Stubborn Steven and a Nervous Nelly

Nervous nelly.

Seamus is being less and less cooperative with each trip we take to the vet.  And rightfully so, of course.  Our first visit, a few weekends ago, he willingly walked into his carrier.  But now he knows what to expect and fights me, as most cats do.  This was my first visit alone.  Normally my mom or sister goes with me.  They have medical backgrounds so I feel more comfortable with them understanding and knowing what extra questions should be asked.

Upon walking into the vet's office, I saw two kittens in the cage that they keep up front.  One was orange, one gray- just like my boys.  It really made me miss the days when they were super duper tiny and would fall asleep in my lap and would curl up around my neck while I slept.  Back then, Seamus had had an upper respiratory infection and I was so worried for him.  We cranked up the heat (I had my own apartment at the time) and would wrap him in blankets- of course after taking him to the vet and giving him antibiotics.  But it was just such a much more simpler time, ya know?  Now we're into subQs and creatinine levels.

Must nuzz all the things. 

As I mentioned in two posts ago, Seamus's creatinine drop a little more than 3 points which is great!  He weighs the same amount, 12.6lbs which kinda makes me sad that he hasn't gained any more weight back since the two weeks of treatment we've been doing.  The vet ordered some of the Canin renal food for us, which I was very grateful for.  Again, she offered to do his subQs and they took some blood.  He came back in really grumpy; his ears were played back and he wouldn't even look at me.  He purposely sat facing me, then got up and turned around so that his butt faced me.  Sorry, Seamus, but it's for your own good.

The vet called the following day with his creatinine levels.  They have gone down to 5.6! (Or 5.9)  This makeh me so happeh!  Of course Seamus is all, whatever.  But this means that his body is responding positively to doing subQs at 100ml three times a week.  He has also had a considerable amount of Purina adult food and chicken flavored Fancy Feast  in the last week but I don't know.  The vet still wants me to try to keep him on mostly renal diet, but again, he's being a butthead.  He ate up the Canin food the first night we had it.  Of course, in the morning, he had had enough.  I mixed the turkey broth with it but I guess that's a bit too old now and should just toss it.  I'm also worried about the protein?  I don't exactly understand the full concept of why CRF cats aren't supposed to consume too much protein....  But how much protein is in turkey stock really?  Or tuna water.  I have yet to mix the Canin with the Fancy Feast but I imagine it will be the same outcome.  Man, some people's cats will eat this stuff for breakfast and dinner but Seamus just won't budge.

So again, Seamus is improving which is awesome!  I just wish he would eat the food so it would help out his kidney function even more.  And of course since I've been feeding the Fancy Feast- even if I leave crunchies out, Seamus will still wake me up at 7am for food.  Granted, this is better than the 3am that we struggled with before so I guess I should pick my battles.

The vet also said that considering the functionality of his kidneys, his urine is in great condition.  Not entirely sure what that means or what kind of perspective she's considering, but I'll take it!  She did say, however, that he does not have any protein in his urine so, yeah, positive!

Seamus's bandage

Also, when we were at the vet, Seamus bruised after getting his blood taken so they wrapped him up with some gauze and some kind of stretchy Ace bandage type thing?  Of course he hated it and kept shaking his leg.  I wanted to get a picture of him in it but he kept his tail curled around it tightly.  Then when I got home, I didn't have the heart to leave it on him any longer.  Of course, my lazy self should have put it in the trash instead of leaving it on a plastic tote.  Because apparently it became a cat toy in the middle of the night.  And of all cats to be playing with it, it's Baby!  When he first smelled Seamus upon returning from the vet, Baby hissed at him and even growled this time.  So for him to play with the gauze/bandage seems really weird.

I don't need to take him back for another few weeks.  I'm leaving the country for 20 days starting December 31st so I'll be taking him a few days before that.  I'm really nervous about leaving him, obviously.  One, I feel guilty for other people having to take care of him.  Two, my mom and sister will be away for about 5-6 days while I'm away and it will be up to my dad to give him his fluids.  My dad has always been a very anti-cat person but I know he'll take care of my fur babies.  I still have lingering thoughts in the back of my head of him trying to hold Seamus down for the subQs and it just getting ugly and nasty.  It's also a two person job.  Oh fuckin great, now I've totally gotten myself really worried.  If I have difficulty doing it alone, how should I expect him to be able to do it?  Maybe the vet will be nice enough to do it for him for free.  Seamus can be a real stinker when he doesn't want to do things.

Anyway, after this upcoming visit, the vet said that we should be down to one vet visit a month now.  I'm sure he's relieved, I know I am.