I hate that I am writing the article like this, but since our website was offline, things had gotten delayed. Now that that is resolved, let me introduce you to Tiger.
Tiger is my eldest cat who recently turned 12. She was adopted back in 2013 along with her sister, Lily, from Project Purr. My husband and I were walking around the Mall of Louisiana and saw a cat adoption pop up and both fell in love. Lily caught his attention, Tiger caught mine, and they were both litter mates. So we couldn't leave one behind. We adopted them both together and that was the beginning of how we got started with out cat household - back when we were still normal people and had just 2 cats. They were 6 months of age when adopted them and were the biggest bundles of joy. If anyone yelled in the house or any arguing, these two would come run together meowing - mostly Lily, but Tiger would follow and copy her sister. They would get up on their back legs and basically do anything to calm you down. We learned they did not like any loud yelling - whether positive or not. So keep the football cheering to a minimum or she was ready to come calm you down!
These two grew up together and were bonded. If one went to the kitchen to eat, the other followed. They would sit and nibble each others butts and groom each other. Always together. Unfortunately in May of 2021 Lily suddenly passed away just before she had turned 9 years old which the vets think may have been a heart condition because of how quick and sudden it was.
For the past 3 years since Lily's passing we have been worried about Tiger because of how bonded she was with her sister. Thankfully, having a full house I think helped ease her grief.
Obviously as time goes on, and she gets older, health issues were going to arise. General aging, slowing down, etc. Unfortunately, though, over Labor Day weekend, Tigers health took a big decline. I woke up Saturday morning to do the morning routine of feeding all the animals when I noticed Tiger just staring blankly at the water. It wasn't a normal thing and it was just an odd stare. It's hard to describe unless you see it yourself.
Through the day she would just stare blankly. Paw and scratch at water bowls but not really drink. Pawing and scratching at water bowls and water fountains is totally out the norm for her. She has never been a paws in the water type of cat. She was very lethargic and wasn't eating. Because of Labor Day weekend, the vet was closed until Tuesday. My local emergency vet is MedVet and about 10 years ago I had a horrible experience with them as care as their bedside manner, care of my cat, etc. so I wasn't going there. From my experience they're about making money, not caring for the animal.
So I did my best giving Tiger low sodium chicken broth, Pedialyte, and water, mostly with a syringe. She would seem to have sparks of positivity, but overall would just lay down, moving pretty frequently from blanket to blanket in my bathroom, but nothing more. At times she would have a very blank stare and no response - we were fearing that was it.
Thankfully, she fought through and we made it to the vet where they did bloodwork and a fecal sample and found that she is in renal failure, or kidney failure. She is currently at the vet staying for 3 days on the IV and they will redo her bloodwork on Friday. As of now, she is still not eating. She is liking the low sodium chicken broth and drinking small amounts of water on her own, but still not looking good.
As of today, September 4th, they gave her an appetite stimulant. So far she looks INTERESTED in the food, but is not touching it. I'm trying to keep hopeful that things will improve. I asked what stage of kidney failure is she in and the nurse stated she is in stage 2, possibly early stage 3.
As I said, I hate that this is Tigers intro, but I wanted to make sure she had a place on this page as she deserves it and before it's her time to go. Tigers photo was from this morning during my morning visit. You can see the IV in one of her paws and just how thin she is. I hope in some time I can re-introduce her with better health.
Will you help us?
For anyone with pets, I'm sure you know the vet is not cheap and I know everyone is struggling. I'm currently at $622 from the vet visit and this treatment. It was $611.40, but needing the appetite stimulant added another $11 to the bill. Depending on what's next more may be added. If anyone cares to donate towards Tigers medical expenses and care, it would be greatly appreciated and mean so much to us. I can accept donations through PayPal at ashy.baby@gmail.com or CashApp/Venmo @closetsamples - just please make a note on whichever platform that it's for Tiger. No amount is too small and every bit makes a difference.
Thoughts, prayers, and well wishes mean the world as well. Thanks for taking the time to read about Tiger.
I will be posting this on my other site, closetsamples.com, for full transparency so no one thinks it's 2 different people.
Update as of September 5, 10:47am
This morning I woke up hoping we'd get some good news. Unfortunately, Tiger was still not eating. The appetite stimulant didn't seem to do much for her and she was very dehydrated. They had been starting her on the lowest dose of fluids because of her heart, but because of the dehydration it's more critical to get her the fluids at this point. She started at a 5, then upped to 8, put down to 4 over night, then back to the 8 when they had more eyes to keep a watch on her. They have now upped that to a 12, the amount they would had liked to start her at but didn't because of the heart murmer. As soon as I got the call I went in to spend some time with her and brought her some of the Chicken with extra gravy Friskies that she loves along with the collars (not to leave there, but for the duration of our visit) of her two buddies to just give that familiar scent to her. While not much, she did eat a little bit of the gravy, possibly getting in some really small chunks, on her own. She was syringe fed 10ml earlier so I was told if she ate any it may not be much. It's a small step, but the fact she had some on her own gives me a tiny spark of hope that I am holding on to that just maybe she can turn this around and bounce back. While there is no cure for kidney failure, it can be managed with medication and a special diet. But she needs to rehydrate and be able to eat on her own - especially being a senior cat.
