Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Ollie and Twee


Well interesting developments with "The Crew"  Ollie has been spending less and less time in the fray of things, only coming out when he was hungry and demanding we feed him  He's generally getting three meals a day, sometimes four.  He doesn't (or isn't able) to eat enough in one sitting to sustain him any more.  I just love his little hungry "Narf" demand, that I don't mind.

His holistic vet finally sent out a few other things to try.  Several holistic "mix one pellet in a whole bunch of water and try that" stuff, and some mushrooms.  Nope as you can guess I'm not a huge believer in that, but I am a believer in trying anything.  It isn't going to harm him, it isn't like he's getting his hopes up, and if nothing else he's getting a little more water.  We gave him the mushrooms the first night, and then the next day the mushrooms and the holistic treatment.  After a few days I noticed he was out and not demanding food, which to me is huge.  So was it the holistic treatment? was it the shrooms? who cares, I'm happy.

He also has been having problems scratching his neck on that side.  I hadn't noticed before the other day, either because he was too proud to even try in front of others or maybe it wasn't an issue before this.  But when he lifts his bad leg to scratch his ear, he is barely able to get it up to the base of his belly.  He makes a scratching motion with it, but it is too far away.  He moves his head down to try to reach, and he can't and gets very close to falling over.  The first day I noticed that, that night he came to me for attention while I was half asleep, and demanded attention.  He made grumpy noises if I patted him anywhere other then the top of his head, the chin and his neck.  When he finally left, I noticed a pile of fur.  I guess he can't get the loose stuff off himself any more.  So the next time he came for attention, I pulled out the comb, and was able to get several small mats off of him, which while I'm sure he didn't like it, he was glad to have gone.  The crew seems to be shedding a bit more this year.

While I'm still letting him drive the bus to the Rainbow Bridge, I'm seeing "road signs" that he's coming up on the end.  the hiding, the infirmity, etc.  But then again he's still bossing everyone else, telling them off, pushing them out of the way even if he did show up late to the party.  I took a nice photo of him on my iPod Touch, which I need to upload to my computer to get it on here.  I'm sure there is a way, but I'm not there yet :)


As for Twee, we had a very interesting development  Yesterday while I was exercising, I noticed her running around and playing with her tail down.  It really isn't like her, so I watched her.  She seemed to be having a grand ol time and it didn't seem to bother her, so I let it go as a fluke.  Last night when it wasn't back up, I got VERY concerned.  I gave her love, then went to inspect it.  It did not seem swollen, nor hot or cold.  the part where it drooped (the first two inches or so seemed ok, moved up and down then the almost inverted V shape of the tail flomped down)   So neither the base, nor the apex seemed swollen or painful for her for me to touch.  If I pushed too hard, she didn't like that, just as you might not like it when someone poked you too hard, she simply avoided.  I felt the tip of her tail, neither hot nor cold.  Pinching brought a "why did you pinch me" reaction so I knew she had feeling down there.

This morning it was still down, and I called the vet.  He does surgery on Tuesdays so getting in to see him would mean I'd have to have an EMERGENCY!!!!!! which this certainly wasn't.  But he listened to her symptoms and my observations and said at this point just watch, and make sure she can use the litter box.

Not an easy feat in a house of eight cats and two owners who work full time jobs.  So I did the next best thing, I gave her the Ollie treatment.  I locked her up in the bedroom with food and water and opened up Ollie's box.

Now if you don't know this about Twee, she's "special" and no not in the way every pet owner thinks their kitties are Special, she's a little touched in the head.  Her full name is Tweedle after Tweedle Dum.. because that was the nicest name thrown out there (there was some doozies)   When she had not one but two severe / life threatening reactions to sedation, we ended up keeping her.  We could not stand to let such an innocent (touched in the head) soul out into the general public and risk them not taking her reaction to sedation seriously.  She is very slow to catch on, almost unbearably sweet and kind.  I've referred to her as my down syndrome kitty, because she is  like kids with down syndrome who are wonderfully sweet and open and kind and honest,

So locking her up confused the living daylights out of her.  Food in the bedroom that wasn't immediately consumed by Muffin and Fleurp confused her.  The fact that there was a litter box confused her, so she just hunkered down and sat there.  I tried to give her some love before heading off on my day.  When I got back a few hours later, the food was untouched, the litter was untouched, and she was basically in the same spot, but when I gave her love, her tail seemed to go up a bit higher on it's own.  So I think we are in recovery.

I couldn't for the life of me figure out what happened to her.  An abscess? did someone bite her?  possibly, but wouldn't that be swollen and painful?  We didn't step on her tail, we would remember that.  No tails in doors, etc.  But going through the options of what might have happened, I remember being half asleep the night before I noticed it, and hearing a thump.  The crew likes to get on the bureaus, and we don't much like it, so we do what we can to discourage it.  I think she attempted to get up on it and missed and feel.  Why this doesn't get a pain reaction out of her I do not know, but at least I think the mystery is solved.

I called and reported the improvement to the vet.  I also asked if some Pred might not help Ollie in these final weeks/months of his life.  It was agreed, and some will be put in the mail for me. (my vet is about a 40 minute car ride)

No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...