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Dr. Huff can no longer find Mali’s right kidney. Her left is small and lumpy and doing all of the work.
Mali has a tooth re-absorbing. She’s not showing signs of pain, but did react when Dr. Huff manipulated the area.
Because of her kidneys, her blood pressure is borderline high. If she goes on fluids again, her blood pressure will go up again.
I’ll get her blood test results back on Monday, so we don’t know how her kidneys are doing right now, except that one seems to have completely disappeared.
Her liver seems ok, there was some slight yellowing, but her blood was spun down and it was clear.
If her remaining kidney is having trouble - which we’d know from high values with her BUN and Creatanin - then she’ll have to go on fluids and a new medicine to maintain her blood pressure.
If her mouth appears to become more painful, or she stops eating, or both, then we’ll have to do something to remove the pain, and her remaining small kidney can’t take any anesthetic.
She’s “clinically stable”. She’s active, happy, eating. And would I want to re-open the potential for a kidney transplant? She was too healthy last time, maybe now her kidneys are so shot that she’d be a candidate.
I told Dr. Huff, after a minute of consideration, that if I had to decide right there - that I would be against the kidney transplant. The statistics were terrible last time I looked, with a high rate of rejection. Mali right now is active and happy. I would continue to medicate her, keep her stable, and live out whatever her natural lifespan is.
But, of course, this weekend will now be filled with research on kidney transplants for cats, their success rate, the ethics, morality, medical issues, costs, etc involved. Last time it was about $14k, the ethics were that the second cat can’t consent, so many people are against it. You have to adopt the second cat. Rate of rejection was absurdly high. It was a last ditch effort.
It may be a last ditch effort if I did that for Mali. But a trip to UC Davis, a long surgery, a long recovery time, and a high rate of rejection? For the chance at a number more years of life with my girl. This decision is going to keep me up for many nights.
While at the vet I snuggled with Shasta some. He’s 14, and the second cat I might adopt depending on, really, Mali’s health and if i think it’s a good choice for her. He’s arthritic and on glucosamine - but other than some signs of being a senior cat, he’s healthy. He’s a little bit of a biter, but it was the least painful thing I’ve experienced, I could barely tell he touched me. Mali chews on me harder during playtime. He has a green eye and a blue eye. He’s stunning and incredibly sweet. He grew up with a large dog, so he’s dog savvy. I want him - and I can “try him out” and see how he does. The vet and techs think that my home would be perfect for him.
But if Mali is going to live for only a few more months, do I want to bring in a second cat? Well, if she’d have a companion she loves for a few months - yes, absolutely. But if that would just cause her stress and unhappiness? Of course not.
They’re running a blood panel on Shasta to see how he’s doing. On Monday I’ll find out how Mali is doing, and they promised to let me know how Shasta is doing.
I have to figure out how to not stress out and worry until Monday, there’s nothing more I can do until we know the results of Mali’s blood panel, which will include a Pancreas check, along with the normal check: liver, kidney, white blood cell count, etc.
Wish us luck. I love her, and I’m scared to death that this marks the beginning of the end. My biggest fear is that Mali is in pain. I don’t want her to suffer.
Who’da thunk it could come down to a tooth?
-Lisa, on December 11, 2010 at 1:55 pm