Taz has been doing so well. We were disappointed to see that he was not eating as well on Sunday. We were getting used to him doing normal stuff like.... eating, being playful, and bossing the other cats and the dog around.
Last week a friend came to visit. Taz was fine while she was here. She has stayed with us before and she loves our pets.
Before she left on Saturday, Taz was on his table eating his dry food. My friend was on one side of the table and I was on the other. Taz likes to have someone watching him while he eats. If you pet and talk to him, it's even better. That's what we were doing. He stopped eating and walked over and rubbed my friend's shoulder. She said "What a sweetheart!". I was kind of surprised that he shared his good mood with her, but I was pleased. I guess it's kind of like having a child who behaves when you least expect it and it makes you proud.
On Sunday he ate just a little. We were concerned and later we noticed he was not eating at all. It was harder than usual to give him his pills that evening. He didn't swallow and when the pill melts in his mouth, it is bitter and makes him drool. That has happened before, but he gets over it and then eats or acts normal. This time he was definitely not normal. He was very listless, not interested in eating and wasn't alert as usual. We moved him back to his room where we could monitor him. After an hour or so nothing changed. In fact, he really looked sick. Since we know him so well, we decided to take him to VSH to make sure he was okay.
At VSH we turned him over to one of the emergency techs. The on-duty vet came in. We had met her before when we had treated ourselves to a night visit back in August when Taz wasn't eating and we found out he was anemic. Anyway we never really knew her name because we couldn't understand what she was saying when she told us. We recognized her though. After talking to us, she left to tend to Taz. Charlie and I discussed why we thought she was so vague when she introduced herself. We thought maybe her name is so hard to pronounce that she gets tired of telling people how to say it. And then we came up with a solution: Just say "Hi, I'm Dr. Chris or Hi, I'm Dr. Sib" (her name is Dr. Christine Sibigtroth... I got it from the discharge instructions). Charlie and I have found that we can always talk about anything when we're waiting for Taz. It helps and it's a distraction.
Taz had a blood test to check his red blood cells. That's always a concern since he was anemic before. He was intermittently breathing with his mouth open, but they said his lungs sounded normal. We declined chest x-rays. His red blood cells were stable at 28%, which was fine. One thing that Dr. Chris discovered, which we're concerned about, was what she called a focal thickening in his intestine which had not been previously reported. He had been examined by his doctor, Dr. Phillips, last week when he received chemo.
We were told to give Taz Mirtazapine, an appetite stimulant and we could try famotidine (Pepcid AC). We had both of those meds at home already and had used them before with him. Dr. also suggested that Taz's throat may be sore from the pills we have been giving him each day.
We brought Taz home and decided to wait until morning to give him the appetite stimulant, since we didn't want to give him another pill so soon. We put him to bed. I stayed with him during the night to monitor him. About 4:00 a.m. I woke up and he was drinking water, but didn't eat. He was still lathargic, but came over for me to have his face and head rubbed. Around 8:30 a.m. we gave him the Mirtazapine. I went to the dentist, leaving Charlie in charge of getting Taz to eat something. When I returned, Charlie said Taz had not eaten much, but seemed to feel a little stronger.
We also spoke to his doctor this morning and we are going to take him in on Tuesday for an ultrasound. His original appointment was for Wednesday and it was for chemo. I'm not sure he's going to be up for chemo this week. We're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping that he doesn't have another tumor in the intestines.....we'll know more after we take him in tomorrow.
Tonight he seemed to have a little more energy and he's more alert. He was eating a little more and even ate some treats. Charlie and I take turns going in and talking to him and petting him and encouraging him to eat. He was downstairs for a little while tonight.
The reason he can't stop eating is because his weight is already very low and his immune system is very weak. We don't want another upper respiratory infection or something that will further complicate his treatments.
More later........
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