Rest in Peace, Pumpkin

Pumpkin died this morning, June 8th, 2008. I know a lot of people say this about their pets, but he was an incredible cat. He used to demand attention by crawling on Ron's back while he was on the computer, jumping into our laps, or laying on my books as I was studying for my master's degree. He would visit us at night, lay on my hair and spend hours purring while we were trying to sleep.

Pumpkin taught me what it is to really have a pet and not have your parents do all the work for you like my previous pets.

From Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem In Memoriam:27, 1850:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Pumpkin

I think Pumpkin is dying... He now outright refuses to eat, he cries when he tries to walk. He pees all over the floor even though Ron got him a litter box for the basement.... He sleeps face down with his nose touching the floor.... :-(

Welcome, Skippy!

Skippy

BTW - for anyone who might be wondering, Pumpkin is still eating, though it's been tough to get him to. Taking it a day at a time.

Fancy Feast Tuna with Gravy

Well, Pumpkin just plain doesn't like the vet food, but he's grooving on Fancy Feast Tuna with Gravy. Got him to eat almost a full can yesterday, and he's already off to a good start today. Hoping to talk to my vet today to see how he feels about this. I just can't see stressing the cat out further by forcing him to eat something he obviously doesn't like when there's a food out there that he does like.

My cat hates me :-(

Okay, note to self... Cats hate to be force fed. I guess we got him to eat more than normal, but it certainly wasn't 3/4 of a can of high calorie cat food. Turkey baster wasn't working, so we resorted to my fingers. I've been trying to corner him and get him to smell the food and lick my fingers - all the while saying, "Pumpkin, lick lick!" I just really hope we can get him to eat this stuff or else my vet will be sticking a tube in his stomach. And I'm sure he will not like those feedings any better...

I baked a pie and other news!

I found a recipe for coconut custard pie online and made it for my mom for Mother's Day. It was awesome! Also learned how to play some "Mexican Train" dominoes game. That was interesting. And finally saw my aunt's new house. That was cool.

My vet called this morning. The fatty liver disease is definitely what Pumpkin's got going on. We need to start force feeding him high calorie food because he's still not eating enough. I figure best to start him on that tomorrow morning... New day, new food. Plus, Ron has been at a drum corps show today, and if we don't figure out how to set up the force feeding stuff together, there's no chance that we'll ever do it the same way. Suspecting that this would be the news, Ron and I picked up a tube of NutriCal last night that I've been randomly sticking on the cat's paws. I think that this has probably only led to him wanting less food in tonight's feeding, though. When we move to force feeding, we're going to have to feed him at least 4 times a day, which he is not used to, so it's going to be tough. At least he is our (more) gentle cat and he doesn't have front paws claws. (Edited on 5/12 because the thought of my cat running around with no front paws was making me laugh hysterically! -LV)

So, I have no idea how we're going to coordinate it, but we're soon going to be on the road to recovery, so wish us luck!

And waiting some more...

Looks like the test results may not come back until tonight whenever. Pumpkin seemed peppy this morning, though. When I came down the stairs, he was not in the basement as he's been lately, but he was on the back of the couch! He chowed down on the food I gave him until he decided he was full and then spent some time on the living room floor. Then, as I brought some clothes up from the laundry room, he was upstairs in the bedroom!

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Still waiting for Pumpkin's test results, but the vet is heavily leaning towards Feline Fatty Liver Disease. This means that he will be fine so long as we can keep him eating. He ate a good amount of wet food tonight - and let me keep feeding it to him even when he walked away, which seems like something positive. He's snoozing now so maybe I'll wait a little while and see if he'll drink down some cat milk. Seeing Pumpkin not interested in eating is definitely unusual and I hope he's back to his old self soon!! I would not like to have to set the poor little guy up with a feeding tube!

Note for future reference....

An ultrasound for a cat is between $400 and $475, exact amount to be determined when they actually do the test. They won't be able to do the biopsy because one of his blood numbers came up high. Hopefully, they can find out what's wrong with just the ultrasound and we can act appropriately.

Pumpkin didn't seem to be eating that well this morning. He did eat one treat and a little bit of deli ham, so at least it's something. I'm sure it's pissing him off that we keep taking him to the vet. This is his third visit in three days.

UPDATE: They did the ultrasound and the vet was surprised to see that the liver was enlarged and the gallbladder was small. He thinks that they can do the test with the needle to get a sample so that he can get a diagnosis. We'll be able to pick him up tonight and we'll probably get the results in by tomorrow afternoon.

Fingers crossed....

Looks like there is a good chance Pumpkin's weight loss may be due to liver damage. I will keep the world updated as we get through a few days of testing.