Cat Lady Problems...When Your Cats Get Old...

I wish I could say my absence of posts has meant that I have been off doing something fabulous which left me no time for posting.

No, I've been busy caring for another aging member of the household. I lost two of my seniors last year, and this is the son of one of those cats.

Hopefully this may find another cat person, that is going through an equally puzzling journey!

 This fluffy 14lb pile of adorable.....

..is now down to 5.75lbs for no obvious reason!

This cat had been to the vet exactly one time in his life...to be neutered. 15 years and 3 vet visits later, he is baffling us!

He had been slowly losing weight since I put his biological mom to sleep last summer, it was almost un-noticable until he pooped watery diarreah on the floor in front of me,  Then..I knew something was up. 

First vet visit, antibiotics...maybe he had an underlying infection?

But eventually... all I could get him to eat was hand-fed hard cat treats.

I tried every type of food you can imagine. Every brand. Every texture. Every package. Every can. Even tuna..and real chicken, and human baby food!

No go. Hard cat treats.

Back to the vet. His teeth were checked. He was prodded. He had a complete blood work up, and urinalysis. He got fluids because he was dehydrated. There was a huge snowstorm this day, so his blood didn't go out, and I had to wait 3 days for results.

They revealed that all of his levels were perfect, and his vet couldn't believe he is as old as he is. No thyroid, kidney, liver, diabetes....nothing. 

Still no change. still losing weight, having diarreah. I was hand feeding,  and syringing pedialyte...it was a lot of work, but there was no change, and he lost almost another pound in 2 weeks when I took him back to the Dr.

The next visit, he had a fecal test, which came back negative to parasites. No blood, no mucus. He had another check of his teeth, and feeling for tumors. Then? An xray. Which 3 vets looked at within the hospital and found nothing. At that point, she thought he had either a bowel disease, or an intestinal cancer, but felt the xray should go to a radiologist for the final say. So it did.

This time,  he got a steroid shot, which could treat the bowel disease, or cancer...it would also stimulate appetite, and water consumption. 

That night he ate (treats) 4 times! He got fluids at the hospital, but he also drank water on his own, and I still gave him the pedialyte. He was more active than he had been in weeks, and things were looking up!

The radioligist found....nothing weird on his xray at all. So now, the task is to get him to put some weight on! The steroids seem to be making him more interested in food..and by food I meant only treats.

And then, after weeks of expensive canned and dry food and treats trials, we finally had a breakthrough with plain old purina KITTEN CHOW!!  He had one morsel, cried for more, and ate a couple handfuls on his own!

We still don't know for sure what is wrong with this handsome fellow...but despite his pinching my pocketbook, and soaking up most of my time with feeding and watering him..I know he still has a lot of life in him! He isn't just laying around, he is still living his kitty life.

I firmly believe you know when your pet is ready to leave this life, and I'm not getting that at all.

And, until he shows me he has given up, I am not  going to give up on him!!

If this makes me a "cat lady" I wear the badge proud!