Oh Darn!

So, now Kali isn't eating. She refused a piece of cheese and Temptations. I want to start her on the antibiotics today just in case that's the problem. I want to try giving her baby food. Does anyone know what type I should buy? Or do you have any other suggestions?

If she still doesn't eat, well that's my sign to let her go. I will ask you to purr for her still. Thank you. 

PS She did eat her pill pocket.

News from Vet

Lynn again: Kali's blood work is back and it's not good news. She has beginning kidney disease. She has some sort of heart disease. Her heart is enlarged. Her thyroid is fine. So that's not what caused her heart to get out of whack. The radiologist thinks she "may" have an infection in her lungs. It's not typical, but it could be what was causing her lungs to look like they were filled with water on the X-rays. So we're going to put her on antibiotics. If that doesn't show a big improvement, it's probably something serious like cancer. 

The vet wanted to have two ultrasounds done at $500 a piece. I cannot afford that. She's an old girl. They might be able to pinpoint what she has, but at her age, what are they going to do to help her?

 I will  need to have her put to sleep as soon as she is not living a good life. The vet said to check out if she stops eating or drinking or showing signs she wants to go off and hide and be alone. I haven't been home a lot, but when I am I still hear her coughing. Before when she was vomiting she would always start with a cough. The same thing she has always done if she had a hairball. In the morning she did vomit after her cough but this afternoon I just heard the cough. Her white blood cells were slightly elevated but that could have been caused by stress. 

Here comes my old geezer girl...

Ah, well that was a quick visit. I opened up the Temptaions' bag for Kali and all of a sudden I had four cats in my lap.  After eating her treat, Miss Kali took off again. I think she read my thoughts and wanted to prove to me that today wasn't her day to go. Normally she would have whapped the others away until she could lie down nest to me.

Thank you Girl, I'm thrilled to know that today your still here to hug and kiss.

Tyler at the keyboard: Sheesh, I finally get to write on my own blog. Mom has been giving my big sis Kali WAY to much attention. She looks like the same old annoying sister of always. She's walking around, eating and drinking, I really think much too much was made of a little hairball yacking. She still is doing that a bit. And mom is feeding her those delicious Pill Pockets three times a day. And when I ask her, "Mom may I please just have one", she says, 'No.' Can you believe that? That old geezer girl is getting on my last nerve.

 I'm having to sit in mom's lap in the evenings and turn on the old charm, just so she remembers that I live here too. I did get some Temptations last night for allowing her to furminate me. The funny thing is that I like getting my hairs stolen. I have way too many of them for these hot June days. Cookie started growling at mom for the same offense. That one has quite the attitude. Doesn't she know that getting rid of the old hairs feels good? Finally she allowed mom to continue, but she wouldn't put up with changing sitting postions so that mom could have more access to fur. And the surprise was that Jake seems to be liking the Furminator. He hated the Zoom Groom so mom assumed they'd be the same. He actually sat still for a little bit.

 I'm still the best kitty, I don't give my mom any troubles, ever. Ok, when I whap Kali I do agravate my mom and get in trouble for that. But she deserves it, I promise you she does. Have a great day!

Lynn here: I played phone tag with the vet regarding Kali's blood results. She looks a lot better. Yet as Tyler said above she did yack up her breakfast this morning. I need to ask the vet if I should have repilled her after that because I had given her the meds only 15 mins. before. Thanks again for all your good thoughts and wishes. They mean so very much! Enjoy a good day.

7 pm (PST) Update

Dear Friends,

Tyler's mom speaking:

I am overwhelmed by the beautiful comments you have all left on Ty's blog. I believe in the power of prayer and I believe that you all have brought a miracle to our doorstep. I came home from work to find an almost peppy Kali. She got up out of her bed and greeted me. Something she hadn't done for the past three days.  I took her to the new vet and I fell in love with this person. She was so compassionate. She told me all of our options and let me decide. She did say that Kali seemed to have too much spunk today to be helped to the Bridge. She recommended having blood work done and X-rays taken. She wanted to find out if Kali could enjoy more life if we managed her care with medicine. 

The blood work results will come in tomorrow. The x-rays showed some concerns with her heart. She had heard an irregular heart beat and the film showed that her heart was over to the right. Also their might be fluid in her lungs. A radiologist will be in the office on Wednesday to give more feedback. The vet thinks that Kali may be suffering from hyperthyroidism which may be the cause of her heart problems. We'll know more once the blood work comes back. For now I'm suppose to put her on Pepsid AC and then she gave me 2 perscriptions, Reglan to prevent her from vomiting and Lasix for her heart. She wasn't dehydrated so she was able to drink water without spitting that up. I'm to feed her in ver small amounts to see if she can keep  that down too.

