Jenny with the Axe

The cats have now been free of symptoms for about 36 hours. artela said that rowan berries may cause these symptoms - I really hope that's it, because then this is over. It might also be something in the dry food they've been having, so we've got a new bag of another brand waiting.

We're still keeping them to only my bedroom and the living room. Arthas is busy trying to dig through the glass of the living room door.

I did go riding yesterday. Melanie now shows no lameness at all. She doesn't like to gallop on the right lead, so we'll have to work on that, but she's very happy to be ridden at all. I was very nice to not have to clean out stalls - I'd spent the night waking up every time one of the cats made any noise at all, or moved around on the bed...

I've posted a bit on Facebook and Twitter about my cat Zeta being ill. Last Sunday she began showing signs of nausea, there was some drooling and quite a bit of miaowing. During the night she got worse, she had what looked like epileptic seizures at least twice during the night. After the last one, about 7 am, she was unable to move or focus her eyes on anything.

I took her to the vet, they ran blood tests and gave her IV nutrition. After a while she got better, was again able to focus. She had one more seizure while there, and she started getting bloody diarrhoea. On Wednesday she was released and seemed perfectly normal. The vet said it looked like poisoning, but none of us could figure out how she might have gotten poisoned. She's an indoor cat, we don't have mice, we have no new plants, and Arthas who is now 10 months old gnaws everything - so if there were something poisonous here he'd be getting ill, too.

Anyhow, we have been feeding her boiled fish. She started getting the drools again on Thursday, and yesterday when I spoke to the vet they said I should make sure to give her smaller portions. So last night after work I did - she got about 1-2 tablespoons of boiled fish per hour, and after the fourth feeding she even stopped trying to steal food from the other cats.

And then she got a seizure again, and a second one this night. Now she looks perfectly healthy and is begging for more food, but about two hours after her last feeding she started with the drool again.

I have no idea what causes this. The only thing I can come up with is to feed her small portions. Maybe the seizure isn't really a seizure, maybe it's her stomach cramping so hard that her whole body shakes, and the neurological symptoms she had on Monday were from her hitting her head while cramping. I don't know, and there seems to be no reasonable way for the vets to tell. They've been talking about spinal fluid samples and MRIs and things - but they're not sure it'll give them anything to go on, and the cost is pretty steep.

If she doesn't get better we will have to put her to sleep. I really don't want to do that, she's only eleven years old, and when she isn't cramping or drooling she seems so perfectly healthy and normal. I don't know what to do.

Today the vet said Tusse has been eating more - he was happily munching kibble even when half the staff was crowding his cage during their morning rounds. So unless the final tests tomorrow show something has deteriorated, he'll be coming home with us tomorrow afternoon.

I didn't go riding today. We'd planned on working with switching to the new servers at work this weekend, but a bug in the OS delayed stuff so that won't be for a couple of weeks yet. But since I'm still a bit under the weather from the cold I've been having, I thought it best to take a quiet day at home instead. I miss Melanie, though, but I should see her on Thursday when I go out to Skutt. It's very handy having both horses at the same stables - and I'm immensely lucky to be allowed to participate in their lives. I've bonded with Melanie in a way I've never done with another horse - both Samurai and Skutt have their primary humans already, and I was second or third for them. But Melanie's owners have four other horses to tend, so they haven't had as deep a relationship with her, and she seems to want that, and to find it with me. This isn't to say that I don't miss Samurai - I do, he's wonderful and I like him a lot and have learned a lot from him. Melanie can't teach me what he could. But emotionally she's my horse in a way that no other has been.

Like I said, I'm lucky. I've got the cats, and Calle, and the horses, and friends, and a good job. I miss some people I wish were closer, but their lives have taken a different turning. I don't grudge them their happiness, I just wish they weren't so far away. I've one close friend who moved away some time ago, and it still feels strange to drive past the place where she used to live and know that she's not there. And I've other friends who live so far away that we meet at best once a year - they're in Germany, or in England, or in Scotland, or Belgium. And yet others I might never meet. But I'm still blessed to know them.

The vet called earlier today. She said they'd done an ultrasound on Tusse and checked his blood. He's got slightly bad kidney and liver rates but they couldn't see anything around the kidney and liver on the ultrasound. What they did see was an inflammation around the gall bladder. According to the vet, this isn't unusual with cats and it presents with exactly the symptoms he's got. He's more or less a textbook case.

She didn't think the kidney and liver thing was anything to worry about; probably it's just a result of his not eating properly for the past week. They'll keep him on IV fluids and medication untill he starts eating properly and provided nothing else pops up we'll be able to bring him home within a few days. So hopefully he'll be home by weekend.

I'm glad it doesn't seem to be anything terminal, or anything requiring constant medication. We were both of us thinking about whether we'd need to have him put down - it's not exactly something we like thinking about, but at some time it'll be our responsibility, and I'm not going to force him to live in pain or discomfort just because I want him around. But I'm very glad it doesn't seem to be now. He's only twelve, after all, and while that's not exactly young, I want him with me for a lot longer!

Tusse keeps getting better, but it seems that he's managed to lick his wound despite the e-collar. I put a tighter one on him and hope that will be enough. Tomorrow we're taking him for a checkup at the vet's; if he's still able to get at the wound I should think they'll have something that works better.

I've found the perfect way of giving him pills. If I just put it in his mouth he manages to spit it out - he did that twice today. So what I do is I prepare the cat food he likes - then I give him the pill before putting the food bowl down. At that point he's so eager to get at the food that he just swallows the pill and rushes at the bowl.

I don't think that'd work with the other two...

As cdybedahl wrote, the fluffy cat has been to the vet today. Recap: boil in the arse, vet had to sedate him to clean it out and he'll be getting antibiotics. We came home with him about fifteen minutes ago. He's got his head in one of those lampshade thingys. This is not popular. Also not popular is that we've moved the food bowls away, since the vet advised us that he shouldn't eat or drink for the first few hours after his having been sedated. He's currently crouched beside the normal food place and emitting strange noises every few seconds.

I'm so relieved I can't express it. This morning I had thoughts of cancer and was wondering if they'd suggest putting him down immediately. Now it's just a matter of letting the wound heal. I'm dizzy with relief and after-stress reaction.