Krista's Care

[daftcat75]

Careful what I wish for, right? Because she was barely eating yesterday, she was reaching low when she ejected a few bile puddles on the carpet last night. Only one of them had hair, but not enough to explain her anorexia. I think I have to let her take the day because I'm sure she's not at all interested in eating.

She is however done sulking on the bed (for now) and wants lap time this morning.

 

[CL56]

Such a roller coaster ride !

((hugs))

 

[WinniesMomma]

Such a roller coaster ride !

((hugs))

I agree! Rooting for you and Krista

 

[daftcat75]

She’s nibbling tonight. But certainly not enough. Maybe it keeps the bile barfs at bay. She is going to vet for fluids tomorrow. If that doesn’t do it, I’ll book a dental appointment for her.

I’ll probably book the appointment anyway. There’s something going on in her mouth. Something bothering her for a long time. But every round of extractions comes with a recovery period. So I’d been putting it off until it became problematic. Now it’s problematic.

Hopefully she put on enough weight to weather out the next recovery.

 

[daftcat75]

I also think there’s such thing as too much meat stock for her. She had another runny poop today despite not eating yesterday. It’s possible that she just has a backlog until she’s eating again. I think despite it coming from her favorite turkey stock, she may still be sensitive enough to glucosamine and chondroitin. If I want to ramp up her intake to help out her joints, we are going to have to take it slowly.

Her ear is doing fantastic though so at least there’s that. And she really is moving better since the stock.

 

[daftcat75]

She's eating half portions since last night. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing. She is still going in for fluids today since she went two days without eating and eating is her hydration. I will book the dental appointment while I'm there today.

 

[daftcat75]

I topped off Krista’s 3/4 portion when she was still looking for food before first feeder opened. After the vet visit, which she was understandably vocal about but took it like a champ anyway, she came home and finished first feeder portion and whatever was left of second breakfast. Second feeder is open now but I think she wants to get back to the nap I interrupted to take her to vet. She wants to leave me another fluids wet spot on the bed.

I’m going for a run to get out of her hair and I’ll be back for her first dinner. Hopefully she’ll make it through at least 3/4 portion before 2nd dinner. But since she isn’t eating a portion all at once, I will likely carry over whatever remainder (add equivalent fresh amount) to her second dinner which she has all night to finish.

I didn’t book the dental just yet. I want to see how she does this week and see if we can put a little daylight between this visit and next. I’d still like to get her in in two weeks to retest her kidneys when she’s not dehydrated. Then we can do teeth again.

 

[daftcat75]

She ate the overnight portions. But she had all night to do so. She only ate half of first breakfast, nibbling at it over three hours. And spent a lot of time looking somewhat distressed. After seeing the face below, I decided to bupe her. I think it might have kicked in because she’s doing an epic groom like she hasn’t in awhile. I’m sure once she has filled her belly with hair, she’ll hit that food plate like she’s feeling no pain. I am watching her groom and if she doesn’t hit the plate after, well, it is about time to change out the plates anyway. I have three more doses of transdermal buprenorphine. I will try one more dose with her before first dinner. If her eating picks up, I’ll book the dental. If it doesn’t pick up, I won’t say that it’s ruled out though. Bupe can affect appetite. I still wanted to retest her kidneys at the end of the mouth. But she may not have two more weeks of good eating in her without that dental. I think all signs are pointing towards making that appointment anyway since her eating is already slower than before.

 

[daftcat75]

I made her a small portion, 1/2 ounce (14 g) soupy with added turkey stock. Whoa! Now that’s what she was looking for. Until she hit a chewy bit. She jawed at for a bit and then jawed some more without food and then walked away from the whole endeavor. If that doesn’t say mouth pain, I don’t know what will. I got on the phone immediately to the vet because they closed in 15 minutes and got her a dental booked for tomorrow.

I finally figured out how to get her to hold still long enough to rub a dose of transdermal bupe in her ear. I set down a fish flake with my finger over it. She was so distracted trying to get at the flake that she tolerated the dose in her ear like a champ.

Not five minutes later, she came back to that soupy stocky portion and nearly finished it in one go.

Bingo! The bupe must have done the trick, and I feel better about her dental tomorrow.

Also. We have fleas. I’m not blaming her. I’m the indoor outdoor one. I’ll talk to the vet staff tomorrow morning about flea options for a fifteen year old. I picked up an essential oils collar but she literally turned up her nose at it. She sneered and walked away. I’m not putting that on her. I may buy another and wear them myself as ankle bracelets. I lent my Bissell upright to a friend. I’m getting it back tomorrow to wet vac those bloodsuckers up while Krista is at vet’s office. And I’m just waiting for the last of my laundry today. Everything washable that came in contact with one of us went down to the laundromat and their high capacity machines. It would have taken me days to do this at home.

So yeah. We can do teeth now and circle back to retest her kidneys another time. It’s not like she’s symptomatic for kidney disease. She still concentrates her pee just fine. Except for the fleas and the slow eating, she still wants to play and to cuddle. I’m worrying aloud about the dental to the vet receptionist and Krista is nuzzling reassuringly into my hand.

No food after 10 pm. Even the slow eating gremlin will still want to nibble overnight. Let’s see how hungry she really is. It will be fun to see bonkers Krista in the morning again. “How am I supposed to feed you when you’re laying on my belly and wanting scritches?”

