Samantha the Amazing Geriatric Diva Cat contnues to thrive


Although, she has become vocally demanding of attention at all the wrong moments.

Just got back the results from Samantha's blood test. I take her to the vet every 3-4 months to check her kidney levels. And they are absolutely holding stable.

Samantha was first diagnosed with Chronic Renal Failure 2.5 years ago at the age of 15 years old. Her sister had just died of Feline Lymphoma, so I wasn't too happy to think that my 2nd baby was on her way out too. Luckily my vet is all for letting pet owners know all the options and letting them choose...even if some people would never consider going to the same lengths.

So, for the last 2.5 years I have been giving Samantha sub-cutaneous fluids at home, sometimes daily, sometimes every other day. For the last 6 months or so we've been back to 100 ccs daily.

I've written before that there are some people who wonder why I didn't just put her to sleep. Those people are stupid. End of story.

Anyway, we spend two minutes a day doing this procedure. Most of the time she actually seems to not mind it at all, purring even. It costs me some money to take this care of her. Actually most of the money is in the cost of the quarterly vet visits. The fluids and accessories themselves are cheap, probably a couple hundred dollars a year.

Best of all, though, is that she seems to be a much younger cat than her age (no over 18.) She runs around the house, she can still jump (despite some arthritis.) She still sleeps on my pillow at night and sits with me when I watch TV at night. Her fur looks nice and thick still. no one can believe she is 18 years old.

The one thing that has actually been the most worrisome lately is her howling for attention. Now that I work at home, she has gotten completely convinced that I am home all day to serve her every whim. She will meow and meow until I get up and follow her to wherever she feels like receiving several minutes of dedicated petting. Then she will calm down and go sleep for a few more hours. She is not satisfied, by the way, to come to where I am and be pet by me there. No, she needs me to follow her. And if I'm on a conference call, all the better.

She also has gotten completely impatient about getting up in the morning...meaning I should be up when she gets up, and she will meow and meow and knock things off my night table until I agree that I should get up an feed her. It doesn't matter if we feed her later at night. (And it didn't mater to her either when the clocks were changed...6AM, 7AM...what's the difference? She also gets howly when we've gone upstairs for the night, and she is still downstairs. It's like she forgets that she can just run up the stairs and find us.

My vet thinks this is not "pain" howling...because animals don't typically vocalize constantly when in pain. We can also tell she's not deaf (another common cause.) We've also ruled out a couple of other medical reasons for such a symptom. That leaves, unfortunately, mild dementia. LIke humans, cats' brains experience the aging process too. So, she just goes through these periods of anxiety and sometimes confusion (which makes her anxious.)

It's gotten to the point where it's quite disruptive to our sleep (not to mention my conference calls) so we're going to try giving her a little anti-anxiety medication. Should be interesting.

Anyway, the bottom line is that physically we have absolutely been able to hold her chronic kidney condition at bay. All it has taken is the commitment. So hoooray for Samantha, the Amazing Geriatric Diva Cat.



Posted: Sat - December 3, 2005 at 12:20 PM       EmailFeedback

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