Freaking out vs "this is normal"

[donutte]

Well, last night at some point, she went to the litter box and peed. I actually heard her growling at one of the other cats and then when I got up to see what was going on, I could hear her hissy-breathing from the litter box. Then she came out and didn't know what to do, so went in the bathroom (she didn't want to walk past the others). I carried her back to her "safety net" under the table. Woke up again in the middle of the night at some point, she was in the bathroom again. She actually got up to rub on my leg and was even purring a little I think, but that nose was still all stuffed up.

Got up this morning, busted out the Tiki Cat. She didn't come out (which I expected, if she can't smell very well). So I put the food under the table. Then I pushed it with the broom to literally under her face. She ate some then.

I can hear her right now, gacking. I don't know how to describe it other than that, but that's exactly what it sounds like - gacking. And I can't fit the antibiotic in the gel cap with all the other pills so have to do two gel caps - poor girl I think tonight I'll experiment with powdering the pills as apparently cutting them into small pieces didn't work.


Poor girl is so weak right now, and I don't know how to help her. I know it's because her nose is stuffed up and she can't breathe properly.

 

[donutte]

I feel SO bad. Pilled her twice this morning, then gave subqs. Because she loves subqs SO much, it always makes her heart go pitter-patter. Which in turn causes her to breathe faster. Of course, she can't breathe faster, and before we even got to 50ml, so started crying. Literally, if she was a human, I think that sounds he was making would have been crying. She's NEVER done that during subqs. Growled, yes. Cried, no. So I stopped it, brought her food into the bathroom and left her in there with it, and she did start eating it.

I of course looked at her nose. The left nostril is completely crusted over (and blocked), and the other one about 1/3 crusted over. How the heck can I fix this without ripping it off and hurting her?? This is definitely uncharted territory for me. I think the last time we had cats with runny noses, it was because of other issues, not colds, and there was no crusting over of the nostrils in those cases. Plus I was MUCH younger in those cases, and it was my mom doing the work then.

 

[donutte]

Called my vet's office. One of the techs (actually the office manager but she's also a vet tech) told me to try vaseline on a q-tip, of which I have neither. She said I could also try a tiny bit of olive oil. So, I soaked up some olive oil on a paper towel, held it against the crusty a bit (didn't rub, just held it there for a few seconds), then a minute later tried to wipe away with a warm wet washcloth. It came right off! She's still gacking a bit, but that's probably the post nasal drip. She's not gacking nearly as much as this morning though.

 

[foxxycat]

I was just going to say Vaseline-run your shower as hot as it can get-let her breathe the steam for 20 min

if that doesn't work-boil water in a pan=add thyme=then get her near the pan with a towel over both your heads-get her to breathe the steam-it works for me when I am stuffed-otherwise you can get whats called little noses and she will hate it but a squirt in each nostril will really help. Honeybee my asthma girl when she gets snuffly that's what I do=vasaline if its crusty-air steam and baby nose drops-no medicine in it-has to be only saline water-it will help plus the salt in it will help wound healing if theres cracking inside the nose from dry air. vasaline helps but she will probably try to lick it off..honeybee did and I had to hold her on my lap to distract her for a few minutes to at least allow it to start breaking up the crusties. poor girl! POOR MOM!! you didn't cause this!! That's the problem with germs...

 

[kittens mom]

Can you steam the bathroom up a bit since she likes it in there. I'm must catching up.

 

[stewball]

I feel like she's just had such a rough life and she didn't deserve that at all. She is such a sweet girl and for some reason, she's just had a very rough time in life. I honestly wasn't sure I was going to bring her home today If he thought it was her heart failing, I don't think I would have been able to try to treat that. It sounds like it's all up in her sinuses though, which is good in terms of severity, but if it's anything like humans, it probably means she feels like utter crap.

I don't regret not doing the dental, considering she went into acute renal failure a few weeks back. I know they are so much more susceptible to that with anesthesia, plus she has the heart murmur. Girl just got the bum end of the stick, and a mama that didn't know enough to take her to a vet regularly.

Wasn't she in a shelter?

 

[stewball]

I feel SO bad. Pilled her twice this morning, then gave subqs. Because she loves subqs SO much, it always makes her heart go pitter-patter. Which in turn causes her to breathe faster. Of course, she can't breathe faster, and before we even got to 50ml, so started crying. Literally, if she was a human, I think that sounds he was making would have been crying. She's NEVER done that during subqs. Growled, yes. Cried, no. So I stopped it, brought her food into the bathroom and left her in there with it, and she did start eating it.

