5/8 Meowzi AMPS 157, PMPS 149 ... Longtimer

[WCF and Meowzi]

Previous condo

WCR: bright-eyed and perky-eared purry furry she's been spending a lot of time outside on the porch in the evenings after we get home from tbp, and i think the fresh air and sunshine has lifted her spirits. but somehow she doesn't think 60-90 minutes every evening is enough; she demands to go out again after dark (not a chance!) and just the other day, she gave me a real work-out by hopping down the stairs in the morning as we were leaving for work - i had to pick her up and take her back upstairs FOUR times before i just had to shut the door and walk away with her staring at the door on the other side. (i felt really guilty all day!) she's been staking out the stairs now when she thinks there's a chance we could be opening the door, so much so that i've taken to running down the stairs with my shoes in hand, slamming the door shut and then putting on my shoes outside the door :roll:

she's gotten a little feisty about syringe-feeding this week. daddybean had a more extensive sinus surgery on thursday, and isn't allowed to bend over to feed her for 2-3 weeks, so we've had to feed her on the table with me holding her. and she knows i'm a pushover, so she's been acting out a little. we're still getting her food in, just takes longer and i have to hug her really tight.

re: food, we have also started leaving out little 1/2 oz snacks daily, and to our delight, she sometimes eats them. so far, the healthy indulgence chicken, crab and herring in savory sauce has gotten :thumbup :thumbup :thumbup and the chicken, duck and shrimp recipe in creamy sauce has gotten :thumbup. the rx renal food has gotten :thumbup too. friskies sp diet turkey and giblets has gotten :-Q and we don't know why. she had been eating this for over a year. either she prefers a little variety now, or friskies has changed something.

o/t: bean is getting used to the new OTU mini that's replaced the poor nuked OTU meter. still miss the OTU. i've come close to having a couple of mini heart attacks b/c the OTU mini gave some really bizarre upside-down readings when i had no idea it was not the right side up. i'd love to get the original meter again but i'm not sure if it's even available on the market anymore; k-mart doesn't carry it (that's where we'd bought it) and a couple of websites i've checked only have the OTU2 and OTU smart. oh well. the readings are very, very consistent between the OTU mini and the OTU smart, and i know from past experience that the OTU smart and original OTU are very consistent too, so it's been a pretty smooth transition. as long as i keep the meter right-side up after the strip fills, that is. ohmygod_smile

 

[WCF and Meowzi]

the following is my response to jojo's post in our condo last week. i've fb pm'ed her, but am pasting it here for continuity:

"[BTW, it does look like her hepatic cyst may really be interfering with her appetite. I tried offering her different foods this last five days - small snacks of rx renal (is low carb, and she likes it) and Healthy Indulgence (low carb too, the herring, crab and chicken in gravy flavour), and she ate both quite enthusiastically, but always stopped and walked away after eating 3/8 oz. Which makes me wonder if that's all it takes for her to start feeling full (as opposed to being physically full) because the cyst is pressing against her stomach, if that makes any sense.]"

hmm..hello? hey, i know i've said that numerous times in past! there is only so much room inside a kitty and her stomach has no expansion room, the liver cyst is in the way. and u/s report kinda contradicts itself by saying that cyst not invading stomach space and then lower down report in summery saying that stomach may be caudally displaced by the cyst. displaced very much means in it's space so much that it is pushing it out of it's normal position.

yes, you've been saying it for almost the entire last one year :Þ but it's been so hard to tell with her, it could have been her yucky renal values too. i know yours eat like there's no tomorrow, but i've seen inappetant kitties on lower renal values than hers on the CRF list. the radiologist wouldn't commit - he said it was inconclusive whether her inappetance was indeed caused by the cyst - that's probably the reason for the inconsistency you picked up in the u/s report on whether it's invading stomach space or not. with this latest snack experiment, i think we can reasonably conclude that the cyst, if it's not the primary factor, is at least one of the factors in her inappetance.

