Another weekend of not doing a whole lot. My weeks are filled with long hours at work, so I like to keep my weekend simple. I meant to get a lot accomplished, and the truth is that I didn't get much done. However, I did relax. That's got to be worth something. I don't sleep very well most nights because I have been living and breathing work for the past 10 months. Friday night I didn't sleep very well. Consequently Saturday was a very easy day. I mostly just sat around, watched "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and the "The Upside of Anger." Also petted and played with my cats, which was nice. Today I went on a nice hike with Ross and Jacob after a delicious brunch at Mother's Cafe.

Now for some kitty stuff....

I found out a few weeks ago that Sweetie has CRF (Chronic Renal Failure), which means that her kidneys are not performing the function of filtering toxins very well. She drinks a lot of water, but it doesn't really make that much of a difference to her. For cats, this is usually the beginning of the end, and Sweetie has had issues with maintaining weight for some time now. But, she ended up at 4.7 lbs. She's a small kitty, but she weighed 7.5 lbs at her prime. The last couple of years she has hovered between 5 and 6 lbs. I would love to see her at 6 lbs again. When she was diagnosed, the vet had me start to give her subcutaneous fluids (looks like an IV bag and I hook up a needle to it and inject it under her skin. This helps her to flush out toxins. It has made a tremendous difference for her. She was doing better when I took her back. She even gained a little weight. I do not like to accept this sort of thing without a fight, so I did more research. I found a kitty cat online that had been diagnosed at 16 years old with CRF (same age as Sweetie) and was still alive at 23 years of age!! The web page hadn't been updated for a while, so she may have passed now. Regardless, I was so happy to find the webpage. It had really good information:

http://www.surroundedbycats.com/10Emma.htm

I didn't find anything like that with Sky when she was diagnosed with oral squamous cell carcinoma over two years ago. All the cats that I found with oral SCC had died within months, and yet my little Sky survived without the horrible conventional treatment (removal of her upper jaw and radiation) and is really healthy today. That is unheard of! But that's another story.... I maintain similar hope for Sweetie, even though she is an elderly kitty. I took the suggestions from the webpage and asked my vet about a few of them, as well as some stuff I found elsewhere. Besides the subcutaneous fluids, we have incorporated:

1) Extra potassium, which is thought to help with metabolic acidosis (her underweight condition).

2) A B-Complex supplement

3) Acupuncture. I was very interested in this, and my vet who has been practicing conventional veterinary medicine for nearly 30 years has also been a veterinary acupuncturist for the last 12 years or so. I really think this helped Sweetie a lot. She looked really cute and calm with the little needles in her. She didn't complain at all! I have to get a picture next time.

4) Certain Chinese herbs that are thought to help the kidneys.

5) Feeding her a food that she seems especially fond of.....it's nasty stuff to me (meaty-ness), but it's good to see her eat.

Today I was petting her, and she seems like she has gained some weight. She seems so much better than she has in a long time! This makes me happy! I will probably have to do these things for the rest of her life, but I am happy to do them if they keep her alive and happy.