Your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, and if you can, monetary donations, would be so helpful right now and much appreciated during this time. I will keep an update in this post if any donations are received to keep full transparency.
Update as of September 5, 5:15pm
When I went in for Tiger's evening visit I was informed she had vomited the little bit of food she had eaten. However, she was definitely more alert with me! I opened up a fresh can of her Friskies chicken with extra gravy and she ate down about half the can. Mainly gravy, but that is a huge improvement, especially for her to do on her own. That means today is the first day she ate by herself. So we need to see if she can hold it down. That and see what her blood work comes back as tomorrow as that will determine her next steps. I am feeling a bit more hopeful though. She was drinking water more normally, lapping it up with her tongue. She was more alert and aware of me. She had a more normal pur. She even licked her lips after she ate a bit! She reacted some when I scratched a spot she usually enjoys. It's small things, but grateful for them. She's a real fighter and I can tell she's trying her darnest to hang in there. Paws crossed for good news tomorrow.
Update as of September 6, 8:30 am
Tiger is coming home!! She is not out of the woods yet, however, she did hold her food down overnight and her blood work numbers are in a more normal range. The vet said she is definitely a different cat than when she first arrived. She still has diarrhea, but she is eating. She's currently only eating the Friskies, not the K/D wet food that she will need as part of her new special diet. Right now, the focus is having her eat and of course her fluids, but we do need to try and slowly transition her to that K/D diet as it is specially formulated for her condition. So I am just trying to prepare a space for her to take it easy and get everything ready to bring her home later this afternoon.
I made an Amazon wishlist for items for Tiger. I will update as needed, but currently only has stairs to help her get to the window without trying to jump and hurt herself and the Friskies she likes. Once I confirm the exact K/D food for her that she needs to be on, I will add that as well. Should you wish to help Tiger in this way, Tiger's Amazon wishlist is here.
Update as of September 6, 7:15 pm
Tiger was picked up this afternoon about 3:30pm and so far things have been going great The vets were all surprised by how well Tiger was doing when they got in this morning - a whole different cat from when she arrived on Tuesday. The vets went over the medications to give her. I have two for morning and evening then a daily IV fluid of 100 ml. I'm nervous about that, but they showed me and had me try it out. If I have trouble I can simply bring Tiger in for them to do it for me, however, that will cost extra. We also have some appetite stimulants if she should need them, BUT so far she is eating on her own without them! Which is great news.
I ordered the stairs off the Amazon wish list rather than hoping someone would get them because I feel like Tiger could really benefit from them immediately so she can get to the window she likes to look out of and give me a peace of mind. She is definitely more like her old self - although still quite the fragile old lady. She wants to try and jump places that she isn't able to do anymore so we are going to keep her confined in in the bedroom for her safety, but I'm in here 99% of the time anyway so she won't be alone. This will minimize the risk of her jumping somewhere and getting hurt.
I also added the K/D food she is eating to the list - which isn't too cheap and removed the Friskies as well since that's what she needs. So the only thing on the wishlist as of this update is her food and the bags of food I use for the other cats. Having those donated will help ease the burden of all the additional medical expenses and care - which we could really use.
With that being said, we'll go back in two weeks to check Tiger's blood work and we'll see what happens from there. Keep your well wishes coming!
Update as of September 8, 1:52 pm
I'm just writing a small entry to let everyone know Tiger is continuing to do well at home. Giving fluids at home has been working out pretty well and not as nerve-racking as I thought it would be. The first time was a bit scary, but after that, it's really not so bad. Tiger does well it and doesn't even seem phased. She has been eating her K/D diet. Not a whole lot, but roughly (1) 5.5oz can per day. She eats small portions at a time and eats about 1/2 of one of the 5.5oz K/D pate cans and 1 of the small K/D stew cans. Water drinking is minimal, but from what I understand this is normal because of the fluids she is given.
Tiger's stairs arrived yesterday evening and she loves them. She can easily get onto these and gain access to look out the window along with one of our water fountains (which seems to be the collective favorite).
I will update if there are any changes or after her next doctor appointment.
