Erin Expounds

My apologized for this becoming the "all Tigger, all the time" blog. It's just what is going on right now with us. There should be some new non-cat stuff to report starting tomorrow with Pre-K Orientation and continuing with Luke's last swim class and an evening with my aunt and cousin from New Mexico on Saturday.

As you can see from the title, the news on Tigger is not good. She didn't eat too much on Monday, but she was at least still showing interest. But yesterday, she just did not want to eat, or drink. It's almost like she forgot how. I got her a drop-off appointment for today, the only one they had left, and they finally got to look at her around 11 AM. She has lost several ounces since Saturday, and she is once again seriously dehydrated. They've started an IV for fluids again, and they will put in a feeding tube this afternoon. That should get her stabilized, and she can come home in 1-2 days. "Some cats only need the support of a feeding tube for a few days before they start eating on their own." Yeah, why am I suspecting that she is not one of those? "But the feeding tube can also stay in for many weeks if need be." I guess that's good. Better than the alternative.

So, either this will get her liver functioning again and she will be fine in a few weeks, or this will get her stable enough to figure out what is really causing the problem. We should also get her FIV results tomorrow. We're really still in limbo as to whether she is truly going to be well again or not. It all depends on her response and what the additional tests show. Please continue to keep your paws crossed for her. We really miss our princess kitty.

Currently feeling: very unhappy

Posted by Erin at 1:21 PM | 0 comments
Labels: Cats

She came home this afternoon. She's not "well," but she is much improved, and we can manage her here from this point forward. We have to monitor her eating, obviously, and she has to take two pills twice a day. Once she starts fighting back about that, I'll know for sure she's going to be fine! LOL She goes back in a week to be retested for both liver function and FIV. We'll discuss the FIV more if the independent test comes back positive as well. Cross your paws for us that it does not. Absolutely must go to bed now. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers! I know they helped.

Currently feeling: so happy to have my kitty home

Posted by Erin at 10:58 PM | 4 comments
Labels: Cats

When I got to the vet's office this morning, I told the girl at the front that I had brought some foods for her to try, including the chicken with dried beef that I made for her last night. (I still feel a little silly about that, but if that's what it takes to save her life, then so be it.) She said that she would take it to the back and check on Tigger's status. When she returned, she said that Dr. George wanted to talk with me, and then I could visit with her. My heart just sank to my feet. I just knew that either he was going to ask permission to put in a feeding tube, or tell me that she had deteriorated overnight and things were not looking good.

Imagine my surprise when he opened the door with a huge grin and announced, "she's eating great!" Seriously? He admitted that he really thought he was going to have to put in a feeding tube today, so he too was surprised to arrive for rounds this morning and find out that she was eating well. She ate "quite a bit" of the turkey they got her, then they left her some dry cat food overnight and most of that was gone this morning. (Oh, the irony, since this whole mess was likely caused because she was overweight and pre-diabetic, so we were told to get her *off* the dry food and switch to wet, which she has largely refused to eat.) As long as she continues to eat and her liver numbers continue to improve, she can come home this weekend!!

"We'll bring her in and let you visit with her. She's had her appetite stimulant already this morning, but she hasn't eaten anything. See if she'll eat for you." My presence has never altered her eating before, but I'll give it a try. She looked good, though she is clearly not bathing much (VERY unusual for her), which is something of a concern, but there are bigger things to worry about at the moment. This may sound silly, but she already feels heavier (likely from being rehydrated as much as anything), which is definitely a good thing. "Do you think she would eat something if you gave it to her?" I may have just the magic potion in the bag of foods I brought for her. Bring forth the chicken!



We scooped up about a tablespoon of it. I had chopped the chicken quite small, and there was enough sauce on it to keep it moist but not drown it. She immediately started eating! She even grabbed the glob and tried to run away with it, since she knows that she wouldn't be allowed to eat that much normally. Even the tech was impressed with her gusto. Do I know my cat, or do I know my cat? She only ate that one little scoop, even though we offered her more (I brought about 1/2 a cup with me, and there's more here at home if need be), but they said that was actually a very good amount for now. So, she's doing as well as we could expect at this point in time, she's eating well, and her liver numbers are improving. What more could we ask?

