DDP today!

I’m purring with excitement this morning ‘cause I’m one of today’s diary picks! It’s a surprise . . . completely unexpected but oh! how I love happy surprises! Thank you diary lady for choosing my scribblings and congrats to the other kitties who are today’s DDPs. And a very special thank you to friends who read my diary!

All I seem to write about lately is my health woes. That’s why I’m very happy to let you know how much better I’ve been feeling since last week. I’m eating better and back to being my usual sociable and affectionate and snuggly self. You should see me running around the house, interested in everything that’s going on, playing and chirping and chatting with mommy and grandma and being so cute and adorable! It makes mommy and grandma smile!


Wishes for a Happy Holiday to all!

Hugs,
Kaci
=^..^=

P.S. Tomorrow is my grandma's 84th birthday. Happy Birthday Grandma!

Ouchie . . . I'm NOT a pin cushion!

Meow friends!

Wow, it’s only 10 more days until Catmus Day and Santa Claws’ arrival! Your diaries are buzzing with talk of the holiday and it seems everyfur is excitedly awaiting the arrival of the dear old man in the red suit. I’m excitedly awaiting the visit of Mr. Claws too! Hope Santa Claws leaves lots of gifties and prezzies in your stockings!

Many of you were lucky enough to have a big tree suddenly appear in your house and are having a blast climbing your trees, playing with the shiny things on the tree and knocking them off the tree, not to mention knocking the whole tree over and eating the pine needles. Wow, are you lucky -- I’m envious! We don’t have much of a tree this year. It’s a pathetic little table top tree and not even real! It’s no fun at all and such a measly little tree that I won’t even dignify it by calling it a tree. What’s with mommy this year? Bah humbug!

No vet visits this week and I’m feeling good and eating ok. I took the clindamycin antibiotic for 10 days but it was causing me a lot of stress whenever mommy had to give it to me and making me cringe and run from mommy whenever she approached me, so mommy contacted my vet and asked her if I absolutely had to take the clindamycin for 14 days? My vet said 10 days was enough and I could stop taking it. Things began to improve between mommy and me until mommy tried to give me my subq fluids yesterday . . .

For some unknown reason, mommy could NOT get the needle into me! She’s been giving me the subq fluids for awhile now and other than the first week, hasn’t had any problems doing it. But yesterday mommy could feel the resistance when she tried to stick the needle in me, saw me flinch and pulled the needle out because she didn’t want to hurt me. She tried over and over and over again and even changed the needle and tried over and over again.

Can you imagine how I was feeling while that was happening? It hurt! Ouchie, I’m not a pin cushion! I began screaming and howling and crying and finally, on about the 15th try, I turned around and bit mommy. Can any of you blame me? Mommy let me go fast. She was in a panic. I need my daily fluids!

SOS!

Mommy called *my* vet tech Bonnie for help and advice. Could the needles be defective? Bonnie said no, it’s not the needles and very kindly came over to our house right after she finished work. Mom was happy to see her and grateful to Bonnie for coming over. I was also very happy to see her (I like her!) and more than a little relieved too. At last, someone who knows what she’s doing and won’t hurt me! Bonnie gave me my fluids and had no trouble putting the needle in me and all went well. Whew!

Mommy had no trouble giving me my fluids today. The needle went in smoothly the first time she tried and I didn’t even flinch. I can’t figure out what was wrong with mommy yesterday and she can’t figure it out either. It’s ok for humans to have a bad day now and then but NOT when they’re sticking needles into someone! Has anyone else who gets subq fluids ever have something like that happen to your moms?

But all of that's in the past. Everything is back to normal and all's well again between me and mommy.


Hugs,
Kaci
=^..^=

HI! I'm fine after my dental but hated finding a worm in my- house!

Mommy says I look and smell a little iffy. Usually I smell nice when I come home from an extended stay at the vet, but not this time! I must have been cranky and hard to handle yesterday. My head smells like urine but that hasn’t stopped mommy from kissing it! She doesn’t want to upset me by spraying or wiping on a cat shampoo to get the smell off. I look funny too! They shaved my tummy and a little patch of fur above my left front leg last week when I had my ultrasound and echocardiogram. Now I have more fur missing! They shaved the fur on my right leg so they could put a cathatar in there. Mommy says I look ragged! And so I do, but no big deal. I’m home now, safe and warm and comfy!

When I got home last night, the first thing I did was go into the kitchen to look for food. I was fed several small meals throughout the evening in case my tummy wasn’t well from the anesthesia. No one wanted me to throw up my food. I didn’t! Next I wandered around the house, inspecting everything and making sure all was as it should be. It was!

