Tigger’s tough two days

Well, yesterday Tig had blood drawn. Today he was imprisoned at the vet’s and they got a urine sample from him. I’m going to guess that they took it the hard way, because the vet told me that at one point, Tig let the vet examine him. That means Tig didn’t try to rip the vet’s arm off. I guess my boy is plumb wore out, as they say around some parts.

He’s got the beginning stages of renal failure. The vet said that he’s seen it in cats as young as seven, and that ten isn’t all that young for it. We don’t know why. It would be extremely expensive to find out, and would do pretty much nothing. So we’re treating the symptoms. If the treatment works, Tig could go another few years. If not, he could be gone in two weeks.

Starting today, Tig and Gracie are on a low-protein diet. Turns out they both like the new dry cat food, so yay. Gracie does not like the new wet food, but hey, she’s fat again. She doesn’t need it. Tig does.

I have not attempted to medicate him yet. I’m trying that tomorrow. I slammed my right index finger into the car door while on the drugstore trip, and decided it could wait a few more hours. I have to give Tig one pill and one liquid per day. The liquid is supposed to help him digest his food and feel a bit better. I’m hoping he’s weak enough that I can get it down the side of his throat. I have a piller, too, so we’ll see about getting the pill down. But Tig has always been a horrible patient, which is partly why I decided to give him his pill starting tomorrow. And it turns out that only one pharmacy in the area has Alternagel, a fact I found out after driving to two or three of them. We have two really great pharmacies in town. One of them carries kosher food. They didn’t have Alternagel. The other one is the best place to go for things you can’t find anywhere else. They had it. I had them put one aside for me. I’ll get it tomorrow morning.

It may be my imagination, but Tig seems to be a bit better already. I was really worried the last few days because he seemed to not want to be touched. One of our routines is my asking, “Do you want a snug?”, and he meows, which is my cue to pick him up and give him a hug/snuggle. He loves it and I get a kick out of it, too. He’s just been looking up at me blankly lately. But not yesterday. Yesterday and today, the routine returned. I know when Gracie was really sick, she didn’t want to be petted, either. But as she got better, she got more affectionate. So now that we’ve identified the problem, and have changed foods and increased his food intake, he’s feeling a bit better. But still way off. Lots of sleeping. And quietness.

On the other hand, I’m heading up to bed after I post this. And I’ll say, “Tig, let’s go to bed,” and he’ll follow me upstairs and settle down on the bed next to my pillow. I finally figured out what he’s afraid of in the bed: The spare pillow. Probably because when he wakes me up at four a.m. to pet him, I throw the spare pillow at him. Once I took it off the bed, he came back in to sleep next to me. Of course, this means he wakes me at five a.m. again, but then, I don’t sleep through the night anymore, anyway. I’m pre-menopausal and getting hot flashes. They used to hit at 6:30 a.m. (7:30 now on DST). But now they’re random and hitting me whenever. So my nighttime is: Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Hot. Cold. Meow. Hot. Cold.

Well, at least I’m getting hot flashes in the wintertime. Could be worse.

I wonder why menopause doesn’t have cold flashes? Wow, that would totally suck.

Yes, I’m tired. Off to bed. Coming, Tig?