Freckles & Doubt (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
freckles_and_doubt) wrote2020-08-12 03:50 pm
freckles_and_doubt) wrote2020-08-12 03:50 pm
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Day 143: still life with Codsworth
What has four feet, round shocked eyes, an attitude problem, and arthritis? This is what.
Pandora has been a bit off in the last few days, slower and more sedentary than usual, and particularly grumpy to Jyn (see: abrupt 2am wakes because Pandora has woken up on one side of my recumbent form, taken grave exception to the sleeping existence of Jyn on the other side of said form, and essayed a montane traversal in order to bite her and eject her from her warm spot). On Monday it became evident she was in pain, hunched and moving with difficulty, and almost completely unable to move her tail, which looks weird and distressing on a cat who is usually highly expressive with tail movements, mostly irritated lashing. One underestimates how attuned one becomes to cat body language: if the tail doesn't go up when you pet her, something's wrong.
So I hauled her in to the lovely vet, who agreed there was definitely pain present but couldn't say precisely what or where, and who gave her a shot of anti-inflammatory on general principles, and I brought her back for x-rays this morning. The x-rays show it's definitely the start of arthritic wossname in the base of her spine, and the shot helped a lot (although it's wearing off now). I have pills to give her to try and replicate that easing, which will be an adventure, Pandora bites when pilled.
And she has fancy joint-enhancing prescription food, and is set up on a soft pad of blanket on the floor, because she's too stiff to climb into her nest thing, and is in front of the heater, which seems to help. (Pictured above: heater, left; Pandora, centre; Codsworth, rear right, demonstrating his cowed and vanquished posture). But this isn't a cure, all we can do is manage it, and hope her kidneys can handle the anti-inflammatories long-term, and that the next stage, where the joint ankyloses and swaps pain for reduced mobility, kicks in soon. But it's not the bowel problem or cancer or anything terminal I was rather fearing. It's still life.
Pandora has been a bit off in the last few days, slower and more sedentary than usual, and particularly grumpy to Jyn (see: abrupt 2am wakes because Pandora has woken up on one side of my recumbent form, taken grave exception to the sleeping existence of Jyn on the other side of said form, and essayed a montane traversal in order to bite her and eject her from her warm spot). On Monday it became evident she was in pain, hunched and moving with difficulty, and almost completely unable to move her tail, which looks weird and distressing on a cat who is usually highly expressive with tail movements, mostly irritated lashing. One underestimates how attuned one becomes to cat body language: if the tail doesn't go up when you pet her, something's wrong.
So I hauled her in to the lovely vet, who agreed there was definitely pain present but couldn't say precisely what or where, and who gave her a shot of anti-inflammatory on general principles, and I brought her back for x-rays this morning. The x-rays show it's definitely the start of arthritic wossname in the base of her spine, and the shot helped a lot (although it's wearing off now). I have pills to give her to try and replicate that easing, which will be an adventure, Pandora bites when pilled.
And she has fancy joint-enhancing prescription food, and is set up on a soft pad of blanket on the floor, because she's too stiff to climb into her nest thing, and is in front of the heater, which seems to help. (Pictured above: heater, left; Pandora, centre; Codsworth, rear right, demonstrating his cowed and vanquished posture). But this isn't a cure, all we can do is manage it, and hope her kidneys can handle the anti-inflammatories long-term, and that the next stage, where the joint ankyloses and swaps pain for reduced mobility, kicks in soon. But it's not the bowel problem or cancer or anything terminal I was rather fearing. It's still life.