Except for the worm . . . eek!

Worms! We have lots of worms outside of our house this year, most likely because of all the rain we’ve had and the unseasonably warm weather. They seem to like our driveway and congregate in the area near our garage door. Don’t know quite how it happened, but an ugly brown disgusting slimy worm found it’s way into our laundry room and parked itself next to my litter box. I went into the laundry room to use my box last night and saw the worm, inspected it to see what it was and freaked out and hightailed it out of there as fast as I could run!

Mommy went to see what was wrong and saw the worm. Eek eek eek! You should have heard the funny noises she made! The noises were loud and strange and I came back to the kitchen doorway and looked into the laundry room to see what was going on! Mommy had a newspaper and somehow or other, while making idiotic noises, got the worm into the garage on the newspaper. One end of the worm split off its body but it was still moving -- ugh! Mommy sprayed it with something, slammed the garage door and said she’d deal with it later. It’s dead and she’s hoping it *dries* up and then she’ll sweep it away. Ick!

I didn’t sleep in any of my usual places last night but went into mommy’s bedroom closet where she keeps a nice blankie on the floor just for me. That’s where I slept all night. This morning I woke up late and ate a small breakfast. Mommy gave me my medicines and after getting my antibiotic, I decided I’d had enough and back into the closet I went to hide and sleep. I was tired and slept until mommy got me at 2pm to give me my subq fluids, followed by chicken treats and a nice meal. Since then I’ve been up and around, following mommy everywhere and staying close to her. Wherever she goes, I go too. I wanted to be petted a lot today and fussed over and mommy has given me several nice pet sessions! Mommy’s on the computer and I’m curled up in the chair next to hers, purring away.

My adorable orange friend RUFFY wrote me a sweet poem! I’m very flattered and honored! See, I’m blushing bright red! Ruffy is very talented and writes lovely poems. Thank you Ruffy!

Mommy just put my methimazole ear gel onto my ear -- that’s for my hyperthyroidism. That’s ok. I’m used to it and it doesn’t bother me much. She says next up is my antibiotic. Oh no! THAT I don’t like at all! After she does that to me, mommy will no longer be in my good graces!

Thank you for purring for me! Your purrs made all the difference and helped guarantee that my dental would go smoothly and they also helped mommy cope!

Love,
Kaci
=^..^=

Kaci's dental is finished and she's ok!

I was asked to bring Kaci in last night and board her overnight because her vet has more than the usual number of surgeries scheduled for today and wanted an early start. We got there at 6 pm last night and it was very hard for me to leave Kaci there overnight. I'm sure she wasn't very pleased about it either. To say I miss her is an understatement!

One of the vet techs called me before 9 this morning and said Kaci had had her dental, she’s ok and is in recovery. I’m very relieved! I"ll be picking her up at 5 this afternoon.

Surprisingly, she didn’t need any teeth pulled. That’s the good news!

What she did have was a very bad case of gingivitis and excessive tartar build up. Her gums are all red and inflamed and the sides of her mouth are raw, red and inflamed from the tartar scraping the sides of her mouth. That's what has been causing her pain and making it difficult for her to eat. The cleaning removed the tartar and she’ll be taking amoxicillin for several days to treat the inflammation.

I have many questions about Kaci’s gingivitis and the inflammation but didn’t (and probably won’t) get to talk to her vet today because she’s very busy in surgery. The vet tech said they realize Kaci is not going to let me brush her teeth but they’re giving me something to put in her water bowl and something to squirt on her teeth and gums.

Thank you for your purrs, concern and love! And thank you to those who sent her rosettes! My little girl and I are very touched by your love and concern.


Kaci’s mom

A scary episode and another unplanned trip to the vet

It was around 8:30 this morning when something strange happened to me. I was in the kitchen eating. Mommy was in the laundry room scrubbing my litter boxes. The laundry room is adjacent to the kitchen and mommy had a clear view of me as I was eating.

I was eating and then suddenly, my left front leg lifted up high next to the side of my head like I wanted to wash or rub my face or ear but couldn’t. But that’s not what I wanted to do -- I was eating! I couldn’t control my front leg or lower it and kept shaking it out in front of me as I tried to lower it. My body got spazzy and I tried to walk as I tried to get my leg to lower and I fell over onto my side. My left front leg wouldn’t go down and it looked like I was having some kind of seizure. Mommy ran to me. My eyes were wide open and I seemed conscious and aware of what was happening. Then I got up and tried to walk again and couldn’t control my body and legs and I kept stumbling and falling over. I stopped walking and laid down again and mommy stayed with me until I seemed ok and was able to get up and walk normally. The whole episode lasted about 2 minutes and then I appeared fine. I even went back to my food dish and started eating again! It didn’t appear that I’d had a stroke or any classic type of seizure.

