cellio | Entries tagged with cats: embla

Embla was diagnosed with kidney disease two years ago and it was holding more-or-less steady with treatment, until about a week ago. She went into the hospital Monday and came home Friday weak but apparently past the worst of it. She was aware and affectionate and she picked at food. Last night she didn't move around much but this morning I found her in a corner in the basement (crying a little), so she'd been up and about during the night. This morning she wouldn't eat but she otherwise seemed unchanged. When I returned from Shabbat services, though, she was much worse. Giving her fluids and medicines didn't help so I called the vet's office (couldn't reach my own vet but got the on-call one). I described her symptoms and the vet told me what I already suspected. Sigh. I really thought when I brought her home yesterday that we had more time. Story of my life, lately.

Embla came to me as a stray 14 years ago so we don't know how old she was (at least 16). She was always skittish (perhaps convinced that there were ghosts or gremlins or something in the house), but she mellowed out as she got older and particularly after we solved her hyperthyroid problem four years ago. She was never a lap cat but she was happy to snuggle next to me on the bed or couch. In recent months she even stopped fighting when I held her. She had a cute little chirp where a meow would normally be. She was a sweet kitty.

( vet visit )

( cat stuff )

( cat stats )

( blood-test results )

Tonight was check-up night for the cats.( Read more... )

( blah blah blah cats blah blah )

Tonight I took the gang in for scheduled maintenance. ( Read more... )

My vet thought that Baldur looks much younger than he is, so when one of the techs came in to help with vaccines and blood draws, the vet asked her to estimate his age. The tech used to work at an animal shelter, so she said she's done this a lot. She then said "6 or 7", and was boggled when we said 15. These are my first cats so I don't really have expectations about what an old cat looks like; Erik does look older than Baldur to me, but I think that's due to being underweight and moving a little slowly.

(I sent this via email a couple hours ago but it hasn't made it. If it shows up later, sorry 'bout that and try to ignore it, ok?)

My vet called today with Embla's test results. Her T4 (the thyroid number) is 1.9, which is pretty much right in the middle of the normal range. (All other results were normal too.) When Embla was diagnosed her T4 was 70; my vet had said she didn't know they went that high, and RadioCat told me she might need a second treatment. But now, I think we can safely say that RadioCat cured Embla's hyperthyroidism in one treatment. Yay!

Embla went to the vet tonight for scheduled maintenance... err, her three-month checkup after being treated for hyperthyroidism. I won't have the test results for a few days, but my vet said she would be very surprised if things are not normal. The folks at RadioCat had said that it was possible Embla would need a second treatment, because her numbers were off the scale.

While on the drugs in June Embla weighed 7lbs 14oz. After being off the drugs for a week (test requirement) in August, she was down to 7lbs 1oz. RadioCat did not weigh her on treatment day, but it was probably comparable. Tonight she weighed 9 pounds (even). She hasn't weighed that much for three years! So that's a good sign. Her heart rate was 160, which is very good.

Embla was not, however, happy to be at the vet's:

( photographic evidence )

Embla is home from her stay with RadioCat, where she was treated for hyperthyroidism. She was described by their staff as "shy but not cowering". She certainly seems happy to be home. (She's not yet eating as much as normal, but they said that might happen.)

She does not glow in the dark, nor has she shown superpowers yet. Remind me, how long does that canonically take, e.g. for Spiderman? :-)

One of the feline residents seems put out by the new (temporary) litter, but we seem to be getting that under control. It turns out that the stuff RadioCat gave me and the bag I bought last week -- of, allegedly, the same stuff -- have different textures, one more acceptable to our mystery cat than the other. (I assume that if Embla were the problem, she would have had the problem there too and they would have mentioned it.)

I wonder if there is a safe way to get box contents into the sewer system without going through my house plumbing. I assume storm drains are a different feed that don't go through sewage treatment, so probably not. But even with nominally-flushable litter, I'm a little nervous about our creaky old pipes.

