Pets and Plants and stuff

Progress!! Tigery is a shy guy…who can blame him…a stray kitten caught and brought to the shelter where he was immediately bathed due to exposure to disease and shuttled off to a foster home. Frankly, I’m more surprised that Cakepop is as sociable as he is.

But! As with most cats, Tigery is susceptible to Churu. He was even purring here. (Note Cakepop staring enviously at him from across the room. Yes, I fixed the puppy pads on the wall after this!)

To kick off this year’s kitten season, let me introduce Cakepop (black floof ball) and Tigery (tabby). So named by my 4 year old.

These boys are a LOT bigger than my usual itty bitty bottle babies, but they’re lost their sibling today to panleukopenia, a horrible and contagious virus. So Cakey and Tigery get to spend two weeks with me in quarantine, hopefully staying nice and healthy.

Panleuk can strike kittens down quickly, so my head says don’t get attached. But Cakepop took some Churu out of my hand this evening and I melted a bit. Right now they appear fairly healthy, aside from being a bit thin and dehydrated. At this time they’re getting fluids and an appetite stimulant and I’m watching like a hawk for any signs of illness. Send some good vibes our way if you can spare ‘em!

Today I was watching her snooze, melting. I wondered how I could have thought these things about this precious, innocent creature. I then went to take down a few holiday decorations and discovered that she has been peeing and pooping behind our Christmas tree.

Interrobang, I love you and I hate you right now.

Also yes, Brownie is 1000% my total and complete responsibility.

Incidental findings seem to be the thing for my animals this year. Interrobang has her twisty spine, and Bedlam…she’s in trouble.

Before having her teeth cleaned, we ran blood and urine. Just your standard screening, I wasn’t anticipating anything exciting as she’s 8 and has been totally normal as far as I can tell.

Alas, she has a lot of protein in her urine. This can be just a transient thing, but in her case it is not. So I collected a series of urine samples to measure her urine protein creatinine ratio. Ideally, this should be less than 0.5, but hers is 2, which is considered severe. Next, her blood pressure. 90-140 systolic is ideal, hers is consistently 180-200.

Since her kidney values are still normal, it appears that we have caught her in the early stages of kidney disease.

By a stroke of luck, my boss told me about a free lecture being put on about proteinuria by a fantastic internist who she used to work with, so I got a fantastic info dump and feel better prepared to face this.

I have ordered her prescription kidney diet, and her vet will be back in the office tomorrow and will hopefully call to discuss medication options. Likely an ace inhibitor and an anti thrombotic drug.

Anyways, please send some good vibes Bedlam’s way.

I have been tired for YEARS. I sleep and sleep and sleep and I can still fall asleep at the drop of a hat. I have followed alllll the sleep hygeine advice, regular physical activity, giving up caffeine. I went to the doctor and got my iron levels up, started using a CPAP.

I was sleeping 10 hours a night, napping two hours in the afternoon, and I was still exhausted and crabby all. the. time.

I was convinced that this was something I was doing wrong. I wasn’t cut out for motherhood, I wasn’t following the advice correctly, I needed to…I don’t know, something.

I finally asked my doctor for a referral to a sleep specialist. She talked to me at length, but it at one point she looked at my CPAP data and I saw her eyes get huge. “Is this ACCURATE?!” she asked me “You sleep a LOT!”

So. With a hypersomnia diagnosis she got me started on a stimulant medication to help me stay awake during the day. This was two weeks ago and I am MIND BLOWN. I was worried that I might feel…amped up, but I just feel like myself for the first time in years.

I don’t need a nap. I can play with my kid, I can push the swing. I can walk the dog. I CAN GO OUT TO DINNER. My well of patience is so much deeper because I’m not fighting to stay awake after 2pm.

We’re still pursuing more diagnostics, including a 24 hour sleep study to see if I have a form of narcolepsy and some more blood work. But. I feel like I’ve gotten a fresh start.

Bedlam is having her teeth cleaned and a lump removed this week (totally benign, but it’s under her collar so it rubs and gets irritated), so I told the groomer to take her pretty short, clean face, and “do something fun”. 🤩 I love what he came up with!

My local shelter is not accepting healthy animals at this time so they sent him away, fortunately I foster for another shelter that has tentatively agreed to accept him (just waiting on the official email saying yes).

In the meantime, my kiddo has named him Moonstar, and he is NOT staying, no matter how sweet and adorable he is.

Kiddo also asked my husband “Why did Mommy bring home a kitten from her hike?” to which he sighed and said “It’s what she does…” XD So true!!

Took my kiddo to the park yesterday, on our way out we found a chicken. A little thin, very friendly and seemed quite happy to be found.

I took her home overnight, posted her photo up everywhere, and this morning gave her to a sweet lady who has an empty coop. She will return the chicken if an owner comes forward, or get her a friend in a week or so if nobody claims her. Either way, she’s definitely happier at the new house than she was in a Guinea pig cage in my office!

There WAS an incidental finding on her x-rays though. It’s been about six years since I’ve seen a radiograph of her spine, and she definitely didn’t have scoliosis then!

Send some good vibes for Interrobang please! She regurgitated after her evening treat two days ago and I was a little concerned but she seemed otherwise fine. This morning she had small piles of regurgitated food all over the house, and despite hollering at me to feed her breakfast, she did not eat.

I dropped her off at the vet and I’m awaiting an update, as they’re going to see her in between appointments. Her IBD has been so well controlled for such a long time that I tend to overreact to any irregularity with her GI tract.

Quick Elton update before he goes back to his regular foster mom tomorrow! I realized pretty quickly that the only assistance he seemed to need with eating was my hand resting against his right flank so he didn’t fall over. I set up the food and water dishes so he can lean against the wall while he eats and drinks and he started eating well on his own immediately! I’m still hand feeding him a bit but I suspect he’ll grow out of the need for hand feeding soon.

Our foster rabbit, Pretzel, is super curious about the little guy. Pretzel has been pretty withdrawn with us and I’ve been struggling to try and get him out of his shell, so I’m thrilled to see him showing interest! I may try a VERY cautious introduction to our adult cat once Elton is out of the house.

I’m pet sitting a baby void for the weekend while his foster mama is out of town. His name is Elton John and while I was warned that he has a severe respiratory infection right now I was NOT warned that he also has cerebellar hypoplasia, which makes him quite wobbly. Imagine my surprise when he bumbled out of his carrier!