I’ve had two previous episodes of my left front leg rising up to the side of my face and losing control of the leg and not being able to lower it. One episode was about 6 months ago and the other one happened this past Friday evening. Those prior episodes only lasted a few seconds. This episode was scary and prolonged enough for mommy to call the vet and take me in for an exam.

Mommy feels like she should move into a room at the vet clinic because we’re there so much!

I saw the nice vet who examined me two Mondays ago (Mondays are Dr. G's day off). The vet examined my ears and eyes and did as thorough an orthopedic exam as I’d let her. She listened to my heart. Everything appears to be completely normal and I didn’t show signs of being in pain and my legs and paws were functioning normally. So what’s wrong?

It could be vestibular syndrome but probably isn’t. My eyes did not shift from side to side during the episode like they would have if it was vestibular syndrome. The vet asked if I was still taking Buprenex and said she’s seen some weird behavior when cats are taking it. But I haven’t taken Buprenex in over a week. She doesn’t see any signs of a stroke and I wasn’t acting the way I would if I had a blood clot (which can be painful).

A very good possibility is my hyperthyroidism as the cause. The vet says she occasionally sees hyperthyroid cats who have similar symptoms where their front left legs elevate and they can’t control their left front leg. It usually means their medication needs adjusting. However, we can’t increase the dosage of my medication because my kidneys go bonkers when my thyroid level is lower.

The other option is one the vet didn’t recommend mainly because of the cost and the low probability of treatment even if we do find something wrong. That is, take me to a neurologist. They’d do extensive tests and it would cost mommy a few thousand dollars. And even if they do find out what’s wrong -- such as a brain tumor or neurological disease -- what can we do about it anyway? Not much! Mommy absolutely can’t afford to take me to a neurologist and isn’t choosing that option.

From now on, I have to be careful and will need to be watched closely. Mommy can’t imagine how she can keep me off the stairs but from now on, she has to keep me from jumping onto high places such as shelves and furniture in case I have another episode. We don’t want me to get hurt!

However, I am cleared to go ahead with the dental on Wednesday.


Hugs,
Kaci
=^..^=

Goodbye Natasha, a purrs request for Colette- Sidonie-Samantha, and a health update

It’s with a sad and heavy heart that I said goodbye to dear friend and “orangie sister” Natasha who became an angel yesterday. My family sends condolences and many purrs and comforting hugs to Natasha’s mom and family.

Natasha, you are a much loved friend and I will miss you so much! Rest in peace beautiful friend!


PURRS request:

Please purr for my friend Colette Sidonie-Samantha. She has an enlarged nipple and her vet thinks it might be cancer. She might have her surgery as soon as Tuesday. Please keep Colette and her mommy in your thoughts and purrs!


Update:

Since I stopped taking the Buprenex, I’m not eating much. I don’t look good and am cranky and a little withdrawn. Although I keep begging for food and am clearly hungry, I eat very little. Mommy gave me 1/2 of a cyproheptadine pill yesterday afternoon to stimulate my appetite. That helped me eat what mommy said amounts to a whole day’s worth of food in a few hours! This morning I’ve been pestering mommy for food since we got up at 6 am and when she gives me food, I lap up a few mouthfuls and walk away. Then after an hour or so, I start begging for food again. Mommy opened up 4 cans of food before 11! We’re going to wait and see how much food, if any, I eat today before giving me more of the appetite stimulant.

My vet called mommy Wednesday afternoon to discuss my blood pressure and x-ray results. My blood pressure is completely normal and Dr. G said she’s very pleased with my numbers. My x-rays didn’t show an enlarged heart or any fluids in my chest and that’s good too.

Dr. G said I won’t need medication for my heart unless I go into heart failure or get a diagnosis of HCM. She said HCM is diagnosed with an echocardiogram and if it is HCM causing my mitral valve regurgitation, it’s in a very early stage and was not apparent in the echo. She still thinks the mitral valve problem is caused by my hyperthyroidism. She told mommy to watch out for lethargy, limping in my rear leg (blood clot), difficulty breathing (clot in my lungs), fluids enlarging my chest and/or tummy (it will look different than the way the fluids look when I get my subq fluids) or if I look “blue.” That means heart failure and is an emergency. She also said it may never get worse (which mommy is fervently praying for!)

