Krista's Care

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daftcat75

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Poor girl!

She peed the bed again. She was drinking water all morning. It seemed inevitable. But when I tried to interrupt and discourage her, she just fell over and laid there like she was in some kind of pain. If I wanted to clean her nose, her whiskers, hold her paws, rub her belly, all those touchy touchy things, that would have been the time to do it. She was alarmingly reluctant to move. She has recovered from this startling episode. Though she’s moving so slowly and weakly and spills about half the time when she jumps down. Though she was like that before this episode too. This is not to say that the episode marks a new leg down. Only a scary moment in what’s already been a low weekend for her. 😔😿

I had to start her on something for her UTI. I haven’t been to the vet’s office and I know breakfasts are easier to get medicine into than daytime meals. So I crushed a quarter marbofloxacin into her second breakfast. She made faces and flung food. But I’m certain she took her medicine


Since both my pillow and my blanket got peed on last night, you can imagine how well I slept. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I think I’m going to take the morning off work to do cleanup and run some cat errands (vet office but also see if there’s a juniper berry supplement I can pick up for Krista.).

I need to talk to the vet tonight. Hopefully before Krista’s pred dose. I’m torn between wanting to skip tonight and double her up to 5 every other day from tomorrow. Or we double up tonight and skip alternate days from tomorrow. I imagine the latter, while initially more jarring tonight, may actually be better for her with any pain, inflammation, or discomfort from her infection. Whereas I imagine the former being a long haul of watching her go without medicine she’s been taking every day for six months until I start her on the new schedule.

And still so many other questions for the vet...
 

tarasgirl06

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Poor girl!

She peed the bed again. She was drinking water all morning. It seemed inevitable. But when I tried to interrupt and discourage her, she just fell over and laid there like she was in some kind of pain. If I wanted to clean her nose, her whiskers, hold her paws, rub her belly, all those touchy touchy things, that would have been the time to do it. She was alarmingly reluctant to move. She has recovered from this startling episode. Though she’s moving so slowly and weakly and spills about half the time when she jumps down. Though she was like that before this episode too. This is not to say that the episode marks a new leg down. Only a scary moment in what’s already been a low weekend for her. 😔😿

I had to start her on something for her UTI. I haven’t been to the vet’s office and I know breakfasts are easier to get medicine into than daytime meals. So I crushed a quarter marbofloxacin into her second breakfast. She made faces and flung food. But I’m certain she took her medicine


Since both my pillow and my blanket got peed on last night, you can imagine how well I slept. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I think I’m going to take the morning off work to do cleanup and run some cat errands (vet office but also see if there’s a juniper berry supplement I can pick up for Krista.).

I need to talk to the vet tonight. Hopefully before Krista’s pred dose. I’m torn between wanting to skip tonight and double her up to 5 every other day from tomorrow. Or we double up tonight and skip alternate days from tomorrow. I imagine the latter, while initially more jarring tonight, may actually be better for her with any pain, inflammation, or discomfort from her infection. Whereas I imagine the former being a long haul of watching her go without medicine she’s been taking every day for six months until I start her on the new schedule.

And still so many other questions for the vet...
*Prayers* and hope that you can ask those questions and get good answers quickly!
Our beloved Rani had a spell of peeing on the bed, too, and my boss, who is also a cat lover, suggested a waterproof fitted sheet. I got one and am I GLAD I did. Just in case, it's invaluable because my mattress was pristine before this happened and it's a pretty expensive Cal King one that I wouldn't want to have to replace. Not sure if there are waterproof pillow protectors that would go under the pillowcases, but you might want to check that out. So much easier to wash than the actual pillow, if they have them. I just got my sheet on amazon.
 

daftcat75

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Her vet’s not going to be in again until Wed. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I told the tech that’s too long and dosing decisions needed to be made tonight. I will get a callback “probably after hours” from another doctor there.

Her prescribed antibiotic is veraflox. But I know from last year that there isn’t enough tuna juice in the house to get her to eat the 0.4 ml dose. And she won’t let me squirt in her either. So...marbofloxacin it is. Same drug class. Marbofloxacin is newer and more expensive and why it’s not the first line. I just need to look up the dosage and see if it differs any for a bladder infection than from the quarter pill she was getting for her ear.

And tonight I’m putting her steroids dose back up to 5 and moving her to alternate day dosing. She needs to get her munchies back on. We only just started the antibiotics. She can’t slow her eating down from already slow eating.

I got her a cranberry extract d-mannose supplement that also has turmeric extract. I don’t know if she tasted it and disapproved or if she’s just being a slow eating booger anyway.
 

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Her vet’s not going to be in again until Wed. 🤦🏼‍♂️ I told the tech that’s too long and dosing decisions needed to be made tonight. I will get a callback “probably after hours” from another doctor there.