I of course looked at her nose. The left nostril is completely crusted over (and blocked), and the other one about 1/3 crusted over. How the heck can I fix this without ripping it off and hurting her?? This is definitely uncharted territory for me. I think the last time we had cats with runny noses, it was because of other issues, not colds, and there was no crusting over of the nostrils in those cases. Plus I was MUCH younger in those cases, and it was my mom doing the work then.

There are little things for babies when they have colds to pull the mucous out to help the breathing. Maybe there's something like that for our babies. Surely cottonwool damped with warm water would remove the crust or vaseline to soften it. Whisky sneezed about 15 times yesterday and then stopped. I was getting worried.

 

[donutte]

I am going on way not enough sleep right now , so forgive my errors that I miss in advance. Or just speaking errors.

Yes, Sara came from a shelter, but that was 10 years ago (she was adopted by the person I got her from). There is more to her backstory though I'm sure. I think she may have been abused at some point, possibly even by the person we got her from (or her husband), we just aren't sure.

Anyway, last night, Sara was acting all kinds of weird. She was walking around meowing this awful meow. I was wondering if it was because I gave her the cypro last night. Then she looked like she wanted to jump in my bed. This was about 11:something last night. She had done that off and on her whole life, only rarely actually jumping on my bed. And if she saw Lucky up there she definitely wouldn't go up there (almost like some respect thing). Well, at some point, she came into my bed, because I woke up about 2:45am and well, there she was. And for such a tiny cat, let me tell you, she's a bed hog.

Later on in the night, I noticed she had moved. Fine. At some point I turned on my side, and brought my one leg up the way I always do when I lay on my side, and I felt cold wetness.

:slant:

I got up, went to the bathroom, saw Sara jumped off and came into the bathroom with me for a minute, then toddled off to her spot under the table in the dining room. I take inventory of the "damage", thankfully she avoided most of the crap I had on my bed. Hey, this was one sure way to make me clear it off. Stripped the bed, washing the blanket now. All the wet clothes are in a laundry basket, and the wet sheets and what-not are on the floor, waiting for the blanket to be done.

So, I don't know if I'm either reading too much into this whole situation last night, or not reading into it enough. There's a part of me thinking that she's trying to tell me something. If she had gone incontinent last night, I would have definitely thought more in that direction, but she's not wet at all, nor was the spot she was laying on before I got up. So she just got up, peed in a spot, then moved to another spot. She was rather affectionate last night, but not sure if that's because we decided to play "good parent/bad parent" last night, and had my mom hold her and love on her after getting pilled (vs letting her run away and hiding). Not sure how much that played into it, if at all.

And then, there's that meow. It sounds hideous and awful, but she does it even when she's being affectionate. Do cats voices change when they have a cold like humans do? Because her meow sounds like this ALL THE TIME the last two days. It's the same one that she gave me during subqs yesterday when I thought she was crying. Now I'm starting to wonder.

I'm just too tired and can't even think straight. Think I'll go into work early today so I can leave early. Not even sure I should be driving, I'm so tired, so still not sure how today will play out just yet. Giving the coffee a chance. Working on my second cup now. Then I'll pill Sara and give her subqs. Sorry Sara, gonna have to pill you twice this morning. I just don't have the wherewithal to try and get powder into a tiny gelcap like I did last night.

Unfortunately, I think I just picked a bad night to go out. I went out for a beer with an out-of-state colleague last night that is in town. That is the extent of me "going out" this week I think, haha. I had considered putting it off when we didn't make it out as early as planned, but decided to just do it yesterday. And now, I'm exhausted.

 

[foxxycat]

Hope your day gets better with Sara. I wish they could talk to us for sure.

Sorry about the wet bed. You have way more patience than I do when it comes to that-not that I would be mad at the animal-its not their fault but I would be freaking out because I would want to know why she is wetting to begin with and mostly worried about Sara.

Hope you get a nap in today.

 

[donutte]

Definitely no time for napping today. And made it to work somehow. Sara ate a bit before I left thankfully. I literally have to put it under her face, but she ate some.

 

[foxxycat]

Yay!!

 

[Margret]

Originally Posted by foxxycat  

Sorry about the wet bed. You have way more patience than I do when it comes to that-not that I would be mad at the animal-its not their fault but I would be freaking out because I would want to know why she is wetting to begin with and mostly worried about Sara.

I think Sara was sleeping in the bed because she was cold (remember her recent haircut), and didn't want to go out into the cold to relieve herself.  It was just more convenient to pee where she was and then move to a dry spot.  If she were healthy and fully furred it wouldn't have happened, and it can be avoided in future by giving her a warm place to sleep that isn't the bed, and putting a pee pad just outside its entrance.

