putyourdukesup
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i first of all want to say thank you to everyone that donated money to us. seriously, even people we didn’t know were helping us and that is just fantastic and amazing and sort of beyond belief. we owe you one, and we won’t forget your generosity.
i thought i would offer a callie update.
we didn’t have enough money to keep her in the ER for another day, but we did have enough to keep her in a bit longer, have a blood panel done to tell us her progress, and to buy her medication and a supply of wet food, which she needs to eat to help keep her hydrated.
we brought her home this afternoon. her condition is still not ideal, not even close, and its not the ideal situation to have her home just now, but its something we can work with. They measure renal (kidney) failure by checking her creatine levels in her blood. I have no idea what creatine is, I just know that if its high, the kidneys are fucking up. its supposed to be around 1.06, or something like that. when we first brought her into the ER, it was at 11.5. This means her kidney’s were functioning less than 10%. she was really close to death. Today, it was at 8. Thats improvement, which means she most likely didn’t eat anti freeze (which is a blessing), but thats still only about 10-15% kidney functionality. They gave us giant IV bags that will will administer every evening to her under the skin. Its kind of scary, actually. We bunch up the scruff of her neck, inject her with a giant needle, and let 200ml of fluid drip in. We do this every night for who knows how long. We’re also giving her pain medication, antibiotics, and, if she needs it, pepcid ac for nausea every 12 hours.
we take her back to the vet next thursday (literally 24 hours before our big move) for another blood panel, to check her progress. we will probably need to get more fluid and medication at this time. then, restocked, we should be okay for about a week or so in portland, so we need to find a vet up there asap. (do you know a good one, portland folks?) we’ll need to continue blood tests for some weeks, possibly months. kidney’s have the ability to completely heal, but sometimes they don’t. she could recover 100%, or she could end up with life long kidney disease. we’re hoping for the former. according to our vet, as kidneys heal, they can flush them out to bring the creatine levels down quickly. then, at a certain point, flushing won’t help anymore and its essentially up to her body to do the rest. generally, they want to keep the cat in the clinic until it’s reached this point, but again, that can take some time and we can’t afford it.
on the plus side, she is eating and drinking like crazy. a lot of her discomfort was because kidney infections are really painful. the pain meds, which are a morphine derivative, take care of that, so she has returned to herself a little bit, but she’s also kind of in a haze because of them. she’s being super weird, just sitting in the middle of the room looking around, restlessly. but in general, her personality is coming through. we’re sitting outside in the backyard together in the sun, which is her favorite thing. i’d rather be taking a nap, this whole saga is exhausting, but i don’t want to leave her outside by herself. she most likely ate something toxic and we have no idea what. not that she seems up to roaming around, but still. she seems happy laying in the sun, she keeps breathing deeply and stretching her toes, the sun is her favorite thing in the world, so i’ll sit with her.
overall, i feel pretty optimistic about her recovery and, because she is responding well, and eating and drinking, the vet seemed pretty optimistic as well. but we are far from finished. this could be a false hope because of the flushing, only time will tell. we will continue to keep you updated, so many of you are personally invested in the matter now.
but again, thank you all. our kitty has pain meds, and IV fluids, and lots of wet food, a blood test, and an appointment for a follow up, things we couldn’t have covered if it hadn’t been for your help. your help quite literally saved her life.
she thanks you and so do we.
- notesurl
Tattooed, music enthusiast, feminist, mix tape maker extraordinaire, Portland dweller, lady adorer, healthy body image advocate, herbalism enthusiast, guerilla gardening and self-care, knitter, ex-skateboarder, urban farming, pup walker, atheist, introvert, zinester, dykey writer lady. With cats.
