytail and a kitty

Hand, tail

Recently Amy discovered something interesting at the end of her arm.

She also thinks the cat is interesting. Sometimes the kitty doesn’t mind, but sometimes Amy grabs a bit too hard or tries to bend or twist things that don’t bend and twist. Most of the time I’m quick enough to protect the kitty. Funny, during pregnancy I was more worried about protecting the baby from the kitty.