The carrier (which I had to leave there for the duration) came home with a tag on it with Embla's name and a picture (clip art?) of a tortiose-shell cat. Cute. I guess they have a library of clip art, but it makes me speculate about challenging them with unusual-looking cats. :-) (There was also a toy mouse stapled to the tag, in which she has shown no interest.)

Embla has an appointment with Radiocat next month to treat her hyperthyroid condition. She had her baseline tests this week, for which she was required to be off of the medications for one week.

This was her first vet visit since we made a minor change to her medicine in June, so it's not properly grounded, but we do the best we can. (There was no medical need to get her tested right before going off the meds, and the test is expensive enough that my own curiosity wasn't enough of a reason.) In June her T4 was 0.5 (normal is 1 to 4) and her weight was 7lbs 14oz. The vet adjusted her medicine slightly (overshot on the T4), dropping her from 2 tablets a day to 1.5.

I knew that being off the meds for even just a week would make a difference. How much of one, I wasn't sure.

Monday she weighed 7lbs 1oz (!) and her T4 was 21.6. The vet who called with the results said "I think she's an excellent candidate for Radiocat". Yeah, you don't say. :-)

(The pre-screen included other blood tests and a chest X-ray (not sure why on that). Everything there was as expected.)

I was recently asked to participate in a consumer focus group, and they had some questions up front. In the "oh, they so do not understand" category, they asked: "With about how many friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and family members do you communicate (via conversation, phone, email, etc.) on non-work-related topics on a regular basis, i.e. at least once a month?" The options were: <5; 5-9; 10-19; 20-29; 30-40; >40. At least once a month, and they top out at 40? 400 would be closer to the truth...

My article on building a yurt showed up on MetaFilter recently. That's kind of neat, though surprising. (I'm glad someone pointed it out to me; I wouldn't have known otherwise.) I feel like there must be better articles out there than mine, though I haven't gone looking lately.

At my vet's suggestion I called RadioCat to talk about treating Embla. We might be able to solve her hyper-thyroid problem permanently in the next couple months, which is faster than I had expected. My vet needs to send them some test results before they can talk to me more. (It would sure be convenient if the time she needs to be off the drugs coincided with Pennsic -- it would make the cat-sitting easier!)

This Despair-style poster for procrastination made me laugh out loud.

osewalrus posted a link to this "JPhone" video, which also made me laugh.

CBS relented and renewed Jericho. Yay! This is a good show that, like other serials, was hurt by a mid-season hiatus. I don't understand why 24 seems to be the only prime-time show whose producers get this: run your show straight through if it's a continuing story.

A school refused to give diplomas to students for whom people cheered at graduation. They have since rescinded this decision. The whole thing has me asking WTF? How does it make sense to punish the students, who were not the ones violating the decorum of the event? Heck, given the rivalries that high schools tend to, did anyone consider that the cheering might have been a hostile move (to get the diplomas held back)?

This made me laugh out loud: "Ubuntu" is an ancient african word. It means "I can't configure debian." --zeylisse on slashdot.org, repeated by

brokengoose.

What does your cat do all day while you're away? Try a cat cam. I want one. No, three. Ok, two; I only need so many pictures taken by a sleeping Baldur.

Speaking of cats, I got Embla's test results last night. We've done too good a job on treating the hyperthyroidism. Her T4 this week was 0.5 (down from 5.6 two months ago and 70 (!) three months ago). I understood the goal to be "under 4", but the vet really meant "between 1 and 4". So we're backing off the medicine just slightly.

A day late for the anniversary, but

kmelion reposted this (English translation of a) transcript of a tape made during the six-day war, upon entering Jerusalem.

[Now I can't post comments. Whee.]

Embla's been on the HT drugs for almost three months now. Data:

Early March (diagnosis): T4 70 (!), weight 6lb 13oz, heart 240 (!).
Early April: T4 5.6 (normal <=4), weight 7lb 5oz, heart 200.
Tonight: T4 pending, weight 7lb 14oz, heart 160.

You go, girl!

Vet says if T4 is normal for 3 months it'll probably be time to do the radiation treatment (permanent solution).

