Friday, January 25, 2008, 22:20
Duke Update
I talked to my veterinarian at a little after noon today. Duke's thyroid level is only low by .1 on the scale they use to measure thyroid function. He tells me that if we can get the kidney function under control the low thyroid will correct itself.
Duke is such a good cat. I was able to get 200cc of Lactated Ringers into him myself this morning. He was curled up in his favorite rocking chair (where he sat with Eli when we had our Christmas party here), so I simply hung the IV bag on the curtain rod holder (!), poked him with the needle, opened the little device to let the fluid run and got 200cc into him. Snowflake "helped" although she wasn't much help.
I will have to shut Snowflake in the bathroom after this. She kept trying to bite the tubing and chew on it. In the first place, I don't need a hole in my IV tubing! In the second place, when she wiggles the tubing, that wiggles the needle, and I'm sure that it doesn't feel good to have a wiggling needle under your skin.
Duke has spent most of the day curled up in the chair. He got up once to get a drink. But so far I haven't seen him eat anything or use the litter box. I bought some dry KD (Kidney Diet) food, and I know he ate a little bit of that last night. Getting him to eat something, and getting him to eat the KD, will be critical to helping his kidneys. The fluid I administer also will help to flush his kidneys. He still doesn't act like he feels very good. But at least he hasn't been restless today and hasn't been spending his time curled up on the heat vent in the bathroom.
LeAnn R. Ralph
Friday, January 25, 2008, 14:41
One Thing After Another
I was not planning on spending pretty much all morning at the vet clinic Thursday, but it was almost noon before I got home.
My old friend, Duke, who is Guinevere's brother, has not been feeling well for the past couple of weeks. I made an appointment for him earlier in the week and was able to get him in Thursday. Duke will turn 17 in May -- May 15, to be exact. Because he is half Maine Coon, he is a very large tom. He has a big frame and his weight is usually right around 20 pounds. (I've always said it's a good thing he's a friendly, loving cat! He's so big, he could really hurt a person if he wanted to . . .)
After drawing blood and doing an exam and running some tests, it turns out that Duke has got kidney failure. Over the last few days, he has become quite dehydrated. The vet also thinks he may have a thyroid condition to go along with it. And that would not be surprising because two of his siblings ended up with high thyroid conditions. This time around, they are thinking it might be low thyroid.
The girl from India who is studying to be a vet and who has been working at our clinic for the past however many months administered some subcutaneous fluid to help for the dehydration. I've got tubing and needles at home but I also brought home another bag of Lactated Ringers so I can run more fluids here. Duke will need fluids for the next several days but probably pretty much off and on for the rest of his life.
I had been wondering about a thyroid condition, but I was not necessarily thinking that he had gone into kidney failure. He did not have what I call the "classic" symptoms of vomiting every time he tried to eat something, although he has been vomiting a little bit (maybe three or four times in the past couple of weeks -- but not every day or anything like that). It didn't really seem like he was drinking a lot of extra water, either, because he would go for a day or two without eating or drinking anything. When I put him on the scale at the vet clinic, it showed that Duke has lost 4 pounds.
There's no doubt about it that Duke does not feel well. He is not talkative like he usually is. He does not come to get brushed in the evening. He spends a lot of his time huddled up on the heat vent in the bathroom because he feels cold. That's why they are thinking low thyroid. He was subnormal temperature at the clinic yesterday.
The ride into town wasn't much fun, either, because it was 20 degrees below zero Fahrenheit Thursday morning. The heat hasn't been working very well in my little GMC truck. I started the truck (thank goodness for a new battery last summer!) and let it run for 20 minutes before I brought Duke out. But even after 20 minutes, the heater was still blowing cold air. I had to stop before I got to the main road to try to scrape more frost off the window so I could see, but I still only had a small clear spot at the bottom of the windshield. I think my guardian angels must have been looking out for me that I didn't get stopped for having an obstructed windshield.
Halfway into town, the heater started blowing out some marginally lukewarm air.
Ho-hum.
By the time I got to the vet clinic with Duke, my hands and feet were numb. I had put a big, soft fleece blanket in the kitty carrier for Duke to try to help him not feel the cold quite so much.
The sample for the thyroid test had to be sent out to another clinic, so for now, it is a waiting game. The results are supposed to be back sometime this morning.
LeAnn R. Ralph