Currently feeling: grateful

Posted by Erin at 10:32 AM | 1 comments
Labels: Cats

I will apologize in advance for this being a bit rambly. I am so very tired.

I wanted to give another Tigger update, as much so I can remember what has happened to this point as anything. Dr. George called this afternoon. At that time, Tigger still wasn't interested in eating, but she had only been there 4-5 hours. He had dispatched one of the techs to the Publix across the street to buy some sliced turkey to tempt her appetite. I also recommended bacon bits (the real ones). When he said she could eat anything she wanted as long as she was willing to eat, he wasn't kidding. After we got off the phone, I realized that I should just make her favorite meal. If she won't eat chicken with dried beef, then she won't eat anything! So tonight, after Luke went to bed, I went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients, then came home and made an entire batch of chicken with dried beef just for my cat. I hope it will be the magic bullet instead of her last meal, though it felt a little that way when I was making it. I also got her 2 different kinds of bacon bits and a small can of her favorite kind of chicken. I just hope something works. I'm not sure we'll ever get her to eat cat food again after this kind of spoiling, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Said bridge seems pretty far out on the horizon at the moment.

Anyway, back to the update. Reading between the lines from what he was saying, I think we are headed towards a feeding tube, but he is still confident that we can get her condition under control and then cleared. I trust Dr. George to indicate if he thinks she is not doing well or not going to make it. He's just that kind of guy and that kind of doctor. (My brother brings his dogs all the way to Atlanta to see Dr. George, even though J now lives 3+ hours away. So yeah, we trust him.) We've known him for years, and I can't tell you how relieved we were when he was the one who walked through the door this morning to handle our case (they just squeezed us in where they could, so it could have been one of 6 different docs).

BUT!

Yes, there is a but, which is not at all what I wanted to hear. They ran several blood tests on her, most of which came back in the 30 minutes that we waited while we were there. One of the tests that takes some time is the FIV test, or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, the cat form of HIV/AIDS. It is routine to run that test when a cat presents with certain unexplained symptoms, including liver failure. Tigger scored a very weak positive. They ran the test twice and got the same result, though whether they ran it on separate samples or two of the same sample (to make sure the test itself wasn't bad), I do not know. I was just too stunned to even think to ask such questions. I don't know that I could have been any more shocked if he's said she was pregnant (she was spayed at 6 months old). How on earth could she have been exposed to it? Bengal went out in the snow after we first moved into this house, but it was only for a few minutes, and he encountered no other cats. Tigger did escape once for several hours when we lived in the apartment, but we moved into this house in 2001, and she had an FIV test run in 2002 when we switched vets, and she came up negative then. Cleo lived "on the streets" until she was nearly a year old, but the adoption agency should have checked her for FIV and disclosed if she were positive before allowing my brother to adopt her in 2000. She had been indoor ever since, and we had her records forwarded to our vet, but we never had our own FIV test run on her since she came to live with us. (I have no idea if one was run when J first took her to the vet. Again, I didn't think of it at the time. I'll ask tomorrow.) So unless the adoption group did not do test her and/or disclose a positive result on Cleo, I have absolutely NO idea how Tigger could have gotten it.

