On Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:22:31 -0400, jmc
wrote:

Suddenly, without warning, Gandalf exclaimed (10/15/2011 11:26 PM):
On Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:04:55 -0400, wrote:

On 10/15/11 11:29 AM, jmc wrote:
Many of you know Meep, my 15 year old moggie. She has a host of health
issues, including arthritis and cystitis.

I'm on my way to the vet in a few minutes, she's been throwing up more
frequently, and she's dropped weight shockingly in just a week or so.
She's not a fat cat to begin with, so I didn't notice right away but
suddenly she's back to skin and bones. She's not eating well (again),
and most worryingly, she's a bit wobbly on her feet now.

My poor kitty. If you're the prayin' kind, can you include her? She's
been my friend since she was 12 weeks old.

jmc

Diagnosis is kidney disease, but not bad - early stages. She hasn't
been showing the usual symptoms - increased thirst and urination - but
we think she is nauseous, something I've noticed on and off for a while
- we tried her with pepcid for a while about 6 months back but it seemed
to have little effect. She's back on it now. She's also rather
dehydrated, she gets most of her water from her food (I add water to
make stew).

For now, we're not starting anything special, just the pepcid again and
I've got the OK to add tuna and tuna water to her food for a few days to
get her to eat. She got some sub-q fluids so is feeling better now.

She's also not quite as skinny as I thought. She lost about 9 oz, but I
thought she'd lost a good bit more. Still, she's very thin. She's
eating the tuna mixed food though, so hopefully with that and the pepcid
I can get her back up to snuff again.

jmc

When my elderly (and chronically ill) cat Kenzie was so sick, Pepcid was
a BIG help to settling her stomach, and helping with her vomiting, and
ultimately, helping her to start eating, and keeping her food, and water
down. It took several days to work. though.

I had to have her hydrated twice, before she started eating and drinking
on her own.

I didn't give Kenzie much actual tuna, but I did put tuna water on her
food a LOT, and *I* ate lots of tuna.

I also fed her sardines, which are packed in oil (mostly) and aren't as
'bad' for cats as tuna is. They are higher in calories than tuna, which
is good, right now.

With renal failure, a high protein diet isn't good for Meep, for very
long. But for right now, getting her to eat and drink, and keep her food
down, is the most important thing.

When a cat gets dehydrated, they feel really crummy, and they stop
eating and drinking. Vicious circle. It's amazing how much difference a
single dose of sub-Q fluids can make.

I hope this works for Meep. It should... if cats weren't so prone to
...being cats, and acting unpredictably, to perfectly good treatment.

Keep a close eye on Meep for dehydration. It's probably the main thing
that might keep her from improving as she should.

Best wishes for Meep, and for you.

Thank you. The sub-q really helped. She has pretty much cleaned up
everything I've put in front of her from the time we got back from the
vet (she gets a LOT of extra water in her food), and her gums aren't
sticky, so for now she seems to be back to normal. Yay!

jmc

I so glad to hear that Meep is doing well. Purrs are on the way to see
that Meep continues to do well.

I know how frustrating it is to try to take good care of an elderly cat
with chronic health problems. When they get sick, they hid it from you,
often until it's very, very serious