Dumont is critically ill

The hardest, the very hardest, part of loving animals is losing them. Facing losing them isn't exactly a barrel of laughs either and today - for the second time in less than a year we are faced with the possibility of losing Dumont before we are ready.

In Novemeber of last year he had a mass removed from his tummy - we thought it might be a mammary tumour but it turned out to be a tumour dogs get and cats don't (usually!). He was thin and elderly looking but post surgery rallied dramatically - gaining weight and feeling great.. he looked like a cat half his age (he's 18).

He came down to Prince Edward county for the summer and throughly enjoyed the views of birds and a new place to explore with his buddies.. he thrived...

fast forward to yesterday when I had a good look at him and realized that he was suddenly back to looking elderly ..and he was dehydrated..first available appointment you can bet we were at Dr Au's clinic ...

blood results just came in - kidney failure - HUGE dramatic kidney failure in less than six months..

our choices? do nothing, put him on agressive antibiotics and iv fluids, put him on sub q fluids and oral antibiotics

he'll hate any of them .. and so we will...

betting my dreams aren't happy tonight

Kali cat and her transfusion

Kali had a blood transfusion on Monday - her red blood cell count had dropped to truly alarming levels (6 instead of 24 or more). The miracle worker Dr Au wasn't sure how Kali was walking let alone eating, playing and behaving much as she has for the last year and a half. We had discussed the possibility of a transfusion nearly a year ago (when the blood value was 11) but she was so bright it didn't seem essential.

The transfusion was tough - finding a donor was harder then it should have been - and the amount of blood that had to come out of Kali before anything went back in was scary too. Luckily dear Sherbert ended up being a match and snoozed through having nearly 50 ml of blood drawn. Kali only got about 25 mls of blood as there were some clotting issues but even just that amount of blood seemed to make her feel better. We'll see what tomorrow holds but tonight was a good night!

Siam One and Siam Two

Two terrifed siamese cats are in foster care - they had been abandoned in an apartment - and were so scared in the shelter staff didn't even sex them - let alone age them!
Turns out they are only about 7 months old and very very sweet - so pretty and so so scared...
They are at the vets tonight waiting for their spay, nueter (and hernia repair) surgeries tomorrow - poor guys are terrified - I HATE leaving animals at the vets but have an early morning meeting tomorrow so thought it would be best to get them there in time

I'll make sure I get them tomorrow night - hopefully they'll forgive me fast ..

gotta think of "real" names soon too