Update as of September 19, 7:53 am
Things seemed to have been improving. Tiger was being more alert and active. She was starting to get less cooperative with fluids and running to the kitchen to attempt to steal food from the other cats. About 48 hours ago though she started getting picky with her foods and not eating as much. Which we assumed was just her feeling better trying to still get to her old food. Since she's always been a hard food kitty we got a bag of the K/D hard food, which she liked on Tuesday evening. Wednesday, however, she wasn't interested in it or any of the wet food. I finally opened a different flavor of the wet food around 5pm - the tuna. She gobbled down about half the can and seemed to really enjoy the flavor. Come this morning around 2/2:30am, she threw it all up. All last night she had her "far off in another world stare" as I call it with a rougher sounding purr - the one she had when she was hospitalized. So things are currently not looking as good as they were just a few days ago. Her vet appointment is tomorrow afternoon for her follow up and blood work so we'll see how it goes from there.
Update as of September 20, 3:10 pm
Good news! We had Tiger's vet appointment and her numbers are down in her blood work. We also rechecked her liver numbers and those are now back to normal! Tiger still hasn't really eaten so we gave her an anti-nausea shot along with some medication to take as needed at home. So hopefully we'll see some improvements once that kicks in. Tiger will now only get fluids once per week rather than daily unless she seems like she isn't getting enough hydration. So unless something changes, her next vet visit will be in a month. Keep an eye out on TikTok for Tiger (and the other cats) on NolaCrazyCatLady!
Update as of September 21, 9:52 am
While the news from the vet yesterday was nice and hopeful, as of this morning Tiger still hasn't eaten. I gave her an appetite stimulant last night in hopes by this morning she would be ready to start eating. I gave her another anti-nausea pill, but so far it's not looking so good. I've offered her all the foods she generally likes, including the non-prescribed foods just to try to get her interested. Hoping something changes and just needs a little more time for the meds to kick in... will keep everyone posted.
Update as of September 22, 4:18 pm
Unfortunately, Tiger is still not eating on her own. Her eyes look a bit more glossy with big dilated pupils. I gave her about 100ml of fluid last night and then 50ml today. I have started syringe-feeding her watered down K/D wet food - 3ml every hours for the time being. Since doing this Tiger is being a bit more active. Not much, but she lays in a more natural/comfortable type position rather than laying on her side. She's also left out of the bathroom and laying on a pillow in the bedroom. She's also done some grooming and scratching - which she wasn't doing over the past few days. Also, been wiping her eyes with warm water, which seems to be helping with those a bit. Everything is really a day by day, hour by hour thing. So far she is holding the food down, which is good. It's just such an emotional roller coaster. It's hard to watch your loved one like this knowing there's little you can do. But as long as she is still fighting, we'll be right here fighting with her until she decides it's her time to rest.
Update as of September 24, 7:26 am
Some good news! After 24 hours of syringe feeding, some fluids, and providing anti-nausea and an appetite stimulant, Tiger started eating a bit on her own as of yesterday afternoon. She only wanted her original dry food, however, I was syringe feeding her a watered-down K/D meal so hopefully that helped offset that feeding. Before bed time she had some of the K/D pate topped with her Friskies gravy - think mashed potatoes and gravy but with her food. She got all the gravy and only some of the K/D but it was something.
Just waking up this morning she ate a few pieces of the hard food, but I made her the same pate/friskies mix and she willingly ate it on her own. My plan is to give another anti-nausea and appetite stimulant today to see if we can keep things going. Since Tiger is also drinking some water on her own I will be monitoring to determine if fluids would be necessary today or not.
If anyone has experience with picky cats and trying to transition them to the new diet - please share your tips! Mixing the hard food, Tiger will literally spit out the K/D and only pick out the original food. I tried blending it to make smaller pieces and powder to hopefully make a more balanced blend. She does a little nibble but still not quite happy. She's never been a big wet food eater, but liked the Friskies gravy. If I mix the Friskies into the K/D, she seems uninterested. Maybe a few licks to try and find the gravy, but then walks away. Adding the Friskies on top like gravy, she eats the gravy and may get some of the K/D, but not a lot of it. I've tried mixing her old hard food into the K/D wet food - and again, not a fan. This old girl is just stuck in her old ways. LOL. So anyone with other suggestions - please share!
Update as of October 29, 7:27 pm
I meant to update after Tigers last vet visit earlier in the month but life has been busy and I got side tracked. Tiger's blood work numbers showed she is currently 'stable' with her diagnosis. She has been sticking with the K/D hard food mixed with some gravy from her chicken pate (as the gravy softens the hard food for her). So that seems to be doing well. Tiger is otherwise seeming like a normal senior cat - just a little more fragile these days. I'm glad I have nothing to really update about. She's scheduled to be seen again in December unless anything changes. We're also planning on taking her with us this year when we go out of town to ensure she gets the care she needs. She's too picky with her eating and I honestly just don't feel right about medically boarding her. So we've talked to her vet and plan on getting some meds to calm her for the trip and just having her there with us. Otherwise, keep the well wishes coming for her - they seem to be working!
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