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Sep. 22nd, 2009 10:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beautifulduckweedJust over a week ago, I noticed Eric's appetite dipping. Since I feed my cats two meals a day, I notice pretty quickly if they reject something, and if they do it more than twice in a row, my radar goes up, especially for Eric, who's not exactly what one could categorize as "picky." He seemed especially reluctant to chew, and was noticeably more enthusiastic about eating canned food than raw (the raw is chewier and much more difficult to eat by licking).
So my first thought was "Crap, he needs another teeth cleaning." He's always had horrible teeth, and his breath is doom and destruction--it's been that way since he was a wee kitten. So I called the vet and scheduled a check-up and a blood draw.
In the meanwhile, I started noticing that I had to refill the water in their water bowls much more frequently than I used to, but I attributed that to the weather; it's still pretty warm and dry, and I let them out several days a week (we have a lovely courtyard, where the kitties can frolic quite safely), which means they run around a lot more and drink more, too. Didn't think a thing about it.
So I brought the Orange Menace in, and he hadn't lost any weight--on the contrary, he'd put on a whole six ounces since his checkup in early August. His temperature was perfectly normal, and his heart sounded good.
But. But. While wrestling with Eric for the blood draw (and of course the poor monkey doesn't get the fact that if he just sat still instead of leaping for freedom and glory, it'd be over much sooner; if there were one thing I could communicate to my cats during vet visits, that would be it), the vet noticed that his kidneys felt enlarged. Eric had also peed himself during the course of the Blood Draw Olympics, and she noticed that the pee was unusually dilute as well.
And all of a sudden, the dip in his appetite and rise in water intake clicked together into a picture that made a lot of sense. I mean, not to rule out his teeth, because they do need to get cleaned, too. But yeah. Suddenly, the specter of chronic renal failure has raised its ugly head.
I'm irrationally scared. We won't know what's going on for sure yet until the blood draw results come in tomorrow or Thursday, but the part of my brain in charge of Worst Case Scenarios is whizzing into overdrive. I'm telling myself that he's still active and happy and generally his Wee Orange Bastardish self, but as far as I'm concerned, Wednesday or Thursday can't come soon enough.
So my first thought was "Crap, he needs another teeth cleaning." He's always had horrible teeth, and his breath is doom and destruction--it's been that way since he was a wee kitten. So I called the vet and scheduled a check-up and a blood draw.
In the meanwhile, I started noticing that I had to refill the water in their water bowls much more frequently than I used to, but I attributed that to the weather; it's still pretty warm and dry, and I let them out several days a week (we have a lovely courtyard, where the kitties can frolic quite safely), which means they run around a lot more and drink more, too. Didn't think a thing about it.
So I brought the Orange Menace in, and he hadn't lost any weight--on the contrary, he'd put on a whole six ounces since his checkup in early August. His temperature was perfectly normal, and his heart sounded good.
But. But. While wrestling with Eric for the blood draw (and of course the poor monkey doesn't get the fact that if he just sat still instead of leaping for freedom and glory, it'd be over much sooner; if there were one thing I could communicate to my cats during vet visits, that would be it), the vet noticed that his kidneys felt enlarged. Eric had also peed himself during the course of the Blood Draw Olympics, and she noticed that the pee was unusually dilute as well.
And all of a sudden, the dip in his appetite and rise in water intake clicked together into a picture that made a lot of sense. I mean, not to rule out his teeth, because they do need to get cleaned, too. But yeah. Suddenly, the specter of chronic renal failure has raised its ugly head.
I'm irrationally scared. We won't know what's going on for sure yet until the blood draw results come in tomorrow or Thursday, but the part of my brain in charge of Worst Case Scenarios is whizzing into overdrive. I'm telling myself that he's still active and happy and generally his Wee Orange Bastardish self, but as far as I'm concerned, Wednesday or Thursday can't come soon enough.
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Date: 2009-09-22 07:15 pm (UTC)I hope Eric is okay. I'll be thinking about you and both your furry fiends.
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Date: 2009-09-22 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-22 07:24 pm (UTC)Zot sends stinky, deaf, senile, gorgeous, and now, oh joy, cataracty head butts...
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Date: 2009-09-22 07:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-22 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-22 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-22 10:15 pm (UTC)Most of all, love to you and yours.
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Date: 2009-09-22 10:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-09-23 06:03 pm (UTC)Scary.
* hugs *
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Date: 2009-09-24 05:42 am (UTC)