Boo poo'd last night. It was a solid stool. Little tan, medium and dark brown, but it was an actual poop and no runny and no mucous, and best of all no blood. It did NOT smell. Just regular ol He didn't strain either. I was pretty happy to see that. After he did that he was a little more energetic, trotting again to the window like there was something he just HAD to see out there. Then he got up on a chair with a big fluffy pillow on it, laid down and stayed still. His breathing looked slower and more normal. He hadn't vomited or anything. I think maybe that Amforal is helping his tummy and his stool, but may be making him feel not so great. I'm not really sure. My friend told me to stop bothering him and leave him alone, which made me feel kind of bad, because I felt like if I leave him alone I'm ignoring him, which I know isn't the case... but still. I'm sure someone understands that.
I am glad to be at work however and have other things to keep my mind busy. Yesterday and last night was just a little too nerve wracking and for no good reason. I put a little of the Pet-Tinic in a bowl and let Boo smell of it. He wasn't outright disgusted but wasn't interested. Chickster on the other hand went so far as to taste of it. "Great," I said, "Now that you like it, Boo won't."
We will see how things are in the morning. I am supposed to call the vet and tell them. He has 2 more doses, so I will see if they want me to finish the doses and then ask about when to start the Pet-Tinic again and then when I should switch back to regular litter, or even switch to Yesterday's News or some other litter.
A rollercoaster ride is certainly is, but the good days are really good. :)
<3
My Loving Companion
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Boo wasn't very enthusiastic about eating today. I gave him a bath last night with chemical free biodegrable cat shampoo and trimmed him up. Put him on a heating pad in a small box and he slept well last night. He has not pooped today yet, but has pee'd. At first I thought he was acting alright, but now (11:39AM) he is sitting up in his box and -- I was about to say he won't lay down but he just now has. Heating pad is on lowest setting of "warm" (then low, then med, then high). *sighs* I am looking at both Chickster's and boo's breathing and they look the same. But at first I thought Boo was breathing a little too fast. But they have the same breathing pattern. I don't know. *sigh* I think I am getting overly anxious because I have to go back to work tomorrow and I get like that at the end of a weekend, not wanting to leave him alone and wanting to keep an eye on him 24/7, which if he needs anything right now it's most likely to be -left alone-. ...Thanks guys. I am going to try to nap to get rid of this anxiousness.
Boo hasn't been having the runs as often as before starting his Amforal, but he just poo'd about 7:45pm after drinking some water. He rushed in there and started scratching, and I said, "Boo! Don't scratch, just poop!" and he stopped scratching, and pooped.
I swear I've never heard such a loud noise come out of such a small body. He pooted so loud, and it sprayed a little bit, but then it was over. He was getting ready to cover it up when I said, "No, Boo. Don't cover, just walk straight ahead!" And he DID! He got no poop on him whatsoever and -somehow- his rear end was perfectly clean. As for the poo, it was still the same consistency, not such a foul smell, but a normal shade of poo brown. Every poo has some darker substance in it that I am strongly suspicious of being bits of cat litter clumped together. They are not blood. They are a very dark gray. And very pasty like wet clay. Anyway. The foul smell is getting better, and he isn't straining. He had a very energetic day and felt very good! He even snuck out of the door after we heard an odd noise and almost didn't notice him getting ready to walk down the steps to the yard! I nearly freaked out. He is laying beside me on my desk now and is itching itching scratching. I can't find any fleas, and he was chewing the end of his tail. I tried to cut the fur off but he got pissy and I had to stop LOL. But now he is lightly twitching the end of his tail. Doesn't that mean he is annoyed? *sigh* in any case, things went well today. T Like this: Why did they make Amforal bright yellow so when your cat spits it back out and shakes his head, it goes EVERYWHERE. Clothes, wall, toilet, sink, carpet, white rug, white cat, why? Why not pink or clear or white...? LOL