Things that make you go "huh?": "Did you know that anvils float?" (From a locked entry, so not attributing.)

Useless cat made me laugh out loud, disturbing the nearby cat. (Link from nancylebov.) Dani pointed out (after I sent him the link) that if you Google for that phrase (without quotes), the first three hits are to that page and the fourth is to some editorial comments about a certain Unix command.

I drove Dani's car home today (so he could stay and hitch a ride later). There are things you know intellectually that aren't ingrained no matter how long it's been: I kept reaching for the gear shift. Oops.

Embla has been less skittish lately, even cooperating when I pick her up. Whether that's because picking her up is likely to lead to canned food, or because treating hyperthyroidism is calming her down, I don't know. (Fortunately for me, Embla is utterly indifferent about foreign substances concealed in food, at least so far. So medicating her is easy.)

My vet recently told me she wanted to see Embla tonight if possible (for a calibration check on the new drug). They normally close at 7:30, which is before Yom Tov would be over tonight. I explained the problem and asked if next week would be ok; she said "call anyway; we might still be here". So I did and they were, and she asked me to bring Erik along if I was coming anyway. (Erik, too, has been on some new medicines.)

Embla has been on medicine for hyperthyroidism for about 3.5 weeks. (You may recall that she pegged the meter on this test, producing the highest level my vet has ever seen.) This condition was described to me as "the engine is constantly revving"; among things, appetite is normal but the cat loses weight due to the high metabolism. Heart rate is also usually high.

Embla has gained 4 ounces in the last month, and tonight her heart rate was 200 (high-normal, but she was stressed so normal). Last time it was 240. This seems to be working.

Erik started the hyperthyroid medicine three weeks ago. He has gained 7 ounces in the last 3-4 weeks. He is now at his highest weight in quite some time -- 7 pounds, 12.5 ounces. Yay! I don't know if it scales, but if half a year of treatment for this condition can get him up to 10 pounds, I won't complain. :-) His heart rate tonight was 180 (down from 220 last time), and the arrhythmia was gone.

Yay! Finally, something seems to be producing results better than "well, he's not any worse than last time".

At her checkup last week, Embla -- who's always been perfectly normal, medically speaking (I won't comment on personality) -- had lost weight and had an elevated heart rate. The vet who saw her did some routine blood tests, including the test for hyperthyroidism, which he suspected. (With hyperthyroidism, basically, the engine is constantly revving -- so appetite is normal but the cat loses weight, heart rate is high, and probably other stuff too.)

The relevant test here is something called T4. Normal is about 4 (I don't know 4 what). When Erik was diagnosed recently it was with a reading of 8.

Embla's was 70. My vet said she didn't know they went that high.

So, my instructions are to take the medicine we got for Erik (which is currently suspended for other reasons), and start giving it to Embla instead. She's only 11, so she's a good candidate for a permanent solution (radiation or surgery), but we have to do drugs first to make sure treatment doesn't cause other problems.

Edit: the test measures concentration of something (some enzyme, I think); the units are micrograms per deciliter. Not one I would have guessed. :-)

Baldur and Embla had their checkups tonight. Ok, all of my cats have lost weight this year. How weird! They eat as much as they want. Yeah, older cats tend to lose weight, but still... (My vet had no specific advice on diet changes.)

Baldur: 13 pounds 3 ounces (15+ last year, 17+ the year before)
Embla: 6 pounds 13 ounces (missed last year, 9+ the year before)

Baldur has recently (last couple weeks) been throwing up (small amounts), and Embla's heart rate tonight was 240 (normal is 180-200), so both are getting blood tests. In both cases, the vet suspects hyper-thyroid. I asked if I can get a bulk discount on treatment. :-) I also asked if it's really plausible that all three of my cats are suffering from that ailment, and he said he didn't know but it is common in older cats.

(So,

lorimelton, you were right the other night -- Baldur actually has lost weight. Granted, it's hard to really tell by looking.)

