Penny will be 12 years old on Wednesday. Yesterday I took her to the vet to have her claws treated. For a second time, she had developed an accumulation of gunk in her claw beds with abnormal, thick casings growing over some of the claws. At her checkup in December, the vet had mentioned that some of her teeth had plaque on them; he also thought he heard a heart murmur. While under anesthesia she had her claws and teeth treated and had an X-ray to evaluate her heart. They gave her a blood screen first to be sure she could be given anesthesia.
This is what happened.
1. Penny’s kidney function is worse. She also has a kidney stone in the middle of her right kidney. The vet said she “doesn’t need sub-Q fluids yet.”
2. Penny had two teeth extracted because of something weird that happened to her once before in which teeth start being reabsorbed into a cat’s jaw. Such teeth have to be extracted because the resorption is very painful if it progresses.
3. The vet sent liquid pain medicine home with her. She’s had two doses.
4. Last night she was drooling bloody saliva. Right now she’s alternating between taking sips of water from the bowls and splashing the water out of the bowls all over the floor with her paws. I gave her water with a syringe. She drank some of it but let the rest run out the other side of her mouth. At least that helped wash out her mouth. I dried her with paper towels. I have not yet seen her eat.
5. The vet said to cut the pain med doses in half and give the med to her for twice as long because she doesn’t seem to know what she’s doing.
The worsening kidney function concerns me. Seeing her act like this, even if it’s because her mouth hurts and she’s dopey on medication, reminds me of other cats’ declines. I know she’s in the range of the species’ typical life span, but I’m not ready to think of that baby kitten who sat in my hand and licked my thumb not being with me here anymore.
“The days seemed to have passed all too quickly
No longer interested in play
Dreaming of the gentle winds and green meadows
More precious now, the pawprints.”
(http://dailykitten.com/chat/topic/pawprints/)
This is the point that Penny has reached, and the days have passed too quickly. They always do.
But the Rainbow is always in the distance, for all of us.