Gave him his Amforal and he was very stubborn about it, he kept trying to spit it out (He's becoming an expert) I tried tilting his head back, holding his head by the scruff (while he was on the sink, did not lift him) and rubbing his throat. I think I got in about 4 cc's, with at least 1 CC going all over me and my bathroom. This stuff is super bright neon yellow! Poor Boo. But good news, he just went poop and the foul smell is GONE! It is still runny but instead of being a brown color it's more of a yellowish color now, more like it looked when he ate C/D all the time. There was some brown thick pasty diarrhea in there with it, and I would guess this was a good 2 TBS worth altogether. But I got right up to it and smelled it, and it smelled like regular old poop. Not "Someone's sick and needs to go to the doctor because that smell is going to make me faint" poop. He is back resting, and I have another theory on at least Chicksters runs. She eats bugs. I killed a big black carpenter ant last night and found another one in the same location a few minutes ago. Problem is, I didn't remove the first one I killed last night and it was gone this morning. Though it doesn't match up with the diarrhea, this could be part of the issue, since she will, at the very least, taste any bug she can catch. Stink bugs, too. And she plays big cockroaches to death but does not eat them. Boo does NOT eat bugs and is terrified of them. He will go the opposite way if he sees one, get squinty eyes and look very displeased. But we recently destroyed an old shed on my property a couple years ago, and now we are having the roach problem. I will be taking care of this problem as carefully as I can on the outside of the house so as not to make my indoor cats ill from the pesticides. (I normally use Home Defense by Ortho, on perimeters of the house, not a single insect will cross a line of that stuff) Anyway. Happy my babies are feeling a bit better and that the medicating and fluids are done with for today. I am so hop Well, now Chickster has had another 1/2 teaspoon amount of diarrhea in her box. This is the second time for that. Boo woke me up at 7:05AM on the dot to ask for water, and he drank a goodly amount. Since I last changed his papers before I passed out at around 9PM, this morning at 7:00am he had nothing but pee in the pan(s) (He only uses one or two, he just refuses to use the other one right now, I have 4 and 1 is up on a large table with litter in it for Chickster to use, and Boo has not realized it's up there, yet. I told Chickster to keep it a secret!!)
They are both sleeping so I need to get food, fluids and Amforal ready. I am wondering why the vet prescribed Amforal, which I see indicated more for dogs in my Google research than for cats. Panacur and other things for cats, but maybe because of his kidney failure they chose Amforal? I am really curious to know if this is an infection and if it is, how did it get to Chickster? (I really should've brought a stool stample, but last time I did that, my vet looked at me with a clear feeling of the ickies. It was in a Ziploc bag!) Or maybe this is just a side effect of the Miralax I gave her 5 days ago. Maybe there is no connection, with Chickster or with me. I have been disinfecting like CRAZY! If something spread, I wouldn't have a clue how. I'm just happy not to see any runs in Boo's pans for now. Anyway, everyone's fine for the moment. Will update later on. Thank you everyone so much <3 <3 Alright. The vet told me it wasn't going to clear up over night (I know that, but, still!) and we should start noticing a different by Monday or Tuesday. If he is still runny by Tuesday I am to call back. Also, the foul smell is most likely caused by bacteria, if he has not ingested anything odd that may have caused the smell (Only thing I know of is the litter).
He has finally laid down in the cat bed Mom bought him a few weeks ago, I had to put one of my dirty shirts in it, but now he's resting VERY comfortably in a cool, dim room with no noise. So hopefully he will get some rest. He has had a good day today! <3 <3 Unfortunately Boo still has the runs. I called the vet and they will call me back (They are busy on Saturdays) about how soon I should be seeing a change and to tell them about how foul his runs smell. Poor baby, I thought they had stopped, but hopefully we will start seeing a change soon. He did give me 4 more so we have 4 more days of this stuff. It's bright yellow and looks nasty but smells very sweet. I have not tasted it. I'm actually afraid too. I also mentioned that I started having the same symptoms last night, so I don't know if the two are connected, if I caught something from him or vice versa (so gross...ick) I am trying to be so clean about this, washing my hands every five minutes, using antibacterial gel on top of that, sanitizing the plastic around his pans and then rinsing them down with a clean wet cloth then drying it so no residue. I had to put him back in the tub earlier because the newspaper is not absorbing fast enough and it runs onto his feet. This is twice I've washed his feet today. Earlier this morning he peed, and it ran onto his feet and he was going to just walk all over the house. Can't have that!! That room downstairs already has the smell of his poo (I've removed all dirty pads and newspapers, cleaned Chickster's pan, we've febreezed it, it's just....lingering!)