Embla had her checkup last night. It's a good thing she's healthy, as the trick I used to capture her only works if enough time has passed that she's forgotten how it works. :-)

She looked so pitiful (but compliant) when the vet picked her up, and she got a fair bit of her exam while lying in the bin on the scale because that apparently seemed safer to her than the metal table. Poor kitty.

[Ah, good. My home network connection is happier than it was last night when I tried to post this...]

( daily tasks, cooking, romance, nosy questions, cats )

Tonight while driving through Squirrel Hill I noticed a large crowd walking up the sidewalk. As I parked the group reached me and I saw that they were protesting the war ("no blood for oil" being the pervasive chant). I walked with them for a block or so, raising the average age a bit, before veering off for groceries. It occurred to me only later that its placement on Veterans' Day was probably not an accident.

Our usually-reliable DSL service has been having random short outages for the last several weeks. (Usually 10-15 minutes, a few times a week.) I'm not sure how to test whether it's the DSL service itself or our 5-year-old modem, though, short of acquiring a test modem. So I sent mail to our provider asking if they had other reports and/or debugging hints. (I noticed in passing that their service hours now end at 8PM. I've had productive conversations with them at midnight in the past. Oh well. 8PM is reasonable; I'd just gotten used to hacker hours.)

Ok, Embla is capable of making normal meowing sounds, as opposed to that quiet chirpy thing she usually does. It just has to be Important. Like, say, being trapped between the window and the screen on a cold evening. For calibration purposes, the time a contractor sealed her into a wall she was silent for a long time, even though I was in the room calling her.

(What was she doing there tonight? Well, our sink was plugged up, so we had initiated chemical warfare, but the chemicals gave off mustard gas or something, and we had to open the windows to help with dispersion. I didn't notice the cat on the windowsill when I pushed the window closed later. Fortunately, she was quick to alert me.)

The story about the elephant is the funniest thing I've read in days.

I have a new front-runner in the "deceptive marketing" category. Today I examined a bag of Glenny's Soy Crisps, which proudly proclaims "10 grams pure soy protein" and "only 65 calories per serving". However, it is not 10 grams of protein per serving. (The bag contains two servings, so it's 5g protein per 65 calories.)

Yesterday I came into the office to find a keyboard tray peeking out from beneath my desk. I wondered how long it had been there without my noticing; it was possible to push it back well out of sight, so it could have been there for a long time. The mystery was solved when someone walked into my office later and found me, not my office-mate, sitting at my desk. Apparently he'd installed it the previous night, but in the wrong place. I suppose that beats the alternative outcomes. :-) (No, I don't want a keyboard tray; my arms aren't long enough to use one with proper posture.)

Tonight was an On the Mark practice. Jenn has decided to leave the group due to an attack of life. It's unfortunate, but I understand. I don't want anyone to burn out. Ray is staying, so we'll juggle some parts around and things will be ok.

Tonight's episode of Enterprise, "Cogenitor", had a dreadful preview. It was also one of the best episodes of the show to date. That was an extremely pleasant surprise. (Ok, I saw every key plot point well ahead of schedule, but that didn't hurt the show, as it turned out. Now we just have to wait and see if they actually follow through on this in future episodes.)

Embla lay down in my lap while I was watching the show tonight. She's never done that before. Yay! It took five and a half years, but she's finally comfortable enough to actually settle down in my lap, rather than just walking across it and then scampering away. Progress. :-)

I took Erik back to the vet last night to have more blood drawn. I went armed with questions about the tests (thanks,

spiritdance!), and got lots of information. We will know a lot more when these next results come back, but one of the tests takes a few days so I might not hear until next Monday. With luck, though, this time I'll hear something a little more conclusive than "ok, I know which other test to do now". I hope.

Embla was hiding in the attic this morning. This is unusual; she generally comes running when I get up. When I walked downstairs I realized that the carrier was still out from last night, so I put it away. She was back to normal tonight when I came home from work. I guess she was worried that it might be intended for her. :-)

Choir last night was missing some of the regulars, but we also picked up two new people. One,

ommkarja, has been in the choir before; the other is a member of the choir at Ray and Jenn's church. They're both good; I hope they stay. (And one is an alto! Yay!)

