Busy Wednesday
Came home from the vet with special kidney-diet food, vitamins, injectable medication and syringes, and bags of sub-Q fluids. So it begins...
The vet wants Dinky on kidney diet but that isn't going to happen. Fred eats it (as will almost any other cat who *doesn't* have the need for it) but Dinky--at least at the moment--isn't interested in it. Maybe that will change once the Tagament kicks in but the important thing right now is that she eats--we can worry about specially-formulated diets once she is stabilized.
I was glad for the vitamins and Dinky didn't fight the dosing like she does the Antirobe. Obviously it tastes much better and I am hoping this means that giving her a twice-daily dose won't be such an ordeal.
The injection was another matter. Maybe Dinky has extra-tough skin but I had a hard time getting the needle under her skin and of course, after a poke or two, she got fidgety and wanted to leave. I finally got the needle under her skin but as I pushed the plunger, she decided to escape me by backing up and when the dust cleared, the needle was bent at about a thirty-degree angle and Dinky was on the floor licking herself with an affronted air. I guess the medication got where it needed to be and she didn't seem sore around her shoulders but I kept imagining the needle scratching across her muscle layer as she jerked free. I am going to need to polish my technique but by Friday I will have Denny home to help and the frequency of injections will be tapering off when we start to see results (in the form of an improved appetite.) Hang in there, Dinky.
So, I waited a while for things to calm down before thinking about the sub-Q fluids. Since Dinky likes to stand or sit on my lap while I am on the computer, I thought I could give her the fluid therapy there. I got the bag out and set up, trading out the big 18-gauge needle for a smaller (and I hoped more comfortable) 24-gauge one. The only problem with a smaller needle is that the fluids flow much more slowly and after I finally got the fluids going under Dinky's tough little hide, she didn't want to hold still. So I fell back to re-group.
Obviously, she is going to have to get accustomed to getting fluids as she will be on them for the rest of her life. Equally apparent was that I would have to use the larger-gauge needle to have any hope of getting the required amount of fluids into her during the length of time I could get her to hold still. I hated the thought of poking her with that big needle and she was by then skittish of anything I wanted to do with her but it had to be done. It came down to brute force--I slipped the needle under her skin and forceably held her in place despite her efforts to wriggle free. After what seemed like along time but was only a couple minutes, I let her go. She jumped down and started licking the bulge under her skin where the fluids were. I felt the bulge and noticed how cool the area was. The bags of fluid had been sitting down in the kitchen all evening and should have been about room temperature. But I could see how uncomfortable a large amount of cool fluid would feel under one's skin and vowed that in the future I will warm the bag before fluid-time. I hope that will make it better for her, poor little thing.
I'm glad I only have to do fluids every other day.
The vet wants Dinky on kidney diet but that isn't going to happen. Fred eats it (as will almost any other cat who *doesn't* have the need for it) but Dinky--at least at the moment--isn't interested in it. Maybe that will change once the Tagament kicks in but the important thing right now is that she eats--we can worry about specially-formulated diets once she is stabilized.
I was glad for the vitamins and Dinky didn't fight the dosing like she does the Antirobe. Obviously it tastes much better and I am hoping this means that giving her a twice-daily dose won't be such an ordeal.
The injection was another matter. Maybe Dinky has extra-tough skin but I had a hard time getting the needle under her skin and of course, after a poke or two, she got fidgety and wanted to leave. I finally got the needle under her skin but as I pushed the plunger, she decided to escape me by backing up and when the dust cleared, the needle was bent at about a thirty-degree angle and Dinky was on the floor licking herself with an affronted air. I guess the medication got where it needed to be and she didn't seem sore around her shoulders but I kept imagining the needle scratching across her muscle layer as she jerked free. I am going to need to polish my technique but by Friday I will have Denny home to help and the frequency of injections will be tapering off when we start to see results (in the form of an improved appetite.) Hang in there, Dinky.
So, I waited a while for things to calm down before thinking about the sub-Q fluids. Since Dinky likes to stand or sit on my lap while I am on the computer, I thought I could give her the fluid therapy there. I got the bag out and set up, trading out the big 18-gauge needle for a smaller (and I hoped more comfortable) 24-gauge one. The only problem with a smaller needle is that the fluids flow much more slowly and after I finally got the fluids going under Dinky's tough little hide, she didn't want to hold still. So I fell back to re-group.
Obviously, she is going to have to get accustomed to getting fluids as she will be on them for the rest of her life. Equally apparent was that I would have to use the larger-gauge needle to have any hope of getting the required amount of fluids into her during the length of time I could get her to hold still. I hated the thought of poking her with that big needle and she was by then skittish of anything I wanted to do with her but it had to be done. It came down to brute force--I slipped the needle under her skin and forceably held her in place despite her efforts to wriggle free. After what seemed like along time but was only a couple minutes, I let her go. She jumped down and started licking the bulge under her skin where the fluids were. I felt the bulge and noticed how cool the area was. The bags of fluid had been sitting down in the kitchen all evening and should have been about room temperature. But I could see how uncomfortable a large amount of cool fluid would feel under one's skin and vowed that in the future I will warm the bag before fluid-time. I hope that will make it better for her, poor little thing.
I'm glad I only have to do fluids every other day.
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