Margret

 

[donutte]

Got home from work, made my bed, then went looking for Sara. Couldn't find her! I kept listening for sniffling or sneezing - nada. Then I sit in my chair and as I was saying hi to the dogs, I looked over in the direction of the little cat house and see a little naked dilute calico.

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• donutte
• Apr 21, 2016

She didn't eat for mom earlier, but mom tried to feed her while she was sunning herself. She's generally not interested in eating then. So, thinking I'll try to feed her soon. She just looks so peaceful sleeping.

 

[zed xyzed]

aww something so sweet about a sleeping kitty 

 

[donutte]

Just had a stupid aura (probably from lack of sleep and stress). Basically my body warning me to tone it down (whatever it may be).

I fed her a bit. She didn't eat a lot but she ate a bit. There's some high-cal stuff in there so that's ok. She still sniffles but not nearly as much. Mostly WHILE she's eating, which is probably why she doesn't want to eat so much at once.

Dangit, still need to scoop the litter. Will do that after I pill/subq Sara.

 

[donutte]

And the subqs/pilling done. Yay. Hoping she'll come out like she did last night to eat the "community food".

 

[margd]

And the subqs/pilling done. Yay. Hoping she'll come out like she did last night to eat the "community food"

Just had a stupid aura (probably from lack of sleep and stress). Basically my body warning me to tone it down (whatever it may be).

I fed her a bit. She didn't eat a lot but she ate a bit. There's some high-cal stuff in there so that's ok. She still sniffles but not nearly as much. Mostly WHILE she's eating, which is probably why she doesn't want to eat so much at once.

Dangit, still need to scoop the litter. Will do that after I pill/subq Sara.

Hope you get some rest tonight.  Fingers crossed you don't get a migraine.  

 

[donutte]

Hope you get some rest tonight.  Fingers crossed you don't get a migraine.  :cross:

No migraine this time. I'm epileptic and these auras are like pre-seizures (technically mini-seizures in their own right). Had another this morning, not as intense as last night's though. I don't even know how to describe what it feels like. I do know my brain isn't working quite right this morning, trying to retrieve things from my brain is a bit difficult.

I did rest though. And Sara slept in the little cat house thing. I put a pee pad outside of it, not entirely sure she ever came out though. If she did, she must have actually gone to the litter box. I'll have to check the inside of it too.

Vet said to give the binder with the food one hour before or two hours after the antibiotic, and if that means she gets less binder than she needs at this point, so be it. The antibiotic is more important. So, will be feeding her food without binder in it this morning. Will be a fishy high-cal mush.

 

[donutte]

Day five of the Clavamox. She hasn't had the crusties on her nose for a couple of days now, so that's good. She's still stuffed up and sneezes every time she tries to eat (which she seems to want to do) but then the sneezing and what-not gets to be too much, so she stops. She also just wants to lick her food to death, so there goes the Fancy Feast flaked. I'm a bit nervous that her kidney function may be getting worse than it was last week even, since she's peeing and drinking up a storm. Then again, I don't know what's normal for a cat that has a creatinine of 3.8.

I couldn't find the cyproheptadine last night, despite going crazy looking for it. Finally conceded and settled on the mirt that I still had (I was fixing her pill this morning). On the plus side, they all fit in the gelcap without me having to pulverize any of them. Of course, then I sat down at my table and what did I find? The bottle of cypro. Why I had it there, I have no idea.

Anyway, hoping to get her to eat more today. Maybe the mirt will help with that.

 

[kittens mom]

Day five of the Clavamox. She hasn't had the crusties on her nose for a couple of days now, so that's good. She's still stuffed up and sneezes every time she tries to eat (which she seems to want to do) but then the sneezing and what-not gets to be too much, so she stops. She also just wants to lick her food to death, so there goes the Fancy Feast flaked. I'm a bit nervous that her kidney function may be getting worse than it was last week even, since she's peeing and drinking up a storm. Then again, I don't know what's normal for a cat that has a creatinine of 3.8.

I couldn't find the cyproheptadine last night, despite going crazy looking for it. Finally conceded and settled on the mirt that I still had (I was fixing her pill this morning). On the plus side, they all fit in the gelcap without me having to pulverize any of them. Of course, then I sat down at my table and what did I find? The bottle of cypro. Why I had it there, I have no idea.

Anyway, hoping to get her to eat more today. Maybe the mirt will help with that.

You seriously need some mental rest.