WHEE YIPPETY SQUEE! What a turnaround, with LOTS of things to be happy about today! And that’s even despite the fact that I managed to have a kitty kibble eruption inside my rather precious and special favourite handbag. (I normally feed them canned food- ‘Wellness’ brand to be exact, but they usually have some kibbles down to snack on too if they get hungry between mealtimes, except they’re getting home-cooked poached chicky dinners at the moment for snacks…spoiled kitties.)

ANYWAY I didn’t care because we went to the vet this morning FULLY EXPECTING to be told that Toby needed an URGENT blood transfusion….BUT!!!!! THEY RAN A BLOOD COUNT AND HIS NUMBERS HAD GONE UP!!!! In the space of just five days his blood count had risen from a severely anaemic 13% to a whopping *19%* which is only mildly anemic. ‘Normal’ is said to be anywhere between 25-48% so this was a hugely respectable achievement. Well done Toby-Toes!

He looks pathetic in this picture, but he hates the vet visits for obvious reasons and goes limp as soon as we walk through the door, but in reality he was skipping prettily around the house with his tail in the air earlier this morning (another good sign as he was lying around quietly before).

But wait, there’s more:
* HIS TEMPERATURE HAS GONE DOWN from consistently over 104˚ to 103˚ (normal is 100.5˚-102.5˚)
* HIS WEIGHT IS STABLE (he hasn’t gained, but more importantly he hasn’t lost either)
* THE UVEITIS IN HIS EYES IS LESS INFLAMED
* She was also pleased with his poo sample which he conveniently provided just before we left the apartment this morning (it was a good type of poo with nothing in it that shouldn’t have been).

Squee, squeee, SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! This means that we must have been doing something right this past week!!!!! The vet was ever so pleased too so now we’re going to scale down the druggy bits to work out the minumum dose he needs to maintain him, and she’s also making lots of enquiries amongst her vetty friends for any other tips and tricks. She’s also put me into contact with a good holistic vet that we’re going to talk to as there’s been much buzz online about FIP and holistic treatments. Although it’s nasty FIP, it’s lucky really that we’ve been able to catch it so early so we can try to keep one step ahead of it and delay the bad bit for as long as we can. And of course I’m definitely going to continue with the chicky dinner snacks every couple of hours and the twice daily kitty vitamins. Pleased, pleased, PLEASED.

So afterwards we went to Costco for more chicken breasts, and celebrated with a delicously unhealthy pizza for lunch.

’scuse the overall look of tiredness, but hey, I have an excuse. I’ve been intensively nursing all week, with late nights and early starts, and had had to get up at 6.45 am for the vet appointment. And I’m pregnant, dang it!

Speaking of pregnancy…..
We had an appointment with the OB-GYN today and everything is bang on target:
* blood pressure = good
* belly size = good
* weight gain = good (16lb so far in 25 weeks which is right on schedule- I’ve been told to gain a total 25-35lb overall)
* baby heart rate = EXCELLENT AND STRONG

And speaking of babies, I got to see DrMr holding a baby for the first time today. Friends of ours gave birth to a precious little girl last week and we went round to see her. He looks good with a baby, it suits him. I think he’s going to make a very nice daddy.

But wait, there’s more!
Actually I’ll save that for next time when there’s hopefully a bit more to tell about it

In the meantime I shall leave you with a pic of Chesterfield Fitzwilliam Rupert looking exactly as how we all feel this evening.

RELAXED.

It’s FIP

*cry*

First a quickie update to say that Toby is still progressing, albeit slowly but in a throughly pleasing way. I must be doing something right so far. It’s likely we’ll get the test results tomorrow, so fingers crossed… thanks everyone for all your kind words so far, they really are helping!

Now onto the other things that I’ve been up to over the past couple of weeks when I haven’t been busy or tending to the kittens… Firstly there was FilmChris’ and VanderKitten’s Supercool Superbowl party the other weekend- my second American Superbowl experience (woot!) and I understood as little about the game this time as I did the last I did enjoy the 3-D commercials though, very clever.

Then there was a trip up to Wine Country, always one of my favourite outings.

A group of college girls gawped and me and spoke in VERY LOUD WHISPERS condemning the fact that I dared even set foot into an establishment serving alcohol in my pregnant state, but hey, a girl is allowed to swirl the glass and sniff it even if she doesn’t swallow!

They were probably all experts in raising children too, I will have to hunt them down next time my child is scareeeeeeeeming and I can’t get it to stop.

Speaking of children, or should I say plastic ones, Nicole came along for the ride too. She likes the scenery up there.

She wasn’t allowed to taste though, so ended up getting a bit bored having to wait around for us (what is it with Moofs and their short attention spans?!).

And as for the other main reason why I’ve been busy of late (well, besides nursing the kittles……), WE’VE BEEN HOUSEHUNTING! But so far without success.

Now back to my kitties… Please keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow! I would give anything right now to be told that Toby has herpes and not this horrible FIP

But the vet called to say that they should come in on Wednesday. In the meantime, we seem to be making slow but steady progress. Three days ago he was sitting weak and droopy-eyed on the couch all the time, but since then he’s been increasingly up and about. Today he even sat on the side of the bath and watched with horror as I voluntarily got myself wet and rubbed up against my legs as I was cooking dinner in the kitchen. Small steps every day since last week, but huge progress. I’ve been working ever so hard with him, feeding him morsels of microwave-poached chicken breast every two hours to keep his appetite stimulated which is hopefully giving him some iron and fattening him up a bit too. And then there are all the drugs which he HATES but another trip back to the vet pharmacy today means that the Zithromax is now chicken flavour and far less objectionable to

Thankfully I’ve now got him to the stage where I can sleep comfortably at night without worrying that I’ll wake up in the morning to find him in a coma. There’s a lot to be said for TLC and chicken breast, I’m sure it’s playing a large part in the process and as long as he needs, he shall have.