That’s it for now. I started taking Clindamycin this morning in preparation for my dental. My dental will be on Wednesday and hopefully the procedure goes well and afterwards I’ll be able to eat normally again.


Purring for all sick kitties everywhere. Purring for the families of all kitties who had to go to Rainbow Bridge.



Love,
Kaci
=^..^=

At last, some good news!

Mommy took me to that stinky place again this morning (ENUF already!) They took me into a quiet room away from where I usually go for exams. The room had a beeping machine in it and that fascinated me. Mommy told me the machine looks like the blood pressure machines she sees when she visits other humans in the hospital. The vet tech wrapped a little purple thingy around my front arm (just like the doctors do to humans when they have their blood pressure taken) and told me to keep my front arm held out in front of me and to be still. (LOL!) Mommy helped keep me still. I was a very good girl while the vet tech took my blood pressure. She did 7 readings which took about 10 minutes or so. Then she carried me into another room and they took chest x-rays.

When the tech brought me back to mommy, she said Dr. G will call mommy later today when she’s finished her surgeries. The tech told mommy there were no fluids in my chest and my heart was not enlarged. That was very good news! Dr. G said it was ok to schedule my dental. The tech also said she thought my blood pressure readings looked ok.

Mommy is going to ask Dr. G whether I need to take medication for my heart. The tech didn’t think I would need medication unless I go into heart failure and explained to mommy all the signs and symptoms of heart failure.

Mommy scheduled my dental for next Wednesday (December 7). The tech gave mommy an antibiotic (Clindamycin) that I will start taking on Sunday. Then mommy paid the bill (you don’t want to know how much money everything is costing mommy or how much she’s spent at the vet over the past week, not to mention what she’ll have to pay when I have my dental -- it scares mommy to even think about it!) and we came home.

Mommy wants me to tell you why it felt like the ground shifted underneath her feet when she learned I have mitral valve regurgitation and why it scares her so much. Mommy’s brother had mitral valve regurgitation. He was given medication and scheduled for surgery to fix it. Exactly one week before he was to have his surgery, he and his wife came home from shopping and he told her he felt very tired and wanted to go lie down in bed for awhile. About 10 minutes later when his wife went into the bedroom to check on him, he was gone. His heart had failed. He was only 54 years old. The only comfort mommy can find is knowing he probably didn’t feel any pain and went peacefully.

Well, I’m safely home now and think I’ll go take a nice nap in my cat bed. The weather is beautiful here and I hope you’re all having nice weather too. Enjoy your day!

Love,
Kaci
=^..^=

The results from my echocardiogram

Sorry I didn’t update my diary sooner but I didn’t learn my test results until tonight. My vet called on Saturday and said she didn’t have the echocardiogram results and the cause of the delay was due to it being a holiday weekend. Yesterday was her day off, so we didn’t learn anything until she called mommy tonight.

First, the good news. The results of my abdominal ultrasound were good. My gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, spleen, liver, etc., all look normal.

The results of my echocardiogram are not so good. I have mitral valve regurgitation and a mild irregularity in my left ventrical.

Mitral valve regugitation means my heart’s mitral valve does not close properly, which causes the blood to flow backwards into the upper chamber when the left lower heart chamber contracts. At this point, it’s not severe although the disease can and does progress and get worse.

The possible causes are: my existing hyperthyroidism; high blood pressure; or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. My vet suspects either my hyperthyroidism or high blood pressure as the cause.

We’ve been keeping my thyroid level on the high side of normal because of my kidney disease and the cardiologist does not recommend lowering it, so we will not try to lower it.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be going to the vet for a blood pressure check. If my blood pressure is high, mommy thinks there are medications I can take to lower it. While I’m there, they’ll also do a chest x-ray to make sure I don’t have any fluids in my chest or lungs.

The cardiologist said I can have the dental if certain precautions are taken and my vet is careful, such as not using certain anesthesias and lowering the amount of fluids they give me, etc. My vet said that’s encouraging and she feels more confident in going ahead with the dental. She’ll have me start taking an antibiotic days before the procedure too. If all goes well, I’ll have the dental next Wednesday (December 7).

I took the pain medication Buprenex for 4 days up until Sunday and my appetite really improved. Now that I’m not taking it, my appetite is falling off again. I eat wet food only and mommy always adds water to my food to make it softer and easier to eat because my front toofies are missing and I can’t eat like I used to. Now mommy has been adding a lot more water to my food to make it real soupy. That’s been helping me eat because I can lap it up.

