I've been tied up with a new addition.
Brian's uncle wasn't doing well, he's had many health problems in the past ten years. Heart surgery, COVID (almost killing him), more heart problems...
Tuesday night, the fourth of April, Brian's cell phone rang. It didn't look like Uncle Steve would be with us much longer and he has an elderly cat, could we take her? Steve had been taken to the hospital the previous Saturday and it didn't look like he'd be coming home this time.
We did.
Wednesday night, Brian headed over to Steve's with a carrier and brought her home (Brian's brother and sister-in-law live next door). Once here, out of the carrier, it was obvious she had some health problems. My first inclination was kidney disease.
We had set up the bathroom for her and she was upset. I watched her closely, setting up a webcam so I could monitor what she did. She wasn't eating, she drank a small amount of water. But she just wasn't doing well. I called the vet and made an appointment for the next week. She saw the vet on the thirteenth.
The vet checked her out and she got a full blood panel. The results were devastating. The little girl also has a grade 1-2 heart murmur. The vet asked if we wanted to make an appointment for the following week for euthanasia or just call when Chloe was ready. We looked at each other and Brian told the vet "We'll call".
Well, here we are, almost two weeks later. And she's getting stronger every day. She can navigate the pet door, she's getting more familiar and less hissy with the resident cats (who are more curious than territorial). For a week she slept in the litter box, but once she realized that outdoors is an option, she's not spending so much time in the bathroom. We even took the lattice door down yesterday and I've slowly been taking out the bed we had for her, the cubby we had for her, the different bowls of food - all that's in there now is a fountain, a litter box and a small bowl of kibble.
I was trying to get video of her this morning, but the camera wasn't cooperating. Something else to deal with.
She's between sixteen and eighteen years old and she's feisty as all get out. With Steve's health situation, the loss of his wife from breast cancer this year, his arranging to move in with his daughter, who didn't respond to his calls and messages one night (five weeks after the loss of his wife), because she'd died (Brian's brother drove with Steve to his daughter's to find out why she wasn't answering), the EMTs when they took him to the hospital, Chloe being by herself and, honestly? not having the best care anyway, well, she was pretty traumatized when she came here. It's a slow process, but she's recovering.
She's getting 100ml of lactated ringers (fluids) every morning. She's getting a quarter of a famotidine (pepcid) tablet for the discomfort caused by kidney problems. She also gets half a milliliter of a 10 in 1 pet multi-vitamin each morning. Lactulose for constipation. And this afternoon, I got the okay from the vet to start giving her Renal K for her low potassium.
So, that's what's been going on at the cathouse.
Uncle Steve passed away last week.