Ahfu is back home, doing okay (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

He's on heavy pain meds, and he's not allowed to jump up or down on anything for a week, so we locked him in the kitchen via a baby gate. The consensus is that somehow he injured his neck, but since he responds to pain medication and doesn't have any swelling, that he somehow injured himself when he had stitches. I theorize that he was on the couch or something, jumped down funny because of the staples on his stomach, and landed on his fat head or neck.

So... if he heals, he might have another go for a few more years. His stomach, guts, and scar are fine. The removed the staples, put in some final stitches, and said the wound looks clean and healthy. He eats, poops, and still wags his tail, albeit feebly, at people who come see him.

Thanks, humbly, for your prayers, everyone. They work. Posted in: ahfu , vet

On pet deaths (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Ahfu is still under watch as I write this, but I could help thinking about his face, twisted in resigned pain, as I kissed him goodbye this morning. His legs were trembling and he gasped when he moved. I hoped they'd either fix what's wrong with him, or let him go.

It reminds me of three years ago. We found Artoo sick right after Katsucon on Feb. 21st, and he was put to sleep on the 28th. Massive kidney failure, could have happened to any older cat.

You know I still have his box of ashes on the nightstand next to my bed? He acts as a pedestal for the clock radio. I put him there because I miss him terribly and also because he used to love to sit under the bedlamp to warm himself. I remember when I took that box home about a week after he was put to sleep. ALL the other cats knew it was his ashes. The same with Oreo, who sits next to our TV. Or on a dresser. I'd better check on his location...

But I still miss Artoo. I guess after 3 years, am pretty pathetic to still hang on to the ashes of a stupid old cat. But he stood by me for 13 years, I can't just dump him, even if he did barf a lot. My former boss would mock my sentimentality, I am sure, but I purged him from my life like carefully cleaning up a crime scene. I only mention that boss because at the same time this all happened, I busted my foot and work was HELL because of him. Like a triple whammy. It was actually the "so your cat died, you want a medal?" mentality that really pushed me to leave that job. Man, that was insanity. I have shut it all out so much, that when I read the entries three years later, it was almost like it had happened to another person. But the whole time, I mourned Artoo more than my stupid foot or a job gone all wrong. My foot healed fine, I got a much better job... but I still have no Artoo.

I haven't given up on Ahfu, because the news was better than we expected. We're allowed to take him home tomorrow night because they think his neck got injured. Possibly a disk, because that's the only thing that he even acts like hurts when they examine him. At least it's not a blood clot or his organs are all twisted up. I don't know how we are going to keep him from jumping on the couch or using stairs for the next few weeks. Posted in: ahfu , artoo , death , vet

Ahfu is really sick again (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

It doesn't look good.

Ahfu was recovering pretty well, but yesterday his health unexpectedly and rapidly declined. He's in a lot of pain, can barely move, and is generally listless and distant. His incision looks fine, he's not running a fever, but he's... just not well at all. We didn't even know if he'd make it through the night. When I left for work today, I had this feeling it will be the last time I see him alive.

We're taking him to the vet today, and we'll see what they say.

Update 10:15am - The vet says the same things we saw: incision looks good, he has no fever, and he's lost no weight. But he's in obvious horrible pain. They think it may be his spine (?) but admit it's a guess based on his posture. He's being put under 24 hour observation. Status is unknown, but better than, "Yeah... call the morgue."

Side note: I had to call the vet and tell them he's afraid of metal bowls. Really, Ahfu's been afraid of them his whole life. We're not sure why. Maybe it's his reflection, or the sound they make, but when he was a puppy he would bark at them and back away from them. He refuses to eat from metal bowls. They put a note on his crate for me. Posted in: ahfu , vet

Ahfu is home (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, $1000 later, Ahfu is home and recovering as best he knows how.

He's on a boiled rice and chicken diet, which is fine with him as well as the other dogs. Yes, we have three dogs this week, since we're taking care of Anya's lovable cancer-ridden pooch, Penny. More on that in a bit. So when I got the rock, it was not dolomite as I was led to believe, but a depressing normal conglomerate quartzite, which is a very common sedimentary rock around here. No one knows how long it was in his stomach; it could have been a few days, or maybe a year, since he had the symptoms of something like this for a while that would go off an on. Twice we'd tink to call the vet, and then he'd get better. Apparently it bounced around his stomach, never getting into the intestines, which was good because once it would have gotten there, it's a mess to get out and then some of the intestines die, so he'd have to have them shortened... not fun. It's depressing because that's a rock he ate from the outside, and there's no way to keep every rock out of my yard. It was the diameter of a bottlecap, and about twice as thick.

I saw the X-ray. He's pretty healthy otherwise, which is good, because most modern Pekingese have only 5 ancestors from the late 1800s, and so there's a lot of inbreeding issues, like cleft palate, bad spine, eye problems, and so on. Yes, the breed dates back 3500 years, but the Chinese royalty were so protective of them, that often they were killed by their handlers if capture seemed imminent.

"He won't eat," they said, but that's because Ahfu has this abnormal fear of metal bowls. Really, even as a puppy, he refused to eat out of them and barked at them with fear. Once we showed him he'd eat from a plastic plate and our hand, they let us take him home. His blood pressure went down, but they want to check on it when the remove his stitches to see if he needs to be put on meds.

