Ultimately, his kidneys are failing, and there isn't anything that can be done about that. They don't do kidney transplants for cats (someone should get on that), so that's that. It seems as if our baby boy isn't going to live as long as we'd like him to.
Having said that, the good news is that there's a decent chance we will get months, or maybe even 2-3 years, more with him. It's all going to depend on how he reacts to our efforts to keep him hydrated (or, how much he hydrates himself). All we know for sure at this point is that he reacted very well to fluids being given to him via I/V in the hospital. Of course, he can't live in the hospital and we certainly wouldn't subject him to a life on an I/V. So now we bring him home, and give him fluids via a needle and see how he reacts. At first we'll do that a couple of times a day, and the hope is to wean that down over time to once every few days; or not at all, if he does an excellent job of keeping himself hydrated.
It looks promising so far, the first thing he did once we got home is have a big drink of water; if he continues to drink a lot of water, we should be able to give him less and less fluid which is better for everyone.
Despite losing a lot of weight, he didn't lose his trademark belly! Thank goodness for that, or we'd have to find another nickname for him. He's been called "The Belly" for so long, that has pretty much become his name; we hardly ever actually call him "Newman" anymore.
I think Tracey and I were both resigned to the fact that we might have to put him down in the near future. Thankfully that seems much less likely now, although there are no guarantees at this point. From this day forward, I'm going to consider every day we get with him to be a bonus day, and quite a blessing.
Fingers crossed!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment