If you've been following my blog since the beginning you know that we started our travels with 2 cats. We lost Cosette on New Year's Eve 2018 - she was at least 20 and passed peacefully.
Quill has continued with us, We would never have thought it possible, but since she's become "the cat" she's become even more affectionate and spends a lot of time in our laps. If I'm computing or Vicky is reading, chances are Quill is right there with us, She even joins us in the bathroom.
When we're traveling, she's usually either in the copilot's lap or lying on the dashboard enjoying the view. Her 20th birthday was in January of this year, meaning she's far exceeded the lifespan of the average Abyssinian cat. Although we've always had cats throughout our marriage, nobody has ever stolen our hearts the way Quill has. Never having been blessed with human children, she's become our child and very much a member of the family.
So we're worrying about her at the moment as her health seems to be deteriorating. We took her in to Banfield (the vet at Petsmart where she and Cosette have had regular care for years) for her regular checkup before we left. We were worried about loss of weight and her being off her food. Our longtime vet is on leave of absence looking after her mother, but instead of her partner, Dr. Semick, Quill was seen by a temporary vet who performed a lot of tests and told us Quill has kidney disease (which we already knew). She gave us a prescription, but the test results were not offered until we requested a copy. Even then, they were not discussed with us.
2 days later, having seen no change in Quill's health or behavior, Vicky called Dr. Semick who said the medicine needs several days to work and not to worry. Next week, now in Cottonwood, we got an emergency appointment with the local vet who told us Quill was dehydrated but more importantly, the Banfield tests showed a high white blood cell count, which indicated an infection. She did a further test and found Quill did indeed have an e-coli infection.
So now we have a couple of bags of saline solution and we give Quill water under the skin every day. She's usually pretty good about it at first, sitting in my lap. but gets impatient if it takes too long. She also has medicine for the infection, for arthritis (another long term problem) and her regular medicines that are mixed in with her food.
We also have prescription kidney diet for her. We were mixing her regular food, the kidney prescription and the various medicines until Quill decided she didn't like the combination of tastes. So now we feed the food one type at a time, adding a little medicine and this seems to be working as she is at least eating again.
Quill remains loving, but has difficulty leaping up onto the counter, and we're doing everything we can to make sure she's getting a good quality of life. Neither of us really wants to admit it, but we're both worried about how much longer she will be with us. She's brought so much joy into our lives (and hopefully we've done the same for her) so every day we have with her now is an extra blessing.
I'll keep you informed, and the next post will bring you up to date on life here at Bear River.
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