Tales of the Moggy Horde or How I learned To Stop Worrying And Love Bast

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Tosca's been a sick girl. It turns out that she was the one with the diarrhea. Last night, I could barely get her to eat her soft food and she wouldn't budge at all for treats. She obviously didn't feel well.

Again this morning, she wouldn't touch soft food at all. She went straight to the box and did nasty stuff, then threw up a bit of foam. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and be left alone, which is the sign of a sick cat.

I had to get to work and spent all day worrying about her. I talked to the vet, who told me to stop giving her the Tapazole (the thyroid med) for now because it's hard on the stomach. He recommended feeding her baby food and rice, plus as much pumpkin as she will eat. There's a Whole Foods within walking distance of my office. I went there during my lunch break and picked up some jars of organic chicken and brown rice baby food.

To my relief, Tosca was up and about and looked much better this evening. As soon as I got home, I gave her a small amount of the baby food and pumpkin. She gobbled it down. Later, I gave her a lot more of it while I gave the regular soft food to Zoe and Jetta. Tosca did a good job of polishing that off as well. Fingers crossed, I think she's bounced back. Pretty resilient for a 17 year old cat.

It's Happy Arbitrary Birthday to Zoe, who was born around this time seven years ago. Such a tiny thing she was, with elfin eyes and huge ears.

Unfortunately, one of the office girls has diarrhea. I don't think it's Tosca because she already gets pumpkin in her gushy food every night, but now I'm giving pumpkin to all three of them until it's resolved.

Meanwhile, I haven't seen a lot of change in Tosca yet from the new regime. The vet said to give it two to three weeks, so we'll see.

I decided it was time for Tosca to see the vet. She's developed an almost constant swallowing-gulping thing. I thought I might have to rename her Gollum. As it turned out, it was time for her annual check-up. She saw the vet last Friday who did a full blood panel. He thought I should go ahead and give her extra food, as she's lost weight. His first recommendation, until we got the results from the bloodwork, was to use a little syringe to squirt a bit of water down her throat after I give her her pills. He thought the pills could be causing some irritation.

The vet and I played phone tag until today. He said her results look good for an old girl like her. There's some indication that she's heading toward some kidney problems. Nothing serious yet, but we may be switching her to special food. She has a light touch of anemia, which could indicate internal bleeding, maybe related to esophogal or stomach issues that could tie into the gulping. And her thyroid was on the low end, but not enough to change her dosage while we deal with the other problem.

He wants me to try her on Pepcid or Prilosec for 2-3 weeks. I picked up some Pepcid on the way home tonight. He said either brand would work and the Prilosec was way more expensive. I'm giving her half a low-dosage pill per day, and then I need to let him know after a few weeks what the results are. If that doesn't seem to do anything, we move on to other treatments.

But overall, he didn't seem too worried, and Tosca's taking it all with her usual good-natured tolerance.

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