Well, yesterday was definitely a teary-eyed day for me. Lots of crying about the potential loss of Dickens. Of course, me crying is a pretty big deal because I don't cry very often. In fact, I don't think I've cried that much since the loss of my Grandmother seven years ago. That was yesterday, today was different.

One of the vets from the Cat Clinic called me late in the afternoon to share Dickens' blood and urine test results with me. Both of the key tests they look at for kidney problems came out high. One was double what is found in a healthy cat, but she wasn't that concerned about that one because it just indicated a problem processing water properly. The other test came back at a 3.8 (I don't remember what it was called) and a normal cat has between a 1.2 and 2.4. She also added she had just seen a cat with a reading over 6. Good news...Dickens has some time left. The results indicate a loss of 75% of his kidney functions. However, his phosphorus levels were normal which is a much worse, i.e. 85% loss of kidney function.

Where now? I'm switching Dickens to a kidney friendly diet which is low in protein which will relieve his kidneys of some work. Dickens likes the food, Baxter doesn't...too bad for Baxter. :) In fact, the food makes cats fat, so if Baxter chooses to be picky, that might be better them him pigging out!

She also said that I will need to think about giving him subcutaneous fluids...in layman's terms, injecting him with water 1-2 times per week. We'll see if that's doable, as I'm not a big fan of needles especially having to actually use one on my cat. However, if Dickens continues to be his fun-loving active self and this will help him live a little longer, we'll see if they can't teach this old dog a new trick. :)

Posted by Curt at March 14, 2008 09:57 PM