Her prescribed antibiotic is veraflox. But I know from last year that there isn’t enough tuna juice in the house to get her to eat the 0.4 ml dose. And she won’t let me squirt in her either. So...marbofloxacin it is. Same drug class. Marbofloxacin is newer and more expensive and why it’s not the first line. I just need to look up the dosage and see if it differs any for a bladder infection than from the quarter pill she was getting for her ear.

And tonight I’m putting her steroids dose back up to 5 and moving her to alternate day dosing. She needs to get her munchies back on. We only just started the antibiotics. She can’t slow her eating down from already slow eating.

I got her a cranberry extract d-mannose supplement that also has turmeric extract. I don’t know if she tasted it and disapproved or if she’s just being a slow eating booger anyway.
Cranberry is GREAT for humans. Hoping it is equally great for Krista cats. ;)
 

daftcat75

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Cranberry is GREAT for humans. Hoping it is equally great for Krista cats. ;)
I found another cranberry supplement made for cats and dogs. Probably tastes better than what she rejected. But it doesn't have the dead bacteria scavenging d-mannose.

I may set out more pee pads for Krista. Instead of getting into a box just now, she squatted and relieved herself right on the pad next to the box. If she knows that's what they are for, then I'll set out pads if it keeps my bed dry. The only good thing about all of this is that her pee is very dilute. I'd be much more sleepless and upset if she was peeing the bed at full strength. I took the morning off to pick up medicine, search for supplements, and get through the laundry. We're about an hour away from throwing the big pregnancy pillow into the washer (and then the dryer) and that will be the last of it. Haven't done this much cleaning since the first flea was found last summer.
 

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I found another cranberry supplement made for cats and dogs. Probably tastes better than what she rejected. But it doesn't have the dead bacteria scavenging d-mannose.

I may set out more pee pads for Krista. Instead of getting into a box just now, she squatted and relieved herself right on the pad next to the box. If she knows that's what they are for, then I'll set out pads if it keeps my bed dry. The only good thing about all of this is that her pee is very dilute. I'd be much more sleepless and upset if she was peeing the bed at full strength. I took the morning off to pick up medicine, search for supplements, and get through the laundry. We're about an hour away from throwing the big pregnancy pillow into the washer (and then the dryer) and that will be the last of it. Haven't done this much cleaning since the first flea was found last summer.
Yeah. Drs. Foster & Smith had an excellent cranberry tablet I gave Elvis daily because he had a little UTI at one time. It was chicken flavored and of course it can't be bought any more. There are different cranberry supplements but they are by and large, chicken flavor, which is why I haven't sent you any links.
Yes, there are waterproof pillow case protectors. Just google if interested -- amazon, BB&B, etc.
 

daftcat75

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Yeah. Drs. Foster & Smith had an excellent cranberry tablet I gave Elvis daily because he had a little UTI at one time. It was chicken flavored and of course it can't be bought any more. There are different cranberry supplements but they are by and large, chicken flavor, which is why I haven't sent you any links.
Yes, there are waterproof pillow case protectors. Just google if interested -- amazon, BB&B, etc.
Turns out the pillow already had a zip cover that was not permeated all the way through. So the zip cover and her carrier are the last load tonight (I hope!) on delicate.
 

daftcat75

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No callback yet. 😿

Decisions need to be made.

I gave her a 5 mg wet willy and set up the every other day calendar event to keep me honest.

I got a copy of her lab results and I still have questions.

But. Blood glucose actually a little low. I’m sure she was starving because they weren’t sticking to her feed schedule that day. No glucose or ketones in urine. I don’t have a diabetic cat.

No urine culture. But I guess they used a dipstick to determine a cocci bacteria. So not E. coli which d-mannose works against.

I bought her size 5 gelatin capsules. They arrive tomorrow. Thank you Amazon! So theoretically, tomorrow will be the last marbofloxacin dose she’ll have to taste.

Speaking of that, her quarter pill is a perfect dose for how small she is. We’ll see in three to four days from what I read. If she’s not showing signs of relief by then, we’ll have to reevaluate. Maybe try the veraflox after all. Bag her and gag her. 😿
 

daftcat75

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I may have given her a second feeding site. Maybe if she’s only nibbling here and there, then more here’s and more there’s will lead to more nibbles. 🤔🧐😺

I put out a second placemat and a second plate in the office. Maybe I can double up the portions so she’ll nibble to just right.

Hopefully her appetite will improve in three to four days.
 

daftcat75

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And she soiled the bed again.

New plan. Short term, we sleep on top of a sleeping bag and the pregnancy pillows are swapped out for some regular pillows. I think she likes to climb up the pregnancy pillow because she can pee on/off it without squatting. So that needs to be taken away for now. I also cleared some space and put down a pad and a box just off the edge of the bed. Maybe she can be convinced into convenience.

