Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written much here, hasn’t it? But it’s been a busy year, so I’ll try to write a bit about what’s been going on.
Let’s start with the cats.
Last November we noticed Edison was licking his nether regions and looking pretty uncomfortable. A trip to the vet later he was diagnosed as having crystals in his bladder, which resulted in him – and consequently his brothers as well – being put on urinary food. Fortunately the switch was pretty smooth, and everyone likes the food well enough (which is good because it’s prescription and thus more expensive than their previous food). I am a little bummed that I can’t mix in some oral care kibble as I think that really helped keep their teeth in good shape, but apparently keeping his food pretty pure is the key to controlling the crystals. He still gets a little chicken and wet food as a treat, but otherwise this is their food now.
Then in April Jackson had a couple of problems: First he started peeing in some unusual locations, which led to a vet trip where he was diagnosed with a bladder infection. This was easy to treat – he got a shot of antibiotics – but the vet was more concerned with his weight loss. He’d been a big cat – 16 pounds at his peak – but he’d lost over 4 pounds.
A few days later we noticed he was limping, too, which I think was from getting startled when I stopped on Simon’s paw and jumping down awkwardly from where he was sleeping. This turned out to be not serious, but he did get worked over about his weight loss. Eventually it seemed that it probably wasn’t the big C, but was most likely irritable bowel syndrome. The treatment for this is a B-12 shot every week for 2 months, then backing off to once a month, and a steroid pill every evening. Additionally he’s getting a probiotic every night mixed with some wet food.
Superficially the results of this have been okay: The big plus is that he had been throwing up 2-to-3 times a week for quite a few months, and that has now basically stopped. But he hasn’t really gained the weight back, and he’s lost some muscle mass and has slowed down a lot. He does love getting the wet food, though, and his new favorite treat is whipped cream. He’s going to be 14 in the fall, and he seems like he’s aging early, but hopefully he has a few good years left.
Finally last month Edison started throwing up over the weekend. He is super-pathetic when he throws up, walking around meowing pitifully until he does. He got another vet trip, but the best they could figure is that he had some inflammation in his stomach. They have him a shot of an anti-nausea drug. He had one more hork a few days later and has been fine since. My best guess is that he either had a little too much chicken, or he ate something that didn’t agree with him.
So this has definitely been more cat excitement of the negative kind than we’d wanted this year. If there’s a positive, it’s that Jackson has been less antagonistic towards the dog, so there’s been a little less barking. But I do wish he could bounce back just a little more. He’s going in for another check-up in a week or so and we’ll see what the tests say then.
Simon has been our little feline rock through all of this, snuggling with Jackson and trotting around the house meowing his little head off as he plays by himself. He and Edison still mix it up from time to time. Simon is a little roly-poly guy with big lovable eyes, only not so little since I think he weighs more than either of the other two now.
Domino, the aforementioned dog, has been doing well too. We’ve had him for almost four years, and he’s settled into a routine of walking, sleeping, and playing. A year ago we replaced our back porch with one with a roof, and he enjoyed being able to sit outside in the winter even while it was raining. I recently discovered that throwing a ball onto the roof and letting it roll off is a great game which engages his body and his mind. It would be nice if his prey drive didn’t kick in when he saw the cats, but at this point he is what he is.
