Spooker Bounces Back


A few weeks ago, I honestly thought the next post about Spooker here would be her obituary.
A bit of background - she is our oldest kitty; she'll be nineteen this coming Mother's Day.  If you're not familiar with her, you can read more about her by clicking here.
She was diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure two years ago, and was given about two months to live by the vet who gave the diagnosis.  We've switched vets since then and our current vet says that with her overall health, she could live for several years.  This latest diagnosis was after she'd been on Renavast for about a year.  She's now on probiotics that we get from 1-800-PetMeds, and for over a year was very stable and her health was steady.  You can click here to see the probiotics that we use.
Then, right around New Years Eve, she suddenly stopped eating and was cold and wanted to hide.  She also had stopped grooming herself, and was looking ragged, and occasionally needed a wipe down below, and one day we had to cut off a big dingleberry.  She meowed loudly when I would try and touch her, and I really thought that her time had come to move on to the Bridge.  We plugged in  her heated bed for her, and tried to make her as comfortable as possible.
However, she was still using her litter box on her own and still drinking water regularly.  When she stopped eating even treats, we had a discussion about what we should do, ethically for her.  We didn't want to see our old girl suffer in any way, but weren't ready to give up on her, either.  Since she still drinking water on her own and able to get up and around, we decided to try syringe feeding her for a few days to see what happened.  To say she did NOT like the syringe feeding is to put it mildly, but I'm pretty good at squirting thinned-out stinky goodness down a cat's throat once I could get the syringe between her clenched teeth.
After three days of this, I told her, if you want me to stop, you're going to have to start eating on your own again!  That evening, she ate half a Temptation, and the next day, three on her own!  Who knew you could cry Happy Tears from someone eating Temptations?
Since then, she has started eating regularly on her own again, and has gotten stronger.  She never stopped using the litter box, and drinks a lot - which I guess is common for some kitties with CRF.  She had mostly stabilized, but I could tell she'd lost weight, and had no interest in grooming herself anymore, so she had that aged, unkempt kitty look.  Over the last few days, we could tell that her strength had returned more because every time either of us entered the bedroom, she would get off her heated bed, which is between our pillows and the bedroom wall, and march down to the foot of the bed to demand Temptations.  We couldn't refuse her, so we had to start keeping a secret stash (away from the other Purries) just for her, and giving her one every time she asked.  After one Temptation, she usually used her stairs to go down to her own special water bowl in our bathroom and drink water, so we knew she was staying hydrated.  I was brushing her, and checking out her hind area to see if it needed a cleanup, but she really had no interest in grooming herself.  Until last night in the middle of the night, I heard lick lick lick - now, sometimes the crazy old girl will lick the bedroom wall, so that's what I thought it was at first, until I saw by the light of the night light that she had her hind leg up in the yoga position and was cleaning herself down there.  This morning, she was doing her typical over-grooming of the tip of her tail.  She's a crazy old girl, but I love her so.  And am so thrilled that she'd decided she has one more of her nine lives yet to spend with us.
Her iDaddy left yesterday for school in London again, and this time he'll be gone for six months.  When he left and said good-bye to her, I wondered if it would be the last time he'd see her.  But with her grooming of herself last night and this morning, I am much more hopeful that she will stick around til June, to beg her iDaddy for treats again!

Mo and The Purries

19 comments :

  1. Bless her little heart. It is hard to get to be that old. Jenny will be 19 in March, and she has stopped grooming period. But she is still eating and drinking a ton of water, she also has renal failure, and is hyperthyroid as well. So, let's hope the 2 old girls keep kicking up the Temptations daily! Jenny likes her treats as well.

    Luf, Us and Maw

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  2. Oh goodness. WE are glad she is improving and certainly will be praying for her to keep improving and be with you for a long time.

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  3. We are so glad to hear that she doing better. It's so hard to watch and they can't tell you what is going on. We hope that she's got many more months of special temptation treats!

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  4. I'm glad Spooker's doing so much better. They seem to have good times and bad times as they age. Rusty got really bad with grooming himself the last year of his life, and he was a long-haired kitty. He didn't much care for me grooming him either. While he didn't have CRF, he just had old kitty disease, he was 3 months shy of 20 when he ran off to the bridge.

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  5. Oh, that is good news. She sounds like a character.

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  6. That is so wonderful and she is such a sweetie!

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  7. So happy she's feeling stronger! So very, VERY happy!!! Purrs all around. purrs

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  8. I have two with CRF - Chica is 21 and Yoko is 19. Both have had ups and downs since their diagnosis. I am giving daily subcutaneous fluids to both and that seems to be what is keeping them going. They are also on Renavast and to keep their immune system boosted Transfer Factor Plus and for their stomach acid slippery elm and aloe vera juice. Does Spooker get fluids often? Everyone has to find the right combination of treatments for their cats. Purring for Spooker to have lots more years. Chica has had CRF for going on 7 years.

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  9. Dear little kitty :)
    We will send purrs to help her get her strength back.
    We purr she has many days (months) yet!!
    Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
    Treasure,Tiger, JJ and Julie

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  10. Way to go, Spooker! Glad to hear you are doing better.

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  11. I am so happy to know that Spooker is doing better! It is scary when a kitty gets to that point. Paws crossed that she continues to improve for a long time to come.

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  12. Go Spooker! We're purring for a happy reunion with your iDaddy in 6 months!!
    The Florida Furkids

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  13. It is so hard when they get older.....it is kind of a roller coaster, but we are purring and have our paws crossed you have much more quality time together. :)

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  14. This is such wonderful heartwarming news. We know how difficult it can be when a cat gets older as mom's heart-cat beloved Siamese lived to be almost 20 years old. It sounds like you are doing a wonderful job helping Spooker in her senior years. We love you guys. PURRS. xx

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  15. PS: That is a beautiful pic of Spooker. xx

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  16. Fantastic! Way to go, Spooker! We will purr and pray that her good health continues.

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  17. Really great news that you are doing well old gal! We will send plenty of purrs to keep eating and grooming and being a wonderful cat!

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