But I doubt it.

So I just ordered two waterproof top sheets to arrive Thurs
 

daftcat75

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I’m worried about how weak she’s become. She tried to jump onto the bed and fell back into the litterbox I put below it. Then she just lay there in the box defeated. When she can make it to the bed, she flops over wherever she finally got herself up. A couple times I had to check to make sure she didn’t give up halfway and dangle the rest of her nearly weightless body off the edge. And when she’s not on the bed, she’s laying on her side just about anywhere she decided to lay. We skipped the overnight meal last night. She just didn’t seem like she wanted to move for it. 😿

By second breakfast, I wasn’t sure she’d even be hungry enough to eat her medicine hidden in the top few bites.

So...🙏🤞

I pulled out the bacon flavored marbofloxacin I had compounded when she was reacting to the duck. Since it’s concentrated, it’s half the dose of the Veraflox. Since at the concentrated dose is more than her quarter pill, we can lose a little to spitting. But she didn’t spit out any of it. So maybe she likes the bacon flavor.

But...Butt! We have to see if this causes extra poop nonsense on the other end.

Last night one of the doctors finally called back at 9:30 pm. I forgot to ask about the weakness because I was so irked by how late the callback was and how I had to make decisions without the doctors. I asked for a callback today from the owner of the practice who is more familiar with her case. I can ask him about the weakness and whether I should bring her back in or give the antibiotics a chance to work.
 

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Having finally made it off the bed for second breakfast, she didn’t want to follow me out of the kitchen to her feeding spot. I served her in the kitchen where she laid. She ate about half and laid back down. I don’t want to disturb her trying to cook breakfast around her. I’ll run to McD’s for breakfast this morning. 🤦🏼‍♂️😿
 

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Having finally made it off the bed for second breakfast, she didn’t want to follow me out of the kitchen to her feeding spot. I served her in the kitchen where she laid. She ate about half and laid back down. I don’t want to disturb her trying to cook breakfast around her. I’ll run to McD’s for breakfast this morning. 🤦🏼‍♂️😿
I'm notorious for forgetting important questions on calls, too, so I WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN and make sure I have it in front of me. Because, yeah, it's crucial.
If you got the waterproof pillowcases too, she could use them if she needed to for her comfort. Just an idea.
*PRAYERS* from the heart! She's probably feeling pretty exhausted right now. HOPING she eats more. You can syringe feed her, if need be. And you can run her food through a food processor or blender to do that. Just another suggestion. Also, the Gerber 2nd stage baby foods. Turkey, lamb, beef. I know chicken is out.
 

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I'm so sorry she's having to go through all this, and after just making progress from the ear infection. Hopefully the owner will be able to provide better direction and Krista can get back on the road to recovery
 

daftcat75

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I just dropped her off at the vet. I didn’t want to mistake not feeling well with possibly truly crashing. Let the doc make that call.

I’ll say this though. She’s still got spirit. I’ve seen her with more ability and far less spirit. Like suffering through pancreatitis. She was a loaf of don’t bother me back then. Today she wants to follow me around. She wanted to jump onto the air bed in the office (blocking out space to see if I want to put a daybed in there. Too uncomfortable to sleep in or we’d be spending her wet nights there.) But her back legs are giving out. And Dr Google says that can be a number of things. And few of them sound like wait and sees. 😿

So now I wait and see which doctor can see her when and what they come up with.😿
 

daftcat75

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I do wonder if bumping her pred dose back to 5 mg last night might have something to do with this. Last night’s doc didn’t have anything to say about that. She was in a tough position because she’s not familiar with Krista’s history or her current case. But I would have expected out of professional concern a warning if the proposed change could prove harmful. 🤷‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️😿
 

daftcat75

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The plot thickens!

I see in the lab report emailed to me yesterday that it was received via fax on Friday evening. That means instead of calling me in the morning when I could have come down to pick up medicine, my vet waited until after hours on Saturday when Krista would have until Monday. I don't know why she did that. But let's get through this first before we point fingers or pick fights.

I've been reading about iatrogenic hyperadrenocorticism (drug-induced Cushing's disease) and that sounds like when it looks like diabetes, but it's not. So that's another thing to ask the doctor about today or tonight. This is the reason why I wanted to get her off the steroids in the first place. It's causing more problems than it's fixing now. But we need a path from here to there and daily steroids even at a lower dose isn't it.

I don't want to start over with new vets. Especially in this Covid age where I wouldn't even meet a new doctor. It would be a drop off, phone call, and a pickup. However, when she gets through this infection business, I will look into getting her a specialist for her long-term IBD/lymphoma/steroids management.
 
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