Re: How to handle UPDATE: Owen is HOME! (p2)
Hillary & Maui said:
And who said owner stupidity - you or the vet?
Stop beating and blaming yourself. You did what you thought made sense. While we see our cats every day, we don't always realize that something is wrong and vet intervention is needed. We do have lives too and things just happen.
The point is you did realize that something was wrong, more than just needing more food and you took him to the vet. It is unfortunate that he has these problems, but you are not to blame for that. My guess is, even if you took him a week earlier, these problems may not have been present and he still would be in trouble.
There is no owner stupidity and you need to remove that thinking. It doesn't do you or Owen any good.
Oh, the vet has been very kind - he hasn't said anything like that. And I really like this vet, he listens well and he is treating Owen the cat, not just a patient with various lab values and problems. When we went to pick Owen up last night to take him to the e-clinic, he looked truly awful. I said to the vet it was the first time in this whole crisis when he just doesn't look like Owen to me. He was just laying there looking out of it and miserable. Even that morning, he was recognizably himself - he meowed and he was looking around at me and out the window as we drove to the clinic. The difference at 6pm was dramatic.
I actually whispered to Owen to ask if he wanted to keep fighting and he kind of looked away. I cannot even describe the devastation I felt. The vet totally understood what I was saying, though. He said he often asks the techs during the day how the cats are and to him their subjective evaluations are just as useful as the diagnostic tests. He also said that he feels the owners usually know when the cats are ok with continuing the fight and also when they want to stop, and he respects that. We had a pretty long conversation about what Owen's prospects are for a recovery and a good quality of life. I cried a lot. My feeling is that if there is a reasonable chance that Owen can recover from this crisis and have a good quality of life, then I want to give him every chance, and I will figure out how to afford that for him. If the prospects for recovery are poor or it would require weeks and weeks of this kind of treatment, spending his days in a cage with IVs and catheters and force feeding... I am not comfortable with that. It is too much to put him through.
The vet made it very clear that he would understand, respect and support whatever we thought was best for Owen. He does still feel that Owen has a reasonable chance of recovering and having a good quality of life, even though he did not make much progress yesterday, and that was very disappointing. He told us that probably taking him home on Wed. night with the subQ fluids set us back, kind of starting the clock over (yes, I felt bad about that too.)
Then he said, "look, the lab values were much worse on Monday when he arrived than they are now, and by Wed, they were way down and he was eating well and walking around. It might just be that he needs a few more days on the IV fluids and other meds to improve, and it's not unrealistic to think he might be back to eating and walking around again by Sunday or Monday. His phosphorus has come down a lot - about 25% which is good progress. The BUN is still high (it only went down a couple points) but it took 3 days on the IV to bring it down last time, too. There is no way to know definitively what his long term kidney function is right now, or how well he will manage on whatever function he does have over time, but he could be a lot better in a few days and be able to go home early next week. He's not feeling great right now, but he's not in pain and he is tolerating the treatment well."
That made me feel like the right thing to do is to continue through Monday to see if he can improve to the point where he is likely to be able to come home and enjoy a good quality of life. He did well at the e-clinic last night and actually pawed at his cage this morning wanting to be let out. (Can I just say how much I love the overnight tech, Jennifer, who said, "hey, he's family here now, if he wants out, he doesn't have to stay in a cage.") When we arrived, he was curled up on a cushion at her feet, looking curiously at one of the dogs who was in a cage across the room. She reported that while he wasn't eating on his own, he was doing well with the syringe feeding and had had a BM in the litterbox which he had not done in a while, so that was great news. He looked so much better to me than yesterday, not like nothing was wrong obviously, but he was recognizably Owen again.
So, at this point we are hoping that he continues to improve today, and that we have more significant improvement tomorrow. If he is not a lot better by Monday we will have hard decisions to make, but I am hoping that we have turned a corner now and won't have to think about that.
Still crossing my pas and toes for you guys 
