redbird | And another cat update

Sorry, there's not much else interesting going on, as I get over a cold (and missed a party on the weekend rather than risk infecting everyone).

The summary is that

julian_tiger is staying at the vet's for 3-5 days for IV fluids, for them to get his antibiotics into him, and so on.

He was doing quite a bit worse on Saturday, as I mentioned yesterday. We called the vet as soon as they opened this morning, and they offered us an 8:30 appointment.

He is now in acute kidney failure (last month they said "chronic"), but the vet we saw [his usual vet isn't in today] thinks they can help. They're going to give him IV fluids, injections of an antacid, the pills I hadn't been able to get him to take, and food once his appetite comes back.

If all goes well, we'll have him home in 3-5 days and can go back to doing the subcutaneous fluids, giving him the meds ourselves, and so on. It's not clear how much time we're buying him, but so far he's not in pain, so we're willing to try it.

"If all goes well" means both "if he cooperates with the treatment" and "if it helps." If he won't settle down, or won't stay settled, our vet may suggest transferring Julian to a 24/7 emergency clinic so they can keep an eye on his IV line overnight. (Apparently cats who are unhappy sometimes spin around, which kinks the IV line so the fluids don't flow.) Transferring him would be more expensive (though we'd have to call that clinic to find out how much more) as well as less convenient.

Right now there is absolutely nothing relevant I can do; I'm hoping that writing and posting this will help me focus on other things. I stopped at the exercise room on my way back from the vet's office, but only did a few things, because I needed to balance stress relief and still having a cold.

Update:The vet called

cattitude about an hour ago with good news: they got an anti-nausea drug into Julian and he perked right up and started eating. This means the prognosis is good.