Forgive me for calling wolf and saying that she was most likely going to the Bridge today. I honestly thought she would. I wasn't trying to be over dramatic. I plead ignorance. With her age, I assumed that any troubles would be too serious to try to fix. I'm grateful for being wrong.

 But it looks like we have bought her a little bit more time. I am so surprised. With her poor heart and possible fluid in the lungs I'm not sure how much time has been bought. The vet gave me the option of having an ultrasound of her heart and possibly an EKG, although she thinks my girl might be too fiesty to sit still long enough for the EKG. The more I think about it, the more I think that she's too old to go to such extreme measures to try to save. 

I asked the doctor to just make sure that Kali isn't suffering. If she isn't suffering, I'll spend every extra day with her that I can. It's such a huge responsibility to decide what's best for her.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your loving thoughts. We are so lucky to have you all as our friends. We are in your debt. Headbumps and purrs,

Lynn

Kali continues to yack everything up. She even yacked up yesterday's Temptations. I'm going to call my vet today. I'm preparing to say good-bye. Part of me will feel better once she's out of pain. The other part will feel alone without my companion of nineteen years. 

Update

My vet's office only has one vet in today and told me that I'd have to leave her there and they would look at her when they could. Well I know Kali and she freaks out whenever we leave home and at the vet's she has had fits in the past. She's had a lot of painful dental work and I think she's just too smart to put up with any strange people a pokin' and a prodin'. She is a Tortie after all and she can be very opinionated. I am not leaving her somewhere so that they can then call me and tell me that she needs to be put to sleep.

The person who answered the phone felt very badly that she couldn't work me in. But this service just isn't acceptable. I searched high and low for a vet clinic that people seem to like around here. I found one that has glowing reports, has 5 different vets, and who's website has the title "Full Service Care for Pets Who Are Part of the Family." I made an appointment here. She will be seen at 4:00 pm PST. I will be moving all of the cats to this vet, if I like it there. It is so difficult to get into my current vet's office. I like my vets personality, but if I can't see him, then it's not fair to the kids. And these are my kids.

Thank you so much for your kind comments. Only cat people can understand. I saw her up and walking about this morning and I'm sure it's your prayers that gave her the strength to do that.

Hugs to each of you,

Lynn/The Mom

Well, my Kali is showing her fiesty tortie nature. As Mom I'm thinking lets have some last day cuddles. I put her on my bed which she hasn't ben up on for a couple of years. She can't jump up there and Tyler used to bully her when she went into that room. I shut the other cats out except for Sophie becuase she is mellow and loving toward Kali. Well, my old lady would have no part of being up on the bed. I returned her to her cat bed underneath the dining room table.

She got up later on ate more wet food and yacked it up...again. My poor, poor baby.

This morning when she showed interest in walking towards the chair she shares with me, I picked her up and carried her there, where she immediately showed me an interest in the bag of Temptations. I gave her about ten, but stopped for fear that she would just throw them right back up.... It's been about 20 mins. and so far she hasn't.

I'm calling the vet tomorrow to take her in the afternoon and I expect to say goodbye at that time.  I feel a sense of peace at the moment, I just want her to stop suffering.

                         

Purrs Needed

Kali isn't feeling well. Yesterday I noticed that she didn't come and visit me when I was watching TV last night. I realized that I hadn't given her glucosamine pill the day before so I made she she had one right away. She didn't want to get out of her bed. She was in the kitchen this morning looking for food. She ate a bit of stinky goodness. Normally she would be sitting with me as I write this, instead she's gone and laid down in her cat bed.  I'm wondering if her time has come to cross over the Bridge. My vet is open today, but he doesn't accept appointments. It's first come, first serve. I'm afraid I'm going to stress my girl out waiting there with all the other pets. She hates going to the vet. She normally pees in the carrier on the way over there. I need to buy puppy pads for her carrier... I am going to see if she perks up a bit after eating the wet food.  I also did hear her trying to cough up a hairball last night. I don't think she was successful. I wonder if that's her problem. My eyes are leaking all over the place. I don't want to let her go, but it all depends on what's best for her. Please purr for her. I'll update this, once I have any news.

UPDATE

 Kali went into the kitchen and I opened up a new can of wet food just for her since she was interested. She ate a lot, but then yacked it all up a bit later on. I didn't see hair in it. And I've been grooming her very well lately with the Furminator because she doesn't groom herself much any longer. I'm most likely going to be taking her into the vet. I'm going to go look up the hours right now.  I'm pretty sure at almost 19 years old that her time has come. 19 years feels like most of my life. I don't want to let her go for selfish reasons. But I must do what's right for her.

UPDATE AGAIN

6:25 pm PST

Well, I didn't make it to the vet's. She went to the kitchen again and ate more stinky goodness and this time she's kept it down. She's still very lethargic. I she continues like this,  will call the vet on Monday. I promised Kali to do what's right by her. Thank you for your purrs.