Because of my positive reaction to the pain medication, both mommy and my vet think there’s a problem with my toofies and probably at least one toofie needs to come out and if I have the dental, I’ll feel better and my appetite will improve.

I’ll let you know the results of my blood pressure check and chest x-rays tomorrow.

Thank you for your continued purrs!

Love,
Kaci
=^..^=

I had my ultrasounds and am home but don't know the results- yet

Hope you all had a very nice turkey day and gots to eats all the turkey you wanted! I wasn’t allowed to have any turkey but got a few chicken treats instead. Please don’t feel sorry for me! I prefer chicken over turkey and was very happy with the treats. Yum!

Mommy dropped me off at the vet this afternoon and I had an echocardiogram and abdominal ultrasound and then mommy picked me up and we got home a little after 6 pm. I cried in a small, pitiful voice during the whole drive to my appt. and did the same during the trip home. That always makes mommy feel very bad (which is the whole point!) The whole thing was an unpleasant experience as far as I’m concerned but it’s over now and I’m safely home again. I wasn’t allowed to eat anything after a small breakfast early this morning and oh my cats was I starving! The first thing mommy did after we came home was feed me and she was very happy to see me eagerly eating my food. Since I started taking the Buprenex, my appetite has improved. Now I’ve finished eating and am curled up in my snug cat bed for a well-deserved snooze.

Dr. G will call mommy when she receives my test results. Hopefully, she’ll have the results by tomorrow. I'll let you know the results as soon as I know. I'm purring and keeping my paws crossed that everything looks good and there's nothing seriously wrong.

Purring lots of get well purrs for my friend Bella and for all sick kitties everywhere!


Love,
Kaci
=^..^=

No dental today but not for a good reason . . . please keep- purring for me!

No dental today!

I’m very relieved that I was able to come home again.

Mommy isn’t so happy about it.

Here’s what happened.

Mommy took me to the vet this morning for my dental. We saw my regular vet, Dr. G, who was the one who was going to do my dental. She always talks to mommy before mommy leaves and tells her exactly what she’s going to do. She gave me a very thorough physical exam and found a heart murmur. The heart murmur is a new development. The heart murmur makes everything more complicated.

Dr. G says many cats have heart murmurs and don’t have heart disease and of course, many do have heart disease. We don’t know what’s what with me. Because she doesn’t know what’s going on with my heart, she wouldn’t be able to give me the amount of fluids before, during and after surgery that would make the whole procedure easier on my kidneys.

The options were to go ahead with the surgery as planned, using the anesthesia she had planned to use which doesn’t put me under as deeply and which I would come out of quickier -- prophanol (sp?) -- along with a pre-op pain medication and a nerve block if she had to remove any toofies and reducing the amount of fluids because of the heart murmur and hope everything will be ok. Dr. G thought everything would most likely turn out ok but receiving fewer fluids is not a good option for my kidneys. It would be harder on my kidneys and may create problems during my recovery.

Or not do the dental today and have an echocardiogram done to check out my heart before making a decision on what to do about my toofies. If I don’t have heart disease and it’s nothing major, we’ll go ahead with the dental. If I do have heart disease, we might be able to do the dental. It all depends on what’s causing the heart murmur. Perhaps my hyperthyroidism is causing it and my medication needs to be adjusted. Mommy asked Dr. G what she would do if it involved one of her own cats and she said she’d have the echocardiogram done first.

Mommy opted for the echocardiogram. I’ll be having an echocardiogram and also an abdominal ultrasound this Friday afternoon. I don’t have to tell you that mommy is very nervous about what we’re going to find out. She’s praying this will turn out to be a small blip and nothing major.

Meanwhile, I’ll be taking a pain medication called Buprenex twice a day for 4 days to see if it helps me feel better and my appetite increases. It also might be a good indication whether or not it’s my toofies that are bothering me and causing me not to eat. I didn’t eat anything last night after 6 pm and mommy noticed that I didn’t really bug her for anything to eat. When we came home from the vet, mommy gave me my breakfast and I’ve only eaten a small amount so far. Mommy will also give me some cyproheptadine today to stimulate my appetite.

Thank you for your purrs and supportive comments and for the healing rosettes. Mommy and I are overwhelmed by your love and support and appreciate your purrs.

Please keep purring for me! Please purr that I don’t have heart disease and there’s nothing else wrong with me.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Kaci
=^..^=