Aah... well. Off to keep an eye on him some more and when I hear back from the vet (hopefully today) I will update again. <3 <3 Boo has not had the runs this morning so far. I haven't given him his Amforal just yet, he is comfy on the bed but I have been letting him sit after his fluids at 7am then after he ate a bit more around 8. So here at about 8:35am I will give him this suspension. It looks icky, I hope it does not taste as icky as it looks. His fluids went so great this morning. I found a new area that is like warm butter, and he didn't even notice it. What's more, I folded a feather bed I had on my old bed in half and put it on the side of the bed that he gets his fluids on. I put his towel on top of that and as soon as I set him on it and put his face muzzle on, he went and laid down all by himself, I didn't have to assist as usual. He was very pleasant today. He has eaten well and drank water from the tub as always, and got in the front window for a bit.
I will update later on today with any changes (Hopefully no runny poo's!) and I am debating whether or not to take him out on his harness, at least on the front porch to enjoy the outside. He loves it so much out there. Thank you so much for your concern and taking the time to read <3 I am in happy tears, and just a quick update to let you know Boo is doing very well. He had one more spell of runny poo a few minutes ago (6:00pm) and I had to put him in the bath and wash his back feet and in between his legs off, but it came off with no problem, it just dissolved instantly. He is back sitting in his window and has had several snacks of food :)
Thank you so much for your continued support, and I hope you and your furbabies are doing well <3 The vet did not feel it was necessary to do an X-ray, since Boo is so thin he could feel his intestines very well and told me there was a 2-3 inch stool in his intestine that was firm but not hard, and it was moving its way down. He said he was not really sure why he had the runs, it could be from ingesting clay, but he did not feel any blockages or any large areas or hard areas. Boo acted as nice as he could up until they brought him a pill to take, and once we got that into a liquid to squirt into his mouth, it took 10 minutes to get 5 CC's into his mouth. He acted like a little superman, I was so shocked at how strong he is. The vet was amazed he looked so well, in his eyes, his coat sheen, he was happy with it.
His anemia levels I got wrong, they went UP from 11% to 13%. When I told him another vet mentioned how bad this was, he told me a few stories of animals he had seen at worse levels and they had bounced back. I told him I know Boo has to have non-regenerative anemia, and he agreed, but he advises using the supp's once we get his runs under control. His skin turgor is good and the vet, like I said, was pretty amazed at how great he looked. He advised against an x-ray at this time, and also said he would try antibiotics if this did not help to stop the problem, but added this stuff ("Amforal Suspension", 5CC's to a synringe, yellow liquid) has some "antibacterial" (his wording) properties in it. We will see. Maybe one of those outside cats got face to face with him in the window when I wasn't aware and sneezed on him or something. I don't know. But I am so pleased to at least know he isn't completely blocked up. The vet wants to try things one at a time, instead of putting too many meds in his body and then not knowing what has done what or which symptom came from what med. I think that is a good idea. Going to cuddle with Boo. He certainly tried to strong arm them. He did not have a fever, he did not drool, and his third eyelids weren't showing. He looked bright and happy right up until the temperature check *YOWCH!* Thank you all so much. I am going to cuddle with Boo for a bit. | About Boo
Boo was a 13.5 year old Persian male with Chronic Renal Failure diagnosed 03/15/10. He passed away peacefully on 08/02/10. For more on Boo, visit Boo's Life Story page.
Boo's MaI live in Central North Carolina and take care of 6 cats. 4 outside 'wanderers' and 2 indoor, Boo and Chickster. Boo is 13 years old and Chickster is 1-2. I'd rather be at home with my cats than anywhere else. I devote most of my time to Boo and try not to accidentally ignore Chickie Sue. I am starting to notice they can be a lot like children sometimes! It is not always an easy job! ArchivesAugust 2010 Categories |
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