 

[WinniesMomma]

Ugh, hate fleas. Hopefully they're all gone in one fell swoop.
Let us know how the appointment goes. C'mon, Krista, you can get through this!

 

[daftcat75]

I feel like the essential oils natural flea spray is finally giving the both of us relief. She wasn’t having the collar. I briefly wore it as an ankle bracelet. But it started to irritate my leg. So it’s better Krista didn’t wear it.

I get my Bissell back so I can wet vac the place. It’s convenient timing that Krista is going in for a dental.

Krista is beyond hungry. Vet staff said no food after 10 pm. Now at 4:30 am, she’s having stomach acid barfs from not eating. I feel so bad for her. But she’s going to the vet in the morning anyway and I can tell them to give her a Cerenia shot if she has to wait much longer for her dental after I drop her off.

Three more hours until I can drop her off...

 

[daftcat75]

After yet another round of acid-bile barfs, I broke down and gave her a spoonful of food with a half a spoonful of meat stock. Just something to hopefully settle her stomach long enough until we get to the vet. Maybe they can give her a Pepcid to settle her stomach until the Dr can do her dental.

I know they restrict food before anesthesia so they don’t have a vomiting cat on the table. But her stomach is already unsettled. This small bite will hopefully stop the acid barfs.

And under the bookcase she goes. That’s not a bad thing. She’s finally going to settle for a bit.

 

[WinniesMomma]

Oh man, poor girl. Fingers crossed it goes well!

 

[daftcat75]

I have no idea what Krista’s association with the garbage disposal is. I adopted her at 2. So maybe the home before her had a meat grinder? Or an electric can opener? I don’t know. But she comes running towards the sound when she hears it. So that’s how I ended up fishing her out from under the bookcase this morning to go the vet. I’m glad I didn’t have to grab legs and drag. I have only done that once and I hope we never have to do that again.

I weighed her this morning since dental extractions, if she needs them (I’m rooting for that last canine to go because it can’t be comfortable having just one canine), the extractions come with recovery times and it could take us awhile to get portions back up again. I may have just hit the reset button on all the work we did. But her eating has been slower and last night’s response to bupe convinced me I made the right call. Yes. So I weighed her. 8.8 lbs. She was 9.5 just a few weeks ago.

In other news, the natural essential oil flea treatment I applied to her and myself seem to have helped a lot in both of our comfort level and resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of flea dirt I found on the bed in the morning. And Krista smells fantastic! Like cinnamon, clove, and cedar wood oils. I could huff her all day long.

I found the powder version of this stuff (or similar anyway) from the last time we had fleas years and years ago. I’m so glad she’s not in the apartment right now. I’m pretty sure I would have suffocated her with the dust. I’ll be vacuuming up that room and Bissell (wet vac) it with just the smallest amount of the oil so I am not left with wet carpet smell.

I have about five to eight hours to make this space inhabitable for her (and not fleas) again.

 

[daftcat75]

Receptionist at vet says Krista came out of dental with no extractions. So then what’s going on with her mouth or her eating? Last night, Miss Bonkers Song and Dance showed me that her appetite is just fine. There’s something else going on. The vet did however call in a refill of the bupe transdermal. I may use that to see if she’ll get her portions back up on it. I can pick her up in a couple of hours. I still have laundry to finish and make sure the place is breathable again after this morning’s flea powder and vacuuming.

Shoot! I was really rooting for that last canine to come out if it would make her more comfortable.

 

[WinniesMomma]

And Krista smells fantastic! Like cinnamon, clove, and cedar wood oils. I could huff her all day long.

Lol that does sound good!

Receptionist at vet says Krista came out of dental with no extractions. So then what’s going on with her mouth or her eating?

Darn!

 

[daftcat75]

She came back angry and pooped on. I feel like someone is handling her wrong. Maybe I put a GoPro in her carrier next time. She’s in the bathroom cooling off. She looks relaxed as can be right now. But if I try to take a wipe to her, she’ll scream and hiss bloody murder. She has a food dish and a poop box as far as they can be from each other in such a tight space. She also has her cat rock playing through the door. And of course, a camera.

She was actually starting to warm up to me again. When I entered, she gave a weak trill. She let me knuckle nose her. I crook a finger and present her the knuckle to smell like another cat’s nose to nose greeting. But the minute the wipe touched her hind quarters, that moment passed. I’ll give her some more time to chill. If she doesn’t start grooming herself soon, I may have to spend some serious time in the bathroom rebuilding rapport. I’d better get a plate of meat stock ready.

First camera position. I tried to shake her out of the poopy carrier but she wasn’t having any of it. So in she went carrier and all.

Shortly after I shut the door, she went to her power position on top of the throne. She looks relaxed. But it’s a trap!

 

[daftcat75]

She’s grooming herself! Poor girl. I could have wet wiped her but she’s not having it. I’ll let her finish first pass and then put a plate of meat stock in there to encourage second pass.

 

[daftcat75]

I cat burritoed her and got a few good wipes in and she screamed, hissed, wiggled free at one point and got my arm into a bunny kick. Her front claws were trimmed at the vet but the back ones still got me. I will most likely bleed out or succumb to infection by morning. “If this kills me, you may eat my corpse, Krista. No sense in letting this take us both.”

 

[daftcat75]

She’s out of the bathroom and she is sitting on the desk in the office going for another groom. I think this will do it. If she’ll let me pass near her and maybe even touch her head, I may let her return to the rest of the apartment. But if she’s still growling and hissing, we can still stay in cat jail all night.