Krista's Care

Status
Not open for further replies.

tarasgirl06

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
24,708
Purraise
64,891
Location
Glendale, CATifornia
First breakfast plate cleaned.

Bookcase digestion time.
View attachment 338927
What a big-eyed beauty!
I get so frustrated sometimes with the problems with food -- human and feline. Don't even get me started! But I hope and pray you're able to find a good, steady source of clean, good food for Krista. With the prices they charge, it's all the more ridiculous to be having these problems.
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
What a big-eyed beauty!
I get so frustrated sometimes with the problems with food -- human and feline. Don't even get me started! But I hope and pray you're able to find a good, steady source of clean, good food for Krista. With the prices they charge, it's all the more ridiculous to be having these problems.
Still cheaper than vet visits. We had so many vomiting/off-her-food (usually due to a flare-up) visits the past two years. I'll gladly struggle with QC and supply over taking her to the vet once a month (which is what we averaged last year.)
 

tarasgirl06

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
24,708
Purraise
64,891
Location
Glendale, CATifornia
Still cheaper than vet visits. We had so many vomiting/off-her-food (usually due to a flare-up) visits the past two years. I'll gladly struggle with QC and supply over taking her to the vet once a month (which is what we averaged last year.)
Oh, yeah, absolutely. But it's so bogus that in a society that touts itself as being the best, most advanced, etc., we have to continually be concerned about whether our food, and our loved ones' food, is going to be safe.
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
Oh, yeah, absolutely. But it's so bogus that in a society that touts itself as being the best, most advanced, etc., we have to continually be concerned about whether our food, and our loved ones' food, is going to be safe.
True that.

One of the managers at the local pet supply store I sometimes buy her food from explained that the reason Rawz still has supply issues is that their canning facility also cans human food. So they have to split time. And then there's the teardown and cleaning time switching between batches of food. It's the struggle of small batch pet food. Even with their prices and popularity, they don't sell enough to have a dedicated canning facility.

I mean heck! We're still having toilet paper supply issues. Our supply chains run for maximum efficiency, not maximum output. It doesn't take much to disrupt them. But it takes more than we can imagine to correct those disruptions. You can't just turn a crank to run lines faster or longer.

I consider myself fortunate that I'm able to afford and maintain a supply of her food at all during these exceptional times where people can't always find or afford food for themselves.

Which reminds me. I should probably buy another case of 3 oz'ers since it may be awhile before 5.5's are available again.
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
Easy no-peas-y! (Because peas don't belong in cat food!)

I just bought two cases of the 3 oz rabbit from my favorite online supplier in Sacramento. Free shipping and quick. They use USPS rather than UPS or FedEx. Never a quality issue with their cans.
 

tarasgirl06

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
24,708
Purraise
64,891
Location
Glendale, CATifornia
Easy no-peas-y! (Because peas don't belong in cat food!)

I just bought two cases of the 3 oz rabbit from my favorite online supplier in Sacramento. Free shipping and quick. They use USPS rather than UPS or FedEx. Never a quality issue with their cans.
Good deal! Yeah, we're still waiting on 120 lbs. of kitlit from Petco.com via UPS. We have 70-some lbs. here, so it's not urgent. But this is the fifth time they've emailed me to tell me it's been rescheduled. C'mon, folks! I know you can do it!
Oh, yeah, I know about the supply chain. But the food safety issues were going on years ago! Recall, recall, recall! Food poisoning! What's the USDA for, if not to monitor the stuff we consume to survive?
And no, peas don't belong in cat food. One of our former favorite brands reformulated from being pretty good to doing things like duck and peas. PEAS??? Puh-leez. Have you EVER seen a felid of any kind hunting PEAS? :angrycat:
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
oh heh! How often can you give them? We’ve been told once per week.
B-12 is water soluble. Any excess is simply peed out of her. I give them as frequently as she has poop barfs: barfing after multiple rounds of pooping. That's about the only time she barfs anymore. Sometimes I get almost a full week between those and sometimes I have to poke her three days in a row until they subside. If she barfs, I poke her. But no more than once a day. I don't know if there is a correlation between raising her B-12 and making them go away. But she always seems better after getting one and we usually get a few days before the next time. This is an improvement from where she was before I resumed the B-12 shots. She was barfing almost daily after every poop. I'm sure whenever we find the solution to what I believe is chemo constipation the barfs will disappear completely.
 

tarasgirl06

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 19, 2006
Messages
24,708
Purraise
64,891
Location
Glendale, CATifornia
B-12 is water soluble. Any excess is simply peed out of her. I give them as frequently as she has poop barfs: barfing after multiple rounds of pooping. That's about the only time she barfs anymore. Sometimes I get almost a full week between those and sometimes I have to poke her three days in a row until they subside. If she barfs, I poke her. But no more than once a day. I don't know if there is a correlation between raising her B-12 and making them go away. But she always seems better after getting one and we usually get a few days before the next time. This is an improvement from where she was before I resumed the B-12 shots. She was barfing almost daily after every poop. I'm sure whenever we find the solution to what I believe is chemo constipation the barfs will disappear completely.
And oh, I hope you do!!!
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
I know I blog mostly about her poops. I should document those endearing things she does that makes it all worth it.

