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Lucy is Sick
Sigh. Poor Lucy has been pretty off the last few days.
She's actually not been eating well for a few months now. Not awful, but not particularly good. The new vet at Paradise wanted to see her anyway last month, before renewing her Prednisolone prescription, so we brought her in. The great news was that she was up to 7.5#, which is notable increase from her low weight of just under 5# (and probably her highest weight ever). And we got her a new prescription for some appetite stimulant, which we've given her before to solid effect. This time: not so much. She started eating a little more, but not the voracious little appetite that we'd seen last time.
Then about two months ago there was a night that she started throwing fits when picked up like it was hurting her. But she was OK by bedtime, so we didn't worry too much.
And she's been really crabby with the orangies since then, and so we've wondered if something was off.
But yesterday night was a whole new thing. She seemed lethargic during the day. Then she again started hissing and growling and mewing when picked up. Or even when we were too near her. And she didn't even want anything to do with treats, let alone food.
Kimberly and I were loathe to leave her alone as we went to bed, but we did. And then she hopped into bed with me about two hours later, purring and happy and seemingly totally herself. Then this morning she was eating treats again, though not food, but it was hard to tell if that was notable enough given her pickiness of recent months.
Nonetheless, we called up the vet this morning, because I have never seen her as bad off as she seemed to be last night. They initially gave her an appointment for a week and a half away, but then when the vet heard how she was doing, she asked me to "drop her off", which is how they fit in urgent, unscheduled appointments: drop off in the morning, pick up at night.
(Sidenote: We can go into the vet office now! Other than a few emergencies, that's the firs time that's been the case since we moved on island!)
We went through the same rigamarole that we have many times. They did lots of bloodwork on her, and it all came back normal except for a somewhat elevated white blood count, which the doctor said was expected given the long-term steroid use. And they gave her anti-nausea drugs and sub-cutaneous fluids and something (an anti-biotic I presume) in case she has gastritis.
I picked her up and she seemed active and annoyed in her cat carrier, a normal response to a vet visit. I dropped her off and she started pretty actively cleaning herself, because something they'd given her had gotten on her. And then I had to run to the other side of the island to pick up Kimberly.
Since I've been home she's been flat-out sleeping, which is not usual for a vet visit. Usually (since we've move on-island) she spends the rest of the day yowling at the door to the garage. I dragged her up her after dinner to give her some treats, and she refused those.
So she's off sleeping again.
We do have a follow-up appointment on Monday, another drop-off, and that's looking like it's going to be increasingly important.
I just hate when one of these things overlaps a weekend, since Paradise isn't even open on Sunday.
And I'm trying not to freak out, with only limited success, given the awful month we had with poor Callisto about a year and a half ago, when they were utterly unable to figure out what was wrong with her.
Since we never found out, I've occasionally worried that there might be some ticking time bomb that we just don't know about. There was talk of gastritis then too, and high white blood counts. But reading through my old journals, I see that poor Callisto was running a fever for the whole month. So probably not the same thing. Hopefully. Likely even.
Lucy *is* 16 years old, but they've never turned up anything worrisome at all. But as we learned last time around, never turning up the problem can be the worst thing of all.
Hopefully, Lucy just has some infection, and those shots will turn things around. But they haven't yet.
She's actually not been eating well for a few months now. Not awful, but not particularly good. The new vet at Paradise wanted to see her anyway last month, before renewing her Prednisolone prescription, so we brought her in. The great news was that she was up to 7.5#, which is notable increase from her low weight of just under 5# (and probably her highest weight ever). And we got her a new prescription for some appetite stimulant, which we've given her before to solid effect. This time: not so much. She started eating a little more, but not the voracious little appetite that we'd seen last time.
Then about two months ago there was a night that she started throwing fits when picked up like it was hurting her. But she was OK by bedtime, so we didn't worry too much.
And she's been really crabby with the orangies since then, and so we've wondered if something was off.
But yesterday night was a whole new thing. She seemed lethargic during the day. Then she again started hissing and growling and mewing when picked up. Or even when we were too near her. And she didn't even want anything to do with treats, let alone food.
Kimberly and I were loathe to leave her alone as we went to bed, but we did. And then she hopped into bed with me about two hours later, purring and happy and seemingly totally herself. Then this morning she was eating treats again, though not food, but it was hard to tell if that was notable enough given her pickiness of recent months.
Nonetheless, we called up the vet this morning, because I have never seen her as bad off as she seemed to be last night. They initially gave her an appointment for a week and a half away, but then when the vet heard how she was doing, she asked me to "drop her off", which is how they fit in urgent, unscheduled appointments: drop off in the morning, pick up at night.
(Sidenote: We can go into the vet office now! Other than a few emergencies, that's the firs time that's been the case since we moved on island!)
We went through the same rigamarole that we have many times. They did lots of bloodwork on her, and it all came back normal except for a somewhat elevated white blood count, which the doctor said was expected given the long-term steroid use. And they gave her anti-nausea drugs and sub-cutaneous fluids and something (an anti-biotic I presume) in case she has gastritis.
I picked her up and she seemed active and annoyed in her cat carrier, a normal response to a vet visit. I dropped her off and she started pretty actively cleaning herself, because something they'd given her had gotten on her. And then I had to run to the other side of the island to pick up Kimberly.
Since I've been home she's been flat-out sleeping, which is not usual for a vet visit. Usually (since we've move on-island) she spends the rest of the day yowling at the door to the garage. I dragged her up her after dinner to give her some treats, and she refused those.
So she's off sleeping again.
We do have a follow-up appointment on Monday, another drop-off, and that's looking like it's going to be increasingly important.
I just hate when one of these things overlaps a weekend, since Paradise isn't even open on Sunday.
And I'm trying not to freak out, with only limited success, given the awful month we had with poor Callisto about a year and a half ago, when they were utterly unable to figure out what was wrong with her.
Since we never found out, I've occasionally worried that there might be some ticking time bomb that we just don't know about. There was talk of gastritis then too, and high white blood counts. But reading through my old journals, I see that poor Callisto was running a fever for the whole month. So probably not the same thing. Hopefully. Likely even.
Lucy *is* 16 years old, but they've never turned up anything worrisome at all. But as we learned last time around, never turning up the problem can be the worst thing of all.
Hopefully, Lucy just has some infection, and those shots will turn things around. But they haven't yet.