The universe is laughing at me.  At least this time it was something I could laugh at with it...

Since heart failure (or problems in general) cause lack of appetite or even nausea in cats, Jax has been refusing to eat voluntarily since Thursday.  That's extremely dangerous, because cats develop a serious condition called "fatty liver syndrome" after not eating for ~5 days, and it's usually fatal.

I've been trying every food on-hand and approach I could think of, "assist" feeding him along with meds in the meantime, and becoming increasingly worried.  Having run out of ideas, I was just about to finally search the web & support groups for anything that might help...

...and he promptly leapt onto the bed, then to the dresser, and started eating the boring kibble that I figured he'd have zero interest in.  He didn't eat a lot, but anything is good, and he knows what his body can handle right now.  [Edit: Several hour later, while editing this, he ate again, this time quite a bit more.]

( A couple of cute pictures of him from over the years, as a reminder since I posted them in the distant past.... )

Now off I go -- just did Max's sub-cutaneous fluids (which he likes now), now it's time for Bastian and Jax to get their meds...hopefully to bed at something resembling a reasonable hour this time.

Tags: cardiac, cat photos, chf, dcm, good news, jax, recovery
Current Mood: exhausted

I started writing last night, but was so tired that the results were just dull and near-unreadable.

We got to take Whoosey home on Friday night, with various caveats because she wasn't recovering properly. But the amazing good news was that just like the fluid tested back in December, the official large biopsy tests came back benign -- and while the tumor will grow, it could take years to really cause problems! :-)

She came home primarily because she was too stressed to eat, just like Bastian always does there... At first, she seemed to not remember how to eat -- she sniffed the food and even licked her lips, but then stopped. I "taught" her by putting a little juice from the canned food on her lips, then letting her lick it off my fingers, then having some of the actual food there for her to lick off, etc. She just started eating kibble and drinking freely, which was a huge "woohoo!!!" because if she hadn't by Tuesday, they were going to install a feeding tube.

So, until Saturday evening, things went quite well... That was when some slightly fast breathing I had noticed at the hospital suddenly got a lot worse, and she became very passive. I recognized it more definitively as being the kind of thing Bastian does when his lungs are filling with fluid.

We rushed her back up to the hospital, where an x-ray told us that she had pleural effusion. They tapped 90ml (!) out and sent the fluid off to the labs to find out what it's coming from. There wasn't anything that night vet (not a favorite) could come up with to change, so we were just sent back here with the usual "return if she gets worse."

Since getting back, she has finally been breathing almost like a normal cat, purring, eating/drinking on her own... Generally showing us the results we've been hoping for. :-) The official recheck with Dr. A is on Tuesday, let's hope that we don't have to return to ACC before then. (We were very lucky that ACC held off on charging us the final chunk of payment until Tuesday, so we can get the various grants/aid in order and find more.)

Tags: acc, benign tumor, diagnosistics, good news, whoosey iiii
Current Mood: surprised
Current Music: New Hitchhiker's Guide Radio (via "Awayteam" channel on Shoutcast)