Dr. George did say that for FIV to be the cause of her liver failure, she would have to have an extremely advanced case of it, and she would be showing much more than a weak positive FIV test. He doesn't think that it is related to her current symptoms, but once we get her back to normal from this liver thing, he wants to have all 3 of them tested by an outside independent lab. My brother, the one with the Ph.D. in infectious diseases, said that she can have the antibodies without having the actual virus, and he suspects that the in-house test they ran today at the vet's office was an antibody test. He said that if it works the same for cats as it does for humans, a positive antibody test (faster, cheaper, 99.5% accurate) will prompt a second test from a second sample (in case the first one was tainted somehow) that will look for the actual virus instead of just the antibodies (more sophisticated test, more expensive, so not run unless antibodies are indicated). But as Dr. George said, this is likely the least of our worries right now. Get her stable and get her liver functioning normally, and *then* we'll worry about the possibility of FIV. Still, it was just such a shock to hear him say that. I'm still reeling a little.

And then there was Luke. Per Dr. George, she should be able to come home this weekend, whether with a healthy appetite or with a feeding tube, so when we came home, we didn't bother putting up her carrier. We just left it sitting in the foyer. We didn't know whether to bring up Tigger ourselves or wait and see if he noticed she wasn't here and asked. We decided to wait, and then if he hadn't asked by tomorrow evening (when we'll know more), we would tell him then. But as he came down the stairs from changing into his pajamas, I hear from the landing, "Mommy, why the kitty cage out?" Oh boy, here we go.

Me: You know how we take the kitties to the doctor in the cage, since they don't have a special seat like you?
Luke: Yeah.
Me: Well, Tigger is very sick, and we had to take her to the hospital. [He understands that you go to the hospital if you are hurt or very very sick.] She has to stay there for a few nights.
Luke, very sad: But I love her!
Me, fighting back tears: I know, we all do! That's why we took her to the hospital, so she can get better.
Luke: Oh, she get a shot?
Me: Yes, she's had some shots, and she's getting lots of medicine to make her well. And if she gets well, she can come home.
Luke: Tomorrow?
Me: Well, I don't know about tomorrow, but we hope she can come home in a few days.
Luke: Okay.

End of conversation. I know he doesn't understand the nuances of me saying "if she gets well," instead of "when she gets well," but I don't want to get into what might happen until we know how likely it is that it might happen. Everything I said was true, and I don't think I was misleading, and if she isn't doing well tomorrow, then we'll discuss that she might not come home. But I'd rather wait and she how she's doing tomorrow before we go there. No need to burden him with any more than that right now. Today was a very long day, and I think tomorrow will be equally long. The fewer stressed out people, the better. Thank you all so much for your love, support, prayers, tweets, and Facebook comments, and for just being there to listen. It means so much to me.

And now we wait. I have the chicken with dried beef cooling on the counter right now, so I can package her up a bowl full for tomorrow. (Please please please let her eat some!) I'll drop it by after I take Luke to school. That assumes I am functional come morning. Did I mention that it is now after 11 PM on Thursday, and I have been awake since 8 AM Wednesday morning? That's 39 straight hours with no sleep. Wait, I take it back; I got a 15 minute power nap around 8 AM this morning, between getting back from taking Luke to school and leaving to take her to the vet that opened at 9. I've been running on caffeine and fear. I was really tired around 4 PM this afternoon, but once I pushed through that one, I've been doing quite well, other than being a bit grouchy, and that's as much emotional stress as lack of sleep. I'll probably be up another 30-60 minutes with the food. That would put me at forty straight hours awake. That's a nice round number, right? I just hope I can actually *sleep* once I go to bed. I've had so much caffeine today and been wound so tight, I think it will either be nearly instantaneous, or terribly elusive. Wish me luck! Wish us all luck, especially Tigger. We could certainly use it.

