Three Weeks Ago Today It Began

I've had a hard time getting myself to put words together about Bob's mysterious health problems. It might be due to just being tired of the worrying, the runs to VREC in Norwalk, the waiting for test results and the constant search for something Bob will eat that's NOT high fat, grain-free dry food.

Bob had his endoscopy done and the biopsies taken. The results came in just this morning. Nothing remarkable was found. The toxoplasmosis test came back negative and the results for his PLI test are pending. Bob's ALT values, which have been notoriously high for over a year, have dropped way down to 170 (from over 500, previously). I don't know what's causing the improvement. I'm grateful for it but it still makes me wonder how a cat with crappy Liver function get that to turn around? He's basically been getting IV's and not much in the way of meds until after he was released last Saturday evening, so why are things improving?

Bob continues to be on Doxy, Cerenia and Flagyl. His appetite sucks. He has waves of depression and lethargy, followed by purring, jumping up on the bed (which is very high up, so it's great he can still make it), grooming himself and will even chase after an occasional toy. He has interest in food, but I've been experimenting with different foods and most of them do not appeal to him beyond just a few test bites. I know the Doxy can give him an upset stomach and the Flagyl might be killing off his appetite as well.

Oh and by the way, Nora has become Bob's best friend. They nap together all the time. I'm really glad Bob has some feline support.

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No vomiting for five days. Cerenia is keeping his tummy stable. It stinks he can't stay on this med for a long time and I worry about when he comes off it next week. At least, for now, the only vomiting that's going on is a hairball festival led by Spencer and Nora.

I'm finally getting some sleep. At night I've been so jumpy that any time I heard retching, I'd jump out of bed and run downstairs to see if Bob was getting sick. Being on high alert was taking a big toll on me. I think that's probably why I haven't written. I'm feeling beat down. I'm also angry that after spending SEVEN thousand dollars, I have no answer for what's going on with Bob and the looming possibility that exploratory surgery will be the only way to find out. If that's the case, then I'll never know for sure. I can't put more money into this. I've already overloaded myself with debt I can't handle and honestly, it would be cruel to do to Bob. I don't think he could handle anesthesia and surgery being done to him. I'd rather just make him as comfortable as I can and give him the best food I can give him and leave it at that.

With any luck, that's all Bob needs. Just some time to rest, recover, let the meds do their thing and get some weight back on.

The big pain in my ass—what to FEED MY CATS??? I thought I had it all worked out and it took a YEAR to get there! The raw plus low fat canned was going great. They all liked it. Now the raw is too high fat, 11%. Bob needs 2% or under, though the jury is still out on whether cats with pancreatitis do better on lower fat diets. I'm so tempted to just say to heck with the whole thing and get a big bag of crappy dry food! But I won't. You know I won't do that.

Ugh.