Last week, Tampopo was lethargic, listless, and sat on my office couch for multiple hours as in a daze, head bowed over, eyes halfway shut, the whole gamut. Went to the kind folks at Family Pet, early next morning, did blood work, her kidney numbers were off the chart (not a good sign), creatine off the charts, etc. Kidney failure with secondary obstipation – R/O underlying infection, inflammation, neoplasia ((Diagnostics/Radiographs: CBC: HCT=27.8 (30.3-52.3), WBC=29.55 (2.87-17.02), NEUT=15.64 (1.48-10.29), LYMPHS=12.10 (0.92-6.88), MONOS=1.03 (0.05-0.67), BASO= 0.76 (0.01-0.26), PLT=107 (151-600) —> Mild anemia and panleukocytosis Chemistry: Severe azotemia – BUN>130, Creat not reading, Phos=12.6 (3.1-7.5), Ca=11.7 (7.8-11.3) ))
We could have left her at the vet (and an overnight place, at a different location) for 3 days while they hooked her up to a catheter and gave her fluids, but instead decided on option B: to bring her home, give oral dosage of Enrofloxacin and 100 cc of subcutaneous fluids daily, and be a hospice for her. We had to feed her with a syringe, and though she did drink water on her own, when she could stand, I learned to administer a sub-cutaneous fluid injection daily, a basting or juicing as I called it.
She did recover a bit, enough to drag herself to her litter box to pee, but not enough to keep her with us. So this morning, we did the difficult, heart-rending task of taking her in for a final time.
Rest in peace, sweet kitty.
Pope Soaks Up Some Sun
Continue reading “Tampopo aka The Pope aka Pope-a-schmope 2001-2018 RIP”