This week, while Anya is at the Grand Canyon with her fiancee and parents, we are taking care of her older dog, Penny. Penny is a terrier of some kind with a very advanced state of incurable cancer which had a HUGE tumor on one side of her leg like a grapefruit-sized saddlebag. They can't remove it or drain it because of the type of cancer that it is, plus she's pretty old, so it's just one of those "let her live her remaining days just dealing with it." And she does. It's apparent that her body is fighting off the infection with incredible force and determination, but when she's not sleeping, she's really active, happy, and friendly. So... no putting her to sleep anytime soon. It's funny how EASILY Penny has fit into our house. Even Widget doesn't care, and Penny is easily 2-3 times the size of Ahfu, and 5-6 times larger than Widget. Between the size of a beagle and a bloodhound. Posted in: ahfu , penny , vet

Ahfu rocks (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Surgery is done. Wanna guess what it was?

A *rock*! As in what Charlie Brown got in his Halloween bag. Most likely a sedimentary carbonate rock called dolomite. Known for its attractive sparkly white color, it is often used in decorative landscapes, or in our case, in the pot of a fake tree we have in our living room.

How the hell does a dog eat a rock? A frickin' rock!

He recovered from surgery fine, and I am told "all his organs look nice and healthy." But his blood pressure was really high, and we had been told about his heart before, so... it looks like Ahfu may be put on blood pressure meds. I didn't even know dogs could get hypertension. Maybe that's why he's so crabby. I hope the meds aren't expensive. Posted in: ahfu , vet

More on Ahfu (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Well, he goes into surgery tomorrow. I can put it on an emergency credit card, which will delay the cost somewhat until we find the money. And for those kind people who offered, I would ask not to send me anything, because I'd feel just terrible, but save it for some day when someone you know cannot eat.

I have been there. If it wasn't for FanTek, Koinonia, and the Mormon church, my family would have been starving on the streets, literally. Save your money for those people, which will hopefully never be us again.

So far, the x-rays show a hard lump, hard enough to be bright white, in his stomach. He must have ate something he wasn't supposed to, like a golf ball.

Thanks again for everyone's kind thoughts and prayers. I will let you know how it goes. Posted in: ahfu , vet

Ahfu is really sick (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

Long story short, they think he has a stomach blockage. I am guessing (based on experience) he ate something he shouldn't have, like a ball of foil or a sock or something. We're awaiting more detailed info, plus operation cost estimates.

I don't have a lot of money to pay for an operation, and the option may be to put his to sleep because I have to pay my utility bills. That fucking sucks, and I feel horrible having to weigh this kind of decision.

Pray for him. :( Posted in: ahfu , vet

Storm is sick (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

I mentioned earlier I went to the vet. Ahfu was due his shots, and Storm has started to have some discharge from one nostril. She doesn't act sick, per se, other then the sneezing. But no fever, no change in behavior. Crabby as always. The vet was not optimistic that antibiotics would do the trick, given no other cat has gotten sick, and it's only from one nostril. Could be... well... I won't say it.

Ahfu also has a heart murmur. Both Ahfu and Storm are roughly the same age; Ahfu is only a little younger, but both are around 9. When I was growing up, I was led to believe that cats had a long lifespan. My family's cat Daisy lived to be 16, and Shasta lived to be 21. But my record isn't as good:

Pookie: 10 - Heart attack
Mikey: 4 - Kidney infection
Oreo: 6 - Total intestine and bowel failure
Artoo: 13 - Kidney failure (mostly old age, though)

I am not sure why cats don't live as long with me. I feed them right, clean the cat box, give them plenty of water... and they never die to to neglect. I just feel unlucky. Posted in: ahfu , storm

Tales of Mystery (Punkadyne Labs (Punkwalrus))

So, last night, I had a migraine, and I went to bed as soon as I got home. Ahfu, as usual, jumped on the bed to sneeze in my face, but as I petted him, his tail looked funny, and his fur seemed crusty. So I turned him around, and saw his right flank was matted heavily with blood. It looked like a larger dog had taken a chunk out of him, although with all the matting it was hard to see the size on dept of the wound. Ahfu seemed like he didn’t want you to look at it, but didn’t seem to be in any pain.

takayla and CR dragged him to the sink, and washed him off. In my head, I was trying to figure out how he could have gotten such a wound. He is never exposed to large dogs except the ones next door, but they are fenced in. Maybe one escaped and bit him. That’s happened before, the escape part, but the dog (Rosie, a German Shepherd mix) is so submissive, she runs off with her tail behind her legs when you come out, and none of the dogs ever cared when she got in. But we fixed the fence. And how come Ahfu, with such a huge gaping wound, is not limping or anything? I tried to picture how he could have gotten wounded in such a way without being bitten, like tore it on some jagged metal or something like that. How badly was this going to cost me in vet bills? Then I got the news from the washing crew:

It was actually raspberry jelly.

Now, after a breath of relief... more mystery. How did he get so much jelly on his flank? We don’t even have raspberry jelly in the house, and the blueberry, blackberry, and lingonberry jellies and jams are in the fridge. And why on his hind leg and not, say, his face? He would have gladly eaten any molecules of raspberry jelly he came across, and in just a huge amount, he would have ended up with it in the folds of his peka-face. So this means he either sat in, or rubbed against a decent quantity of raspberry jelly which still may be lying around in some dark corner of my house. Where did that come from?

I don’t understand my house.

Now I am waiting to see if one of my cats gets smeared with peanut butter. Posted in: ahfu , medical , vet , wound