She does this nearly every night about this hour.
82D987C9-4DE4-4458-97D6-EED59FA7A584.jpeg

In about an hour, she’ll start singing and walking laps across my chest. Even though it’s still going to be another hour after that before I’ll feed her.

Tomorrow morning about 4am, she’ll sit on my chest and accept her fill of scritches before she starts singing for breakfast, and walking laps across my chest.
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
So I must have passed out hard after dinner tonight. She had a busy time while I was asleep.

💩💣🤮

She had a box poop which was nearly good enough. A little thin but formed again.

Then she had two small bombs.Well, one bomb and a toothpaste squirt.

And somewhere amongst all this popping, she had a barf. This wasn’t the wet cough from last night. This was a full blast.

So you know what that means. After everything was cleaned up, (thankfully this was 9 pm when I woke to all this so still early enough to run the upright), she got poked. 🤺. Another masterful shot. 💉 I’m sadly getting good at this. For those keeping score, I think we only got two days since her last barf.

To be fair, it’s only been a little more than 24 hours since I started her on the rabbit and pumpkin pate. It’s only been a little more than 12 hours since she went from runny poop to solids again. Even her bomb was smaller and better formed than this morning.

As frustrating as this is for both of us, we’re making great progress for just one day. I’m going to stay the course. We’re at 1/4 rabbit and pumpkin in the two breakfasts and two dinners. The overnight and daytime meals which sit around longer (whether it’s waiting in a feeder or she nibbles on the daytime meals over several hours), those are straight rabbit pate. I don’t want pumpkin sitting around for hours. We’ll do another day like this. 1/4 rabbit pumpkin in the breakfasts and dinners. Only enzymes added. Let’s give her another adaptation day as well as give the B12 room to work its magic.

And Tuesday is a new chemo dose with the new prescription. And next week, I will talk with her Dr again. I’ll discuss moving her to the two week dosing schedule. I should probably also take her in for blood checkup since it’s been almost six months on the steroids and about four on the chemo.
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
This is no good. 😿

Krista was showing weakness, uncoordinated movement, head tremor, staggering. She was having trouble with her jumps and walking. And she didn’t show much interest in the 1am feeder. All the signs of a hypoglycemic episode according to Dr Google.

I ran her down to the 24 hour animal hospital. It is 2:30 am. Because of the pandemic, I have to wait in my car for the dr to call me. The tech who came out to pick her up said they are kind of busy. I hope she’s seen sooner than the last time I brought her here. That took two hours to get seen. There is literally nobody else in the parking lot. So I don’t know how they can be busy.

😿🤞🙏
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
They measured her blood glucose and it came in range. So she’s not hypoglycemic. But the dr noted nystagmus. She’s “neurologic” as the dr put it. But she doesn’t know why yet. She might have had a stroke. She might be hypertensive. She’s getting a full blood work up. Dr will call me within the hour with more news. Likely she’s staying overnight. She may have to see a neurologist tomorrow depending on what bloodwork says. 😿🙏

I live 10-15 minutes from the hospital. So I went home rather than waiting in the parking lot.

Despite her weakness and uncoordination, she was still responsive. She still gave me trills when I pet her and rubbed her face into my hand. But she was also having head tremors. So while I think she’s a trooper. This was probably a very good decision to run her down to the emergency hospital rather than waiting til morning.

I’m going to watch the 2004 baseball all star game on YouTube and try to stay off Google. I’m going to try not to worry until we know more. 🙏
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
Blood pressure and blood work looked good. So she’s staying until she can see the neurologist later today. I’m dropping off food and an iPod with her cat rock playing. Hopefully that will soothe her somewhat. Dr said she was “feisty.” That’s a good sign. 👍 I’d be more worried if she wasn’t.
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
I spoke with the neurologist and she said it could be:

a) idiopathic (”we don’t know what caused it”),
b) stroke
c) brain tumor
d) something in the middle ear
e) brain infection

Krista will be getting an MRI this morning and a spinal tap if needed based on the MRI results.

The neurologist did say that vestibular issues aside, she’s in great shape for her age. Heart and kidneys still working great. And apparently she’s still being a feisty one.

I guess we’ll know more in a few more hours. 🙏🤞Or perhaps we won’t if it’s idiopathic.🤦‍♂️
 

daftcat75

TCS Member
Thread starter
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 7, 2018
Messages
12,641
Purraise
25,128
The neurologist also said that the likelihood of it being a brain tumor is lower because of the sudden onset—but not unheard of because of the her suspected small cell lymphoma in her gut. That, having the worst prognosis of the five, helps me feel a bit better. Brain infection is also uncommon. Neurologist said whether it’s ear, stroke, or idiopathic, she could have a partial or even a full recovery with time. Or she may have some permanent loss of ability like maybe she won’t be able to make her jumps or maybe not the larger jumps anymore. She was having trouble jumping onto the bed last night. That was what first tipped me off. And a little bit later, she had issues walking up her Katris to the kitchen counter. But she’s also had a full recovery from a ruptured eardrum before. We’ll wait and see what the tests turn up.

This is one tough cat. That much we all know.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top