Bobcat update

So Bobcat has gone through quite an ordeal during her first 6 weeks in London.  She was doing great after flying over. She was eating, drinking, using her litter box and being extremely affectionate.

When I arrived, a week after Bryan and Bob, she still seemed good.  She was a bit slow but still seemed to be loving life.

Then all of a sudden, about two weeks after my arrival she went kind of nutty. It started with her falling off of a chair that she was trying to jump onto and rapidly deteriorated into her hiding in corners, starting and hissing at noises, pooping in the corner, not eating/drinking and not using her box.

She is not one for hiding under/behind stuff except for around 4th of July

We endured one night of this as she didn't seem like she needed emergency and took her to the vet in the morning.  At the Amwell vet she seemed to be acting much more normal.  While noises still startled her, she began to eat and was actually roaming around without the vocal chorus and hissing we'd witnessed the night before.  She has a known kidney insufficiency but the symptoms were not presenting like those of acute renal failure. The neurological symptoms made it seem like we might need to do an MRI to find out what was going on.  They sent us home with a "wait and see" diagnosis.  After seeming to perk up toward the evening I called the vet back and they recommended overnight observation at home.  We then endured another night of bobcat telling us how bad she felt.  We've never felt so helpless.

We took her back to the vet in the morning, ruled out the usefulness of an MRI (£3000+16 y/o broken cat = not wise idea). So I suggested doing blood-work just to make sure her kidneys hadn't stopped working.  Well thank goodness we did that! Her BUN and Creatinine were both more than 5X the high end of normal and that could easily explain the sudden onset of crazy.  Luckily though, the her serum potassium, which indicates if her kidneys can start working again, was not elevated.  The plan was 48 hours of hospitalization with lots of fluids. They also gave her an antihistamine to stimulate her appetite since she only weighed in at a mere 6.16 pounds.

Hooked up to her IV, looking grumpy.

After the first 6 hours she's seemed to be doing a bit better.  Her gaze was still watery and distracted and she wasn't interested in purring, but seemed to appreciate snuggles.

We visited her twice the next day and she had improved more.  On the third day they redrew her blood and both her BUN and Creatinine were nearly back to normal.  Both Bryan and I could get her to purr and she was eating a ton! We got to bring her home.  She was quiet and not very social.  She was eating, but not drinking and would wander around the apartment (usually while we were trying to sleep) yowling.

But she is improving each day and at her 11 day recheck she'd gain 0.45 pounds and is doing well.  We will take her back in a month to weigh her and repeat her blood work. Perhaps the most annoying relic of this ordeal is that she's pretty uninterested in personal grooming so I have to wipe her down with a damp tea towel and use a slicker brush to remove the excess hair.  But the upside to her not grooming is that she won't get anymore hairballs!

For now I am so thankful that she is feeling better.  Bobcat is a wonderful gift and we treasure having her around everyday.

Enjoying her catnip carpet yesterday

One more point of note, Amwell Veterinary is great, they were so good at making us feel included in her care plan and they seem to really care about the health of Bobcat.