July
8, 2004
Happy 20th, Puss!
I don't know her exact birthday; she just showed up in my stairwell one day in September, 1984. But my best guess is she was 8-10 weeks old, so that makes her 20.
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update her story. Thank you to everyone who inquired about her. I promise I will let everyone know when the end does come; I won't leave you hanging.
Ok, there have been a lot of ups and downs this year. Right now she's doing pretty well. I don't know why, but winters are always hard for her. For the first time this winter, she went below 8 lbs, and I really began to doubt she would see this summer. But she's so stubborn, she had to prove me wrong.
One night she began vomiting and just couldn't stop. She had dry heaves all night. The next day she seemed okay, but she didn't want to eat much. The next night was the same story, so I took her to the vet.
They couldn't find anything wrong with her. She wasn't crashing; her kidney values were good. They gave me some injectible Reglan, but it didn't seem to help. It did make her very clingy; she crawled into my lap (she never lays on me anymore) while Simba was already there! That's just unheard of.
What did do the trick was Pepcid. Lord, she hates to be pilled. She just clamps her jaws together & says uh-uh, I know what you're trying to do to me! But I can out-stubborn even her.
Then in the beginning of this year we had a small flood in our house; the hose to our washing machine burst. It was only 15 minutes before I shut off the water, but it sure did some damage. Unfortunately, their main litterbox is in the laundry room.
We had to shut all the cats in our bedroom while they were setting everything up to dry out the carpets. The boys were very good and left Puss alone, but she just laid in front of the door, sticking her paw out. It was really sad to watch her; she was just desparate to get out of there.
Then we had about 5 industrial-strength fans drying out the carpet for 2 days. Puss (who doesn't hear very well any more) was the only one who wasn't fazed by them. She just walked right by them, and laid in the office as usual. I think she enjoyed the heat (the humans, not so much -- imagine running your a/c in Feb.).
She's back up to her fighting weight now -- a little under 9 lb. She's been eating great (except for yesterday). Her numbers at her last checkup were actually the worst she's ever had: BUN 77, Creatinine 5; but shhhh! don't tell her that.
The vet did hear a level 2 heart murmur for the first time this year. We did an ultrasound, and while there's some thickening of one of her veins, she doesn't have cardiomyopathy (yet). The vet thought it might be due to high blood pressure, but we checked it and her pressure is still good. So we'll just keep an eye on that.
This cat who didn't get fluids for the first year now lays there purring during them, and often lays there purring afterward so I can give her a little loving. I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me it would be this way 3 years ago; never in a million years!
I do know that she could go at any time. She could live another year or more, or she could die tomorrow. Every good day is a gift, and I'm thankful for every good day. I continue to pray that she will go quietly in her sleep some day.
A few things that I think have helped Puss live with CRF for 4 years, in no particular order:
- Sub-q fluids
- Trying to keep her Phosphorus to 4 with binders
- A raw diet (whatever you do, don't feed dry)
- Cyproheptadine
- Regular bloodwork (usually every 3 months)