Critter Mom
Member Since 2014
I'm sorry I've not been here for a little while. As many older members know, my health's not great at the best of times and I needed to devote what energy I had to caring for my own furchild.
It is with a leaden heart that I write to tell you that my darling Lúnasa transitioned from this realm on Thursday.
Not a sugar, Lúnasa, aka The Noodle, reached stage III CKD with quite severe anaemia (secondary to a UTI) and moderate hypertension (heading for severe) in early July 2020, shortly before her 14th birthday. Prognosis for her survival was guarded at that time, maybe a few months.
Thankfully, the Noodle responded well to her treatment and became an absolutely stellar little patient, which was a blessing for her as her regimen didn't stress her out and a huge relief for me because I had feared her obscenely high level of tortitude might mean she wouldn't allow me to help her.
My Little Miss Milky Paw let me check her blood pressure every day, and got to the stage where she would let me pill 2-3 separate meds in each sitting (gobsmacking her mama in the process, and another relief because she didn't get on well with gelcaps). She accepted all her supplements and, the keystone of all, she readily took all the oral fluids she needed to keep her little kidneys well perfused and toxins flushed from her system. (Keeping up fluid levels can be a huge issue for UK-based CKD cats where veterinary support for home administration of sub-q fluids is quite limited. Thank the kitty gods my little Noodler loved her dilute cat soup.)
We celebrated Lúnasa's 15th birthday in early August. (((Lúnasa)))
My little trooper had a dental earlier in the year where several teeth needed extraction. Following the procedure, her jaw had to be wired for a while but she sailed through it all like an absolute champion. I am so proud of her!!! Right the way through, her kidney function remained stable and her anaemia markers showed gradual improvement. Indeed, her November blood test results were really good, showing a significant increase in HCT and haemoglobin levels plus a little improvement in her creatinine levels.
Unfortunately one of the remaining teeth had no match to bite down on, her gum became inflamed and she developed a benign growth that made it a bit uncomfy for her to eat so a fortnight ago our vet removed the offending tooth.
Lúnasa was holding up well on the CKD front but a silent time bomb was lurking inside her little body. In early 2017 she developed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy secondary to hyperthyroidism. Although the hyper-T was cured through radioiodine treatment the thickening of the heart wall did not subsequently reduce.
While Lúnasa was symptom-free in spite of the HCM with a low resting respiratory rate and resting heart rate in quite an acceptable range, she had been quietly tipping over into congestive heart failure. The recent anaesthetic procedure proved too much for her and she developed a pleural effusion late last week.
The vet performed a thoracentesis to drain the fluids and put her on a low dose of furosemide (diuretic). She was more comfortable over the weekend and getting food on board, but by Tuesday she again became reluctant to eat.
In order to enable me to make a fully-informed decision the vet ran a blood biochemistry panel. The results were OK so we took the chance of increasing the diuretic dose but to no avail. While Lúnasa was comfortable for a little while, as soon as she would eat or drink anything the discomfort would return until it went down a bit. The fluids were building back up around her lungs. Her emotional heart was as strong as ever but its physical counterpart was not...
I am beyond grateful to so many members here and to Helen, the author of Tanya's Site, for all the knowledge you've shared, and the support you've given to me over many, many years. Because of that, my little Noodle lived well and happily in spite of her health issues, and only in the last few days did her quality of life diminish. My darling girl...
I found Lúnasa when she, a five-week-old kitten, had somehow become separated from her mother and was sat catatonic with fear on a shop windowsill. On Thursday afternoon, fifteen years and two months later, with our vet's help my cheeky mare, my nutjob, my floozy, my darling gorgeous girl slipped gently and peacefully into her shiny new wings, and a chunk of her mama's heart was torn to shreds.
I love you Noodle, I always will. My little singing cat...
((((((((Noodle))))))))
Mogs
.
It is with a leaden heart that I write to tell you that my darling Lúnasa transitioned from this realm on Thursday.
Not a sugar, Lúnasa, aka The Noodle, reached stage III CKD with quite severe anaemia (secondary to a UTI) and moderate hypertension (heading for severe) in early July 2020, shortly before her 14th birthday. Prognosis for her survival was guarded at that time, maybe a few months.
Thankfully, the Noodle responded well to her treatment and became an absolutely stellar little patient, which was a blessing for her as her regimen didn't stress her out and a huge relief for me because I had feared her obscenely high level of tortitude might mean she wouldn't allow me to help her.
My Little Miss Milky Paw let me check her blood pressure every day, and got to the stage where she would let me pill 2-3 separate meds in each sitting (gobsmacking her mama in the process, and another relief because she didn't get on well with gelcaps). She accepted all her supplements and, the keystone of all, she readily took all the oral fluids she needed to keep her little kidneys well perfused and toxins flushed from her system. (Keeping up fluid levels can be a huge issue for UK-based CKD cats where veterinary support for home administration of sub-q fluids is quite limited. Thank the kitty gods my little Noodler loved her dilute cat soup.)
We celebrated Lúnasa's 15th birthday in early August. (((Lúnasa)))
My little trooper had a dental earlier in the year where several teeth needed extraction. Following the procedure, her jaw had to be wired for a while but she sailed through it all like an absolute champion. I am so proud of her!!! Right the way through, her kidney function remained stable and her anaemia markers showed gradual improvement. Indeed, her November blood test results were really good, showing a significant increase in HCT and haemoglobin levels plus a little improvement in her creatinine levels.
Unfortunately one of the remaining teeth had no match to bite down on, her gum became inflamed and she developed a benign growth that made it a bit uncomfy for her to eat so a fortnight ago our vet removed the offending tooth.
Lúnasa was holding up well on the CKD front but a silent time bomb was lurking inside her little body. In early 2017 she developed hypertrophic cardiomyopathy secondary to hyperthyroidism. Although the hyper-T was cured through radioiodine treatment the thickening of the heart wall did not subsequently reduce.
While Lúnasa was symptom-free in spite of the HCM with a low resting respiratory rate and resting heart rate in quite an acceptable range, she had been quietly tipping over into congestive heart failure. The recent anaesthetic procedure proved too much for her and she developed a pleural effusion late last week.
The vet performed a thoracentesis to drain the fluids and put her on a low dose of furosemide (diuretic). She was more comfortable over the weekend and getting food on board, but by Tuesday she again became reluctant to eat.
In order to enable me to make a fully-informed decision the vet ran a blood biochemistry panel. The results were OK so we took the chance of increasing the diuretic dose but to no avail. While Lúnasa was comfortable for a little while, as soon as she would eat or drink anything the discomfort would return until it went down a bit. The fluids were building back up around her lungs. Her emotional heart was as strong as ever but its physical counterpart was not...
I am beyond grateful to so many members here and to Helen, the author of Tanya's Site, for all the knowledge you've shared, and the support you've given to me over many, many years. Because of that, my little Noodle lived well and happily in spite of her health issues, and only in the last few days did her quality of life diminish. My darling girl...
I found Lúnasa when she, a five-week-old kitten, had somehow become separated from her mother and was sat catatonic with fear on a shop windowsill. On Thursday afternoon, fifteen years and two months later, with our vet's help my cheeky mare, my nutjob, my floozy, my darling gorgeous girl slipped gently and peacefully into her shiny new wings, and a chunk of her mama's heart was torn to shreds.
I love you Noodle, I always will. My little singing cat...
((((((((Noodle))))))))
Mogs
.
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