But turned out that there was no need to worry so much. He seems to be doing well so far. I think the anti-inflammitory effects of the Prednisolone are be kicking in as he seems to be getting a bit more sparky. Hopefully this means that his fever is coming down too, but he’s such a little trooper that it’s difficult to tell. He’s also now had two doses of Pet-Tinic vitamineral supplements since yesterday’s vet visit as well, so he should have a bit more iron in him which is hopefully stimulating his bloodcount. The best part is that he’s started playing and interacting with his brother a lot more too which is a huge relief and probably the best sign yet that we’re heading in the right direction with his palliative care (I’m still assuming it’s dry FIP).

Hurry up PCR test results! Depending on the outcome of those and if his fever is down we can start think about seeing if there’s anything else we can do. Our (new) vet mentioned Interferon to help things along which has been effective in a number of cases.

Oooh, speaking of the little person, he’s just requesting my knee from the looks of it so I must go…

PS for anyone who happens to stumble upon this whilst googling for info on FIP or how to treat it, I found this site to be extremely informative and helpful. Looks like my vet seems to be using a similar template for treatment, if not this one.

I have a very brave kitty.

After a rather sleepless night with me waking up literally every hour and a half in a (needless) state of paranoid anxiety, I finally got up at 6.45am, called the animal hospital as soon as the main reception opened and they told us to come in straight away. There we saw a VERY nice vet, completely sympathetic to our situation, and taking time to read through all the notes I had taken with me, and examining the little bag of poo that I’d retrieved from the litter tray just before we left (she said it looked fine). She asked lots of questions and I answered with as much detail as I could, and she did the same for me when I was the one doing the asking.

To cut a rather long (two and a half hour) visit short, she said that she wasn’t prepared to condemn him to a death diagnosis based on blood analyses and suspicion alone and there was in fact a test that we could do that looks for the DNA of the mutated virus which can give a 95% certainty of diagnosis. Although his symptoms are certainly similar to those which can occur with FIP, we can’t necessarily rule out other causes- e.g. elevated globulins are also indicative of an inflammatory response to something. All the same, I’m not going to get my hopes up, just in case. Even if it does come back FIP positive, at least we will know for sure, rather than assume something based on a hunch and we can get on with dealing with the consequences the best we can. I just want what’s best for him, which for the time being is comfortable. And so long as he’s happy, we’ll do what we can for him. Watching them take his blood was just awful as he really didn’t like it at all, and he looked so small and pathetic afterwards with his little pressure bandage on his little leg. I have so much admiration for animal blood doners, it’s such an ordeal for them to go through for no benefit for themselves, they’re so, so kind.

Speaking of blood, although Toby is very anaemic, we decided in the end to delay giving him a blood transfusion for now. There is a risk that cats can react badly to them and they monitor for this by looking at peaks in body temperature, but because he is still running a 104˚ fever it would be hard to tell so could actually be rather dangerous. So given that he’s still acting relatively normally, albeit he’s a bit sleepy, he’s still eating well, playing and grooming, so he’s not right down there at the critical level just yet. So whilst we wait for the test results to come through, he’s on various medications to stabilise his fever, anti-inflammitories to calm his immune system, special antibiotics to deal with any infections (including Chlamydia which is pretty hardcore), I-lysine to try to deal with any viruses and animal vitamin and mineral supplements to hopefully boost his iron to stimulate red blood cell production. It seems strange to both supress his immune system yet be dosing him with antibiotics, but if it is FIP it’s the cat’s own immune system reponse which does the most damage (that’s how the virus operates) and so if you supress the immune system, you need the antibiotics so that they can take over the function. She also noted that his watery eye wasn’t down to conjunctivitis (infection of inner eyelid), but uveitis which is an infection of the eye itself. So we have some new ointment for that too- perhaps his inflamed eyes are accounting for the raised globulins? But eye trouble is another thing that happens with FIP… uuuuuuuuurgh! I HATE THIS!

When the test results come through (HURRY UP!), we can decide the next step. If it is FIP, we only get one shot at a transfusion as animal blood is such a precious resource that it can’t be handed out willy-nilly. A cat with a terminal illness is a cat with a terminal illness after all, and there might be another cat somewhere who has been hit by a car and in desperate need and has got a longer life ahead of him. The new bloodwork that has been requested will also reveal if his blood cells are being destroyed, or if for some reason he’s not making new ones so quite a lot hangs on these results really. All that I want right now is for his fever to go down and it would be wonderful for him to put on a bit of weight. I would love it for the iron supplements to start working and for his anemia to start to improve, but that might be asking a little too much depending upon what his issue is.

Since getting home, he has already perked up. No sign of ‘fever eyes’ with the blinking and the third eyelid showing, and he’s been happily sitting on his favourite blue blanket watching activity round the bird feeder. Hopefully this means that the meds and fluids he got at the vet have started to kick in and his temperature is coming down. He has a ravenous appetite still and has also been having lots of sliced turkey goodness too because he’s been so brave so far and deserves a treat. Plus it’s got iron in it and I want to fatten him up. Come on little Toby, I’m not going to give up on you!

So until the test results come through- hopefully tomorrow, but possibly on Monday given that it’s the weekend, I just have to monitor him closely and if it looks like he needs the transfusion, to rush him straight back and he can have it.

I’m happy with how things went today, glad that we’re getting a second opinion, yet at the same time I’m sick to the stomach with worry. What a weekend for DrMr to be doing one of his crazy 72+ hour shifts at work… I’ve been dealing with all of this on my own, keeping him constantly updated over the phone. Did I mention already that I HATE THIS?