The Center of the Anomaly

Out & About April 24, 2009

Off to Sedona this weekend and no computers! So just talk amongst yourselves.

Kitty Update April 20, 2009

She did kinda “eh” over the weekend.  No worse certainly but not significantly better.  She ate little and didn’t move around a lot.  When I got home yesterday she was still pretty mopey.  I took her in to the vet’s for a recheck and see how her vitals are doing.  Her temperature is normal and her heart is slightly elevated but nothing peculiar for an animal in the vet’s office.  Prognosis remains the same:  essentially “Dunno – something weird.  Cats are like that.”  The plan now is to give her the rest of her antibiotics, keep up with the appetite stimulant, and watch how she does and call if something changes or new pops up.  I am going to proceed with my plans this weekend and I’ll put her up for medical boarding at that office while I’m gone.  That way they can keep an eye on her and do multiple temperature checks during the day to see if she’s still doing that “fever in the morning, no fever at night” thing.  Fortunately the medical boarding fee is much more affordable at $20 per night so that’s ok. 

This morning she seemed a bit better and at least vaguely interested in her food dish but I’ve thought that before so I guess we will see.

Oh, and I have to give proper kudos to kitty – she’s been a real trooper through all this and as well behaved as anyone could ever ask of any critter that had to endure this sort of stuff this last week.

My Tweet of the Day if I Used Twitter (Which I Don’t) April 20, 2009

The Standard Deviation is the nerd of simple summary statistics.  The Average is the really, really cool guy that everyone wants to know.

Kitty Still Sick April 18, 2009

I brought her home yesterday and it looked like she was improving. I even got her to purr for a little while. But now we’re right back to the way she was when this started. She doesn’t eat and only moves to go from one spot to lie down to another. She’s even stopped cleaning herself.

I’ve got a bad feeling she’s not going to be with me for too much longer and I really can’t spend too much more than the $1,300 this has cost already. Man, this sucks.

**Update**

Well, she’s looking and acting better this evening than she did during the day but that’s been kind of the pattern all along.  I gave her one of her doses of medicine a few minutes ago so she doesn’t want to have anything to do with me just now.

My Kitty is Sick :-( April 17, 2009

Last weekend my cat decided she didn’t feel like eating anymore. At first I thought she was being finicky because I dared to try some stuff she hadn’t had before but when even the old favorites failed to entice I knew something was wrong plus she was becoming very listless and lethargic. So I took her into the vet Monday evening to get her checked out. She had a fever, a high white blood cell count and signs of dehydration. I put her in for the night for some IV fluids and antibiotics and they were going to send the blood sample out for more tests for the usual kitty diseases.

Fortunately the tests came back the next day negative for the nasty stuff and the vet seemed to think that there were some anal glands that might be infected. The antibiotics were sure to clear it up pretty quick and I could get her home. They also gave her some appetite stimulants and they seemed to work and she started eating again. Unfortunately the fever persists and it won’t go away. They gave her a shot to help with the fever and it works for a while but it keeps coming back and they can only give it every 48 hours. Tonight is her fourth night in the hospital. I spoke with the vet a few hours ago and the white blood cells are back to normal as is her temperature for now. But she is less responsive than before.

There is a possibility that we are dealing with a rare type of viral infection after all and the lab is going to test for it tomorrow. Well, sort of test for it. Her symptoms generally match for a mutated viral form that has no specific test so they’re testing for that viral group. If it comes back positive it means that she may have the mutant virus or just have been exposed to the more common form when she was very young.  The mutant form is 100% fatal. There is no cure, only treatments that can delay the inevitable.  There’s nothing I can do at this point but to wait and hope the tests come back negative and her fever to stay gone. 

Please get well kitty.

Hello? Is This Thing On? April 13, 2009

Yes, sorry.  My life is boring and I don’t have any commentary for the passing scene except for

HOLY CRAP!! 

That’s not a particularly unique or helpful insight I know so I had not bothered to post it.  But now that I’ve done so you know my take on the current Worrying Kinda Thing We Should All Be Really Concerned About.  Which I’m sure you’ve all been wondering about for quite some time.

New stuff will be coming out of the kiln tomorrow and I hope to have some cool stuff to show off soon so check back!