Currently feeling: bleary and hopeful

Posted by Erin at 11:14 PM | 2 comments
Labels: Cats

In case anyone missed the updates on Twitter and/or Facebook, they think Tigger will be okay. She's still not out of the woods, and things could still go bad. The next 24 hours are crucial. She has hepatic lipidosis caused by not eating for a few days. Basically, her body went into starvation mode, but it tried to convert so much fat to energy so quickly that it is clogging her liver, causing jaundice and dehydration. She's been on a diet for 6-8 weeks now, so she should have lost 2-3 pounds by now. She'd lost 5! That's 1/3 of her pre-diet body weight. They said she is likely in a fair bit of pain and very very nauseous, which only compounds the problem (not eating). They are "throwing the book at her," as Dr. George put it, pumping her full of fluids, anti-nausea meds, appetite boosters, and anything else they think will help. "We'll do our best to flush her system and give her the munchies," he said. Great, my cat will be high! LOL ("Just a little," says Dr. G.) And she can have anything she wants to eat, as long as she eats! I recommended chicken or bacon. When we left, she had a catheter, an IV, and she was wearing the "cone of shame." (Those who have seen Up are laughing right now.) She was one very unhappy Princess Kitty. Still, better unhappy and alive and likely to recover than the alternative. If we'd waited one more day, it likely would have been too late.

If she starts eating and her liver function improves by morning, they'll send her home either tomorrow evening or sometime Saturday (bless my vet's office for being open 7 days a week). If she's still not eating at all come tomorrow and there is no change in liver function, she'll have to have a feeding tube for several weeks, but again, once her liver function improves and she is eating on her own, it can be removed. It's not a sure thing, and we could still lose her (now, or later if the feeding tube doesn't work), but everyone is cautiously optimistic. Thank you for all the good thoughts! I'll keep you updated.

Currently feeling: missing my Muffin-kitty, and so thankful for Dr. George

Posted by Erin at 12:47 PM | 1 comments
Labels: Cats

I can't sleep tonight. I'm worrying about Tigger. She just hasn't been acting like herself for a few days. I can't remember if I mentioned it here or not, but at their last vet visit, Bengal and Tigger were diagnosed as pre-diabetic, and all three cats are overweight (which we already knew). We were told that we needed to switch them to a 100% wet food diet for the pre-diabetes, since all dry food is basically cereal and too high in carbs. So we switched, thinking this should be the easiest thing ever. Ha. Cleo loves it and may have even gained some weight since the switch. Both Bengal and Tigger really do not care for the wet food, though Bengal seems to be getting used to it. Tigger, well, sometimes she eats, and sometimes she doesn't. We thought she would start eating more once she realized that this is all she is going to get, but she's really not eating much. Yes, she's lost weight (so has Bengal), but I think she might actually be too thin now.

Then, over the last few days, I haven't seen much of her. Yesterday and today, I hardly saw her at all. I know where she's hiding, I'm just worried about her. She's not bothering me when I use the computer, and she's not jumping into my recliner the instant I get up. She's not even scratching on the stairs or the cardboard boxes. She just isn't acting like herself. I'll call the vet in the morning. For now, all I can do is fret and have flashbacks to Shadow from 2 years ago. So much for sleep tonight.

Currently feeling: concerned

Posted by Erin at 11:44 PM | 0 comments
Labels: Cats

This morning's conversation in the car on the way to school. Note there are special activities at school on certain days during the summer.

Luke: We have field trip today?
Me: No, that's on Tuesdays. You'll do that tomorrow.
Luke: Water play today?
Me: No, that's on Thursdays. Today is Monday.
Luke: Monday? What do we do?
Me: Regular school stuff. Monday is just a regular day.
Luke: That's no fun.
Me: No kidding.

Currently feeling: Mondays are boring

Posted by Erin at 10:04 AM | 0 comments
Labels: Conversations, Luke

Got three move movie reviews written. Also saw Ice Age 3, which I will review shortly. For now:

Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen
In a Nutshell: Robots pretty! The rest? Eh. Go in with low expectations, and you might be okay. (Read full review.)

A Knight's Tale
In a Nutshell: Cute, fun, not deep, and Heath Ledger. A perfectly brainless movie, which is just what I wanted at the time. (Read full review.)

Night at the Museum
In a Nutshell: It was just there. Not good, not bad, just eh. (Read full review.)
Currently feeling: doing well on films this summer

Posted by Erin at 12:06 PM | 0 comments
Labels: Musings-Reviews