Gracie update 13

Minor setback today. She seemed nauseous again, and would pick up a piece of food but spit it out, or hang with her nose in the food dish and not eat.

She has lost a lot of weight—at least a pound. Granted, she had the weight to lose, but still—she’s getting bony. I’m going to wait a while and then give her more Nutri-Cal and try to get her to eat. The drugs shouldn’t take that long to take effect. I’m waiting for the best effect of the steroid—it makes her hungry.

I think we have to do the biopsy, but I am still extremely reluctant to go back in surgically. I may call around to other vets and price an endoscopy with them, and find out how much recovery time she will need from it. I don’t see the point in having my vet do it if they can’t get the needed tissue without going in surgically after trying the endoscopy. I have less faith in my vet than I had two weeks ago. Not the one that’s treating my cat—her, I like. Her biggest handicap is that she’s only a couple of years out of vet school. Her senior partners are much more at fault, in my opinion, for not making sure she took the biopsy. It’s a beginner’s mistake, but not a mistake an experienced vet should have made.

In any case, we’re treating Gracie empirically at the moment, and it seems to be working. She isn’t vomiting, she’s not lying all hunched up in one place all day, and she’s not miserable. She goes up and down the stairs, in and out of my bed, lies in the window when it’s sunny, and does what she wants, mostly. We just need to get rid of this nausea and bad stomach. And believe me, I know how she feels. I’ve had stress-related stomach problems my entire adult life.

She headed straight to the food dish when she got home, but didn’t eat. I think I’ll see if we can convince her otherwise.