Max the cat part 2

Max (my problem cat) first got sick in March of 2010. When she was a kitten she was so cute. She would always just lay with you as you did stuff, weather it was read a book or watch tv, it was a given that Max would be with you. I used to fight with my roommate Crissy because she would try to smuggle cute kitten Max into her room and bond with her in secret. It would drive me crazy cause she was my cat and I wanted her to have these snuggle/cuddly moments with me, not my roommate. She was a pretty happy kitten, although she quickly discovered that she could beat up my older cat Neko with very minimal. So after more then one scuffle resulting in Neko's bloodied face, I decided to get her spayed and declawed at the same time. I know declawing is a horrible, controversial, and tough subject. So I'm not going to get into it on this blog. It was my decision to do because I thought it was more important to not let my cat get bloodied every few days by its  kitten friend. Some people may have made a different decision and that's their right to do. But she has been happy ever since.

Ever since she was a kitten she has been indoors. I mean every once and awhile she would get out.  Once when I was in Reno she was gone for like 2 whole days and I finally found her all dirty under a bush. I doubt she moved very much the entire time she was gone.  A few months before she got sick the first time, she got outside. It was a dumb mistake I made when I wasn't paying attention and I left the front door open  a crack. I remember that I was bringing stuff up from the car to put onto the deck, and once I was done started to build or plant something. By the time I went back into the house and realized that the door was open it had been a hour or two. It took me a bit to even realize she was gone because she isn't the cat that takes advantage when the door is left open.  But anyways she ended up being gone for four long days. I found her trapped on a abandoned deck a few building over crying her head off. I was relieved because I had just put my sick dog to sleep this same month and I was freaking out if I had to loose another long time pet.

What made me think that she was sick was when she stopped coming out to eat dinner. I feed all the cats nightly and most times all three are eagerly awaiting for it. I was surprised to not see her two days in a row, so I searched all around the house for her and couldn't find her. I finally found her under the bed and as soon as I picked her up I knew something was wrong. It was a Sunday and lucky for me I work at a great place where I was able to get her treatments started even though we weren't open. So she got admitted to the hospital, placed on IV fluids,  and a ton of  injections and had all sorts of treatment done the next few days (ultrasounds, x rays, blood work). Kinda the whole shebang really. She wasn't doing a whole ton better in the four days I had her hospitalized, so I made the  difficult decision that I would take her home and try to get her improved in the comfort of the house. I really wasn't sure if it would work just  because off  how totally horrible she looked. It was all pretty touch and go. All in all it cost me around 1500 bucks  so far even after me very awesome discount for being an employee. Lucky It ended up working because after a few days of at home treatments and injections she was eating great and doing OK. I was thrilled to have her back to being healthy and thought that it was going to be a one time thing. I was diligent about all the care and follow up in the next few months and each time we rechecked her everything came back with no signs of permanent damage.

She was back to her old self  of being all talkative to anyone who entered my house, rolling around looking cute and slutty, playing with the one toy I can engage her in. I was super happy and worked hard to pay off the bill and all went back to normal.  In November 2010 she had a day or two where she seemed a little dumpy so I brought her back into work and re checked some blood work. She wasn't showing any signs of infections like last time, but was showing signs of  early renal damage. This doesn't have to mean anything really, I mean she is 12, and 12 year old cats tend to go into renal failure frequently.  But in her case it probably meant that it would progress quicker then normal. I debated about adding a daily  oral medication but decided against it because she is a hard one to get to take pills and I figured it would hurt her quality of life. She seemd to recover from her little spell with a day or two of sub Q fluids and then went back to normal.

Three weeks ago she once again didn't eat for a day or two and stopped being her chatty self when the roommate would come out of his room and such, very very UN Max like indeed.  I brought her back to work and turns out she did indeed have another attack of Pylonephritis, basically a sever infection of the inner layers of the kidneys. It was the same thing she had before. But this time with already existing kidney disease. It once again required her to have a three day stay at the hospital with IV fluids, injections and a repeat ultrasound. She is now requiring antibiotic injections bi weekly, a daily oral pill, an daily oral liquid antibiotic, a inject-able GI medication daily, and a as needed appetite stimulant pill given when she hasn't eaten in a day or two.  Whatever worries I had for her quality of life with just one pill as gone out the window. This is going to be her life for the next 8 weeks. Its already cost me 850 bucks and I can anticipate another few hundred after all is done. The sad part is that she now is showing signs of  permanent kidney damage and doesn't trust me to do anything except shove things in her mouth so she runs and hides every time I enter a room. I have had to resort to getting my housemate to grab her and put her into the bathroom so I can medicate her every day. I wish she would just accept that this is her new life and deal with it. Quality or not its the only thing that's keeping you alive cat.

See that's the problem I have. I wish that I could get her to act a little more appreciative to all the things I have done for her this last year. I mean I saved her life once and it cost me a lot to do it. I am saving her life now and she hates me for it. So what's the deal is my cat suicidal and resents that I just won't let her die? Or maybe she is just really really ungrateful? Either way she is eventually going  have to adapt to her new life as medicated cat status, because now that I have thrown  over 3000 bucks into her care I am not giving up.. even if sometimes I really want to.

I hear from people who are parents that you fight for your kids even if you know they wont like you for it. Because that's what you do when you have kids. Well for me my pets are my kids. I mean I know what has to be done, and its not an option to not do it. If she hates me for the rest of her life then that will suck, but that's not a reason to let her die. I guess I'll have to be able to take comfort in knowing that she's going to hate me for a really long time, cause I'm going to try my hardest to get a few more years out of her.

Just a really good picture of her. 

Rolling around the floor acting slutty

Looking at me with disgust in having to take her meds