100% agree on all counts, with the weight loss plan (every 2 weeks i like better than every week, k?), and the switches in meds that have been done and are in works, all good stuff...which the video proves.

okie, every two weeks. or longer. one additional benefit to reducing her food intake, even by these little amounts, is she'll have even less phosphorus to burden her kidneys with.

gee, is she always down on hocks now 100% of time? last video i saw of her in motion she was only down sometimes and one leg more than other, looks bilateral evenly now. and watching video again just now, oh yeah (shhh don't tell her i said this okay? even if she is deaf) she has plenty of easy weight to lose.

hmm. i don't think it's bilaterally even. i'll try to get a more recent video - that one wasn't a good one to look at for hocks. there are a couple on even surfaces where you can see, the right hind leg is flat on hock now, but left one isn't. i'm not sure if my chair 'accident' with her a few months back has done any damage.

she can probably afford to lose up to 3 lbs, but we won't be pushing that hard. losing 1 lb will bring her back to post-mastectomies weight (it was the mirtz that made her gain it all back!), and then we'll re-evaluate. i'm thinking it's going to be hard to balance her nutritional needs (as opposed to calorie needs) once we go below 2 oz of food a day, and i'm not keen to do that without some guidance from dr. lisa. one more thing, she's never been successful at losing weight (just like her mommy bean!). she was on science diet m/d for weight management for a whole year (back in the dark ages) before her FD diagnosis, but she never even finished 1/2 cup of dreaded kibble a day and her weight never budged. i remember dr B sighing when we took her in for re-weights.

i didn't know you where only syringe feeding now, what happened? time wise it is easier to do that than spend hours trying to coax her to eat? understandable for sure. just lucky she is so good about it. *shudders to think of the day i might have to do that to settles*

time and stress and cost. the beans were exhausted from taking turns staying up past midnight to get enough food into her; in the evenings we start at 6:30 pm, an hr after her denosyl/renal essentials/azodyl and amlodipine, and try to coax through the entire night. and we were getting in to work late every day b/c she wouldn't finish her breakfast, which is not good b/c we know she won't eat even when if she drops too low while we're away. and there's the cost of throwing out food that she would not eat - fo$renol is very expensive stuff. one nice thing about syringe-feeding is we have been able to be very liberal with fish oil now - she's getting twice what she was getting before.

since i won't see answer here tomorrow, can you FB PM me about the "Subcutaneous gas in the interscapular region"? guessing maybe s/he was just seeing her SQuids, right? nothing to worry about?

i'll send you link to d/l her rads. jess took a peek too but didn't see the s/q gas; she also didn't see anything worrisome.

 

[Cheryl and Winnie]

Howdy ! Bright eyed, perky, feisty, --- these all sound like good adjectives to me !
(and throw in the eating some on her own that gets a big gold star for HRH )

I *might* have an old original OTU meter that needs a new battery. want me to look for it? shouldn't be too buried. lol

hope DH heals fast w/o any complications.

 

[kate and lucky]

Awwww the beautiful Meowzi :mrgreen:

You guys are awesome what lengths you go to to make sure she eats.

Not a new BF in the neighbourhood is there? ;-)

Quite a little picture of you pegging it down the stairs with shoes in hand-just mind you don't come a cropper. Maybe Meowzi thinks she's helping with your weight loss? :lol:

Hope DH heals well.

Have a good day :mrgreen:

 

[Linda and Bear Man]

I like this perky, feisty, hungry Meowzi report! Thanks for all the info you sent me.

 

[Dyana]

FYI,
I got my first OTU free with a rebate, and the company replaced that one with a OTU Smart, and when that one went caput after about a year, I called and they sent me out a new one (in one day (I don't know how they do that from CA to NJ)) and that new one was bad, so they sent me out another replacement (in one day!!, again). They were all free.

I'm glad Meowzi is getting her fresh air and loving it. Good luck training her to stay at the top of the stairs. I sometimes have to close the door in J.D.'s face when I leave for tbp, and it hurts me, too.

Have a Great Mother's Day! You deserve it.

 

[Pat+Raja+Shadow (GA)]

Ah...the racing down the stairs trick! :lol: Shadow loves to do that. He will take the opportunity when the door is opened by an inexperienced person (mostly my DSIL and DBIL when they are in residence here in Fl for a couple of months twice a year!) They open the door and Shadow uses the moment to escape! There are times when we have people over when he stands in the middle of the departing group...trying to "blend" in line to go out the door.
We are onto his tricks though! The little black kitty in the middle of the group...what, are we stupid Shadow? No! :lol:

Raja loves hanging out on the terrace though...but has taken to jumping the little fence we rigged to keep her inside. They are crafty alright! You always have to be one step ahead of them! Meowzi sounds as if she is doing very well! I know it's thanks to you and your DH and all the special care you give her. She is a lucky kitty! Hope DH heals quickly...and thanks for your wonderful post! Happy Mother's Day to you!! :YMHUG:

 

[joyce-tuscany(GA)]

I have visions of you sneaking down the stairs, shoes in hand. Back to the teenage days of sneaking out on the parents! Glad to hear Meowzi is doing well and eating some on her own.