We have a few ghost shrimp in my son’s fish tank.
A few days ago, I noticed one is pregnant:
Those are a bunch of greenish eggs in the abdomen. The abdomen is normally clear.
I searched the internet nad found that there’s a good chance the other fish will eat the eggs. Oh, well, no baby ghost shrimps for us!
I used to blame our mostly white-haired Sheltie for our household’s unrelenting pet hair problems. Back in 2001, the pet hair problems seemed to multiply after we got her.
Now that we are cat-less, the truth came out. It was Amelia, the Himalayan cat!
Bad kitty!
We’re living an almost shed-free life right now–at least until Sugar’s semiannual “coat blow,” where she loses the undercoat preparing for the change of season.
Looks like this will be a kitty-free household soon.
We took the newer cat, Olivia, back to the SPCA on Saturday. I had been putting this off, but it was inevitable. She is simply not compatible with small kids. Her extreme skittishness caused her to hide almost all the time, so I was unable to even try training her not to scratch furniture.
I don’t know what happened. When she was little, she would sleep on me. Something changed in her head as she emerged from kittenhood.
We tried placing her with others in our area, but none were interested.
She was an SPCA adoption, so the return was free. (Normally there is a $50 surrender charge.)
Ameila, the older cat with fatty liver syndrome, has taken a turn for the worse. About a week after the hospitalization, the remainder of her skin started yellowing. Now even her eyes are yellowing.
The 2 week follow up vet visit was on Saturday, and the vet said she’s doing so poorly that he didn’t strongly recommend more treatment.
Part of me that wonders if Amelia is still treatable; I found an academic report that described “terminal” cats with hepatic lipidosis coming from the brink with feeding tubes, but my realistic side says the writing is on the wall. I am unwilling to spend more hundreds of dollars on a 12 year old cat who has never been particularly robust. And as much as I am upset at her upcoming death, I am not one of those “furkid” types. I guess it’s just time.
The worst news: it’s not good when the nurse says “oh my gosh” when tallying up your bill! This vet visit set me back way more Benjamins than I ever wanted to spend on a pet. X-rays, lab tests, prescriptions, IVs, and 2 days of “hospitalization” aren’t cheap.
The best news: Amelia is home:
And everything in between: Ameila has a reasonable shot at recovery. The lab tests and X-rays didn’t find anything startling except markers typical of a cat whose liver isn’t working right. The blood test suggested somewhere around 20% liver function, and the X-ray didn’t find that her liver extended past her ribcage boundary, which is what the vet wanted to see.
Amelia is on oral antibiotics and Denosyl for several more days.
Here’s what her ear looks like:
Lovely yellow tint. The vet says this will stick around for at least 2 weeks because it doesn’t immediately flush out.
She seems a little off kilter: sleeping more and unsteady on her feet. Hopefully she’ll return to her normal geriatric (12 year old) self soon.
Just got a call from the vet. The bloodwork shows that Amelia probably has hepatic lipidosis. Fortunately, FIV and FeLV are ruled out.
Since the liver is screwed up, she has a lot of toxins in her blood, including but not limited to bilirubin. In addition to antibiotics, the vet is also administering a drug to help work that junk out of her blood.
Amelia’s biggest problem is a lack of appetite. Unless she starts eating soon, there will be no other available options besides unacceptably expensive interventions like tube feeding directly into the stomach.
The vet was not able to change the 50/50 prognosis yet since he does not have a firm diagnosis.