Our newspaper delivery has been rather spotty for the last few weeks. (The problem pre-dates the recent weather changes.) The service hasn't been good in a while, really; the carrier seems unable to put the paper on the porch or even, often, on the walkway. I've found papers in bushes, papers on the street in front of the house (that's not even trying), and recently, far too many missing papers.

I think I finally have the attention of someone who might care, though; tonight was the second time in a week that I've gotten a call asking if service has improved. And today I did get a paper on the porch without asking. But it's still annoying. Not quite as annoying as the thought of regularly reading That Other Paper, though. :-)

In the "at least they're making gestures" category, I now have a stack of coupons good for free coffee at 7-11. Maybe one of my local friends would find them useful.

Baldur: 18.0 lb (a slight drop from last year)
Embla: 10.1 lb
Erik: 8.125 lb (lost a pound)

I think this is the first time in his life that Baldur has lost weight from one checkup to the next. This is cause for celebration, though the drop was only about three-quarters of a pound. I'll take what I can get. The vet was unwilling to estimate what his weight should be, however.

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Erik has lost weight; last year he lost most of a pound from the previous year, and this year he lost a pound from last year. He's not a large cat to begin with. I had actually thought he was gaining a little weight this past year, but I was wrong. (I actually asked that they weigh a 10-pound bag of food, to make sure the scale wasn't off. It wasn't.)

The vet took a blood sample from Erik and they're going to run the standard suite of tests. I should hear back in several days (maybe by the end of the week). His only other blood test was two years ago, when he showed elevated levels of calcium -- enough to call for a dietary change, but not enough to worry about cancer, they said at the time. (Tonight's vet concurred with that.) So we'll see what the level is this time. The physical exam was just fine -- nothing suspicious there, the vet said. (Apparently the other thing that sometimes causes high calcium is a thyroid problem, but she said his thyroid felt normal.)

He's only ten years old; he's not supposed to be wasting away yet. I hope the test results suggest a useful course of action.

The vet was a little puzzled by the choice of special diet; it's something for renal failure, rather than a low-calcium food. She's not the one who prescribed it, and when I asked her if she recommended changing it she thought about it for a minute and said no. One effect of high calcium would be kidney problems, and even if he's not showing those problems now, the food could help hold them off. And she didn't have any better suggestions for what to feed him.

Once again I have had an ambiguous experience with VCA. I was prepared to ask for a copy of our medical records on the way out, so I could take them to a different vet in the future. I might still do that before next year. This particular vet was very good -- it was the most thorough exam I can remember them having, and she seemed perfectly willing to take all the time we needed to do everything right. She handled them gently but firmly, and she showed genuine concern. She carefully read each cat's medical history before doing the exam and asked me relevant questions. That's the first time that's happened. And, like my own doctor, she didn't talk down to me but assumed I had a brain. (This was probably aided by some of the questions I asked her.)

However, she's been there for four weeks; VCA will probably beat it all out of her in time. And judging by past experience, she'll probably be there next year and not the year after. My big complaint against VCA is the revolving-door vets; I want a regular vet. They have some good people, but they don't keep them for long.

Maybe the thing to do is for me to tell her that, rather than talking to VCA. If she's going to leave VCA for some other place in the city, for example, I'd have no problems with following her. (She might have a contractual problem with that, but I don't know if I don't ask.)

Monica

RIP Embla: 1995? - November 5 2011 :-(

family night at the vet's

vet visit

vet visit

cats: life is never boring :-)

vet visit

check-ups

family night at the vet's

Embla update

radioactive kitty (followup)

radioactive kitty

Embla update

random bits

random bits

Embla's hyperthyroidism

short takes

good news on the cat front

my little over-achiever

vet visit (2 of 2)

vet visit

interviewed by sekhmets_song

Thursday bits (protest, DSL, feline antics)

short takes

short takes

kitty checkups

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