Sick cat Kali

Here, when there have been two sick cats to take care of, it has seemed that the "healthiest" and oldest, i.e. 18-year-old Kali, has been left out a bit. Well, she isn't any more.

I woke up on Monday morning probably sometime after six. The sleep had been interrupted because the cats had vomited. Shortly after I woke up, someone threw up again. Because Tabitha was next to me on the bedside table and Kali was on the bedroom scratching post, I knew that it was Olivia who vomited.

 

It took a while to realize that despite trying, Kali can't poop and that she had been trying to poop already at night. She also frequently vomited liquid. Didn't eat or drink. The possibility of intestinal obstruction also occurred to me.

Since Kali's bum was obviously full of shit, I tried to give her Microlax in the morning, but I guess it went wrong because there was no result. In the afternoon, a new attempt, which I think was successful, but still no results. Kali was then given paraffin oil.

In the evening, Kali drank water, laid in the sink and then managed to poop a bit, a couple of pooches. A lot of cat litter stuck to its wet paws from the toilet, which was then e.g. in bed. In a panic, I tried to get the wet sand out of its paws so that she wouldn't eat the litter.

Kali was then given another dose of paraffin oil, or at least attempted. There were battle injuries, i.e. wounds. Since that time, a little protection has been introduced, e.g. gloves.

The next morning, Kali peed, but despite trying, she didn't manage to poop. She tried to eat her wet food a bit, but I still gave her Nutriplus. Or at least I tried, it was on its jaw and leg. In the afternoon she drank again and spent quality time in the sink. Afternoon food didn't interest her (and neither anyone else!), not even the cat malt treat, so another dose of Nutriplus. In the evening, she made a small poop.

The situation has stubbornly remained the same. The cat doesn't eat, only manages to poop occasionally and a little, and is in pain. So the vet was called, when it's Christmas and the long holidays are coming.

Surprises were revealed at the vet. There was nothing in the intestine (I was already afraid of a tumor), but Kali has renal insuffiency (as does her daughter Olivia). Kali received a cortisone injection and Mirataz (which is said to be out of stock in many pharmacies) to stimulate her appetite. The diagnosis of chronic kidney disease is a surprise. Kali does drink a lot, but she doesn't pee a lot like Olivia, whose kidney value (221) was better in May than Kali's now (287).

When Kali suffers from constipation and her daughter Olivia has chronic diarrhoea, so... I've been dreaming of a stool transplant.
 
So why does Kali have trouble pooping? Some claim that constipation is a symptom of kidney failure. Well, Olivia has clearly not received that memo. One possible factor is that Kali is very reluctant to eat wet food. It is offered 3 times a day. As I have stated, Kali mainly lives on Bilanx's energy snacks. And with Orijen's dry food. Even treats containing cat malt have not really been eaten by her lately. The fact is that Kali should have been given regular laxatives a long time ago, at the latest when she started rejecting cat malt treats.

Well, now the pharmacy's shopping list included e.g. PEG (a friend with long experience with chronic constipation in cats claimed that the lactulose prescribed by vet is not good because it can dry out the intestines) and cat malt. It is clear that even in the best case, Kali will need laxatives for the rest of her life. And now we should start giving it something to support the kidneys. Well, there's about a closet of them, thanks to Olivia.

Four years ago I brought Tabitha to the vet just before Christmas and she got a virus from that trip. Tabitha and Kali did not eat for five days then and had to try to keep them alive by force-feeding them. Back then, Kali was more accommodating, but now she has fought back with all its might, making trying to keep her alive very difficult. But then her health clearly deteriorated and the resistance started to be less. :(

 

We'll see if I get a Christmas miracle, that is, if Kali starts eating, or if this was it. And now we should start giving it kidney foods. Well, Kali is at that point in her life where she eats whatever she agrees to.

I found myself from the internet

It was absolutely shocking to find myself as an author on Goodreads. I've obviously been there unknowingly for a long time. So some years ago I made the mistake of publishing my short stories through Amazon, but I soon removed them from there. How could I have ended up on Goodreads when I didn't put myself there? Well, I found out now that Amazon bought Goodreads already 10 years ago, so that explains why I'm there, because it has to be some automatic thing. And I guess there's no way I can get myself out of there... Someone once claimed that everything you put on the internet stays there forever?

 

And now I would like to self-publish my writings through Books on Demand, because through them you can get your books to Finnish bookstores and libraries. But the problem is that their website is terrible and there are no answers to my questions. It seems that certain things could only be solved by publishing through them for the first time.

I was supposed to focus on editing my first novel during November, but I didn't get it done. I started to think about my collection of short stories, because I should "test" Books on Demand with something. But even though I removed my short stories from Amazon, they seem to still be hanging on Goodreads, perhaps forever.

So now I was searching my computer for my short stories and other files related to them, such as cover images, but I couldn't find those images. I thought that I must have them because I once published them on Amazon. So this is how I somehow I ended up searching for "myself" on the internet.

One of the big problems with self-publishing is precisely the cover photos, when you have to make them yourself if you want them for free. And I'm definitely not a graphic artist or visually talented. I'm not talented in writing either, but I don't let that stop me.

 

 

Nowadays, it's wonderful not to have to depend on publishers. Anyone can publish anything at their own cost or even completely free.

Poop diaries

Or a poopy diary? All of the above. 

 

 

Olivia is now constantly pooping on the floor. Due to the diarrhea medication, she has also been constipated once. One night, at first, she couldn't get anything done in the cat litter box. Then Olivia dropped the sausage on the floor with a big thump. And about an hour later, it made diarrhea on the floor. From constipation to diarrhea in a second... In any case, I haven't dared to give Olivia a new dose of diarrhea medicine, fearing constipation, only when the stool is loose again. Her butt is painful, blood has been seen once when wiping. It's starting to be pretty clear that a grain-free diet won't help Olivia's diarrhea. Only Kaopekt helps.

Olivia should now be watched every time she's awake, so she doesn't just poop on the floor. But you can't watch when you're sleeping. On three consecutive mornings, poop was found on the floor of the bedroom or the hall. On the fourth morning, I happened to be awake when Olivia was looking for a place to poop and I managed to put it in the cat litter box.

 

Yeah, I happened to be awake when I woke up at six feeling awful. My heart was beating too hard, the pains, I didn't know would I poop or vomit. I would have liked to go to the kitchen to take painkillers and other things, but I had to stay on the toilet floor because I was afraid I would throw up.

Well, one morning I cried and was close to throwing up. We woke up before five to Olivia throwing up, and there was shit on the bedroom floor. Olivia came to wipe her ass on my sheet, and someone shoved the shit he cleaned up under my nose to smell.

 

I went on the scale with Tabitha again. Tabitha's weight has stayed the same, but mine has dropped. I thought that at the end of physically heavy work, the opposite would happen. But I've started trying to gain weight, that is, to eat chips. They are cheap and high in calories.

Now that I have to go outside to get exercise, I've realized in the cold that I need a little better clothing. 8 degrees below zero and with three layers of clothes on my legs and still my legs were red after the run. Top pants would be nice, and also a longer top/down jacket. Even though the current jacket is up to the hips, it seems to let the cold air just below the waist.

Yes, it was worth ordering from the Kivuton.fi online store. I quickly needed more diarrhea medicine for Olivia. I knew that Kivuton would be a risk in that regard. They promise fast 1-3 day express delivery, but two times out of three it has taken many weeks for the order to arrive. Even now, a week later, nothing had been heard about the order, so I had to order Kaopekt from Musti ja mirri. And of course both diarrhea medicine packages came on the same day.