A Xenon update

Xenon had another check-up on Monday and his creatinine didn't go down any further down. It may not go down any further due to his age. So now he is going on a prescription diet kitty kibble to help the kidneys and as long as he doesn't stop eating we don't have to force feed him anymore.
We were worried about whether or not he was going to eat the new food (there was no way he was going to touch soft food, he hates that stuff) but as soon as we got home and put it out he parked in front of it and dug in. If I could, I would have done cartwheels!
Now we are doing the fluids every other day and may go down even further in the future depending on how his health is doing. He absolutely hates that part, but he'll just have to deal with it since it's for his own good.
We will have to wait to see, but overall, things were promising for now. His doctor thinks we have about two years left with him if all goes well. I'm glad we know that so we can prepare ourselves mentally. If he would have left us all of a sudden I would have been devastated. I'm glad we have a little extra lovin' time so spend with our special guy.

Finally some good news!

The vet thinks he is doing quite well. She is very happy he is looking good and is very attentive. His creatinine level was 3.8 today, which is down from 7 last Thursday and down from 18 on last week. It's amazing that the levels have gone so low in such a short amount of time. This is such a good sign! Since he's still not eating, we still need to force feed him and she gave him an appetite enhancer and hopefully he will start eating like normal. He only needs the fluids every other day now which is another promising sign. We couldn't be happier with the news. We are hoping for continued improvement for our little guy!

Homecoming

Xenon is coming home from the hospital today!

They have done everything they can for him to this point and feel it would be best for him to be in his own surroundings. He is still not out of the woods yet, but he has improved quite a bit so we will just need to wait and see what happens. All we can do is hope for the best. We do have some challenges; we need to make sure he is eating (which he hasn't done on his own while there) and we will have to give him subqtaneous fluids to make sure to keep his kidneys functioning. I just hope he cooperates with us. Then on Monday or Tuesday he'll need to go back in to see how his kidneys are. Kidney function was up to 18, and have gotten down to 7 (should be 2) so we will see what happens over the weekend. I can't wait to go get him... it will be a long five hours. I have missed him so much!! He went in on Monday, and it has been a very long week.

He is such a goofball.

[This photo is from 9.12.07]

Update

Just got an update on Xenon. After a half bag of the IV overnight, he's appearing more alert and he is urinating which is good news for the kidneys. He had not thrown up once, another good sign. He still has not felt like eating.

They are going to test his electrolytes and creatine function this afternoon, which will tell us if his kidneys have bounced back. If the numbers show an improvement we will hope for the best. If there is no change, we have a really tough decision to make. We don't want him to suffer, and when it's apparent there is no hope for recover or he starts to go downhill I don't want to prolong the inevitable.

He's a fighter, so we are hoping for the best, but have really braced ourselves for the worst. I don't expect people to understand our love for our cat. He has been with us for 12 1/2 years and way before we had children. He was our child for so long, and to be given this news has been very difficult. Some people don't look at pets the way we do and would never ever spend the money on something like this. I don't care if they don't understand. We are the ones who were blessed with his love for so long.

It's just that 12 years wasn't enough.

[This photo is from 1.13.07]

Xenon hospitalized

Xenon took a turn for the worse this weekend. I brought him to the vet this morning and after checking his levels, his kidneys are failing.

[This photo is from 4.8.07]