I just got a call from the vet regarding Dodo’s Saturday lab test results. (I love this vet, btw; she’s so pleasant and loving, always very responsive, seems very sharp, and loooves Allie and always asks about her. BTW, she’d also recommended the sleep book, “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, and I told her I was already using it.) Dodo’s kidney values are down to the NORMAL range! AND…his red blood cell count has gone up a few percent, so that’s great. He also hadn’t lost any weight between this visit and the last one. It’s been about a week since he vomited bile (just this morning, in fact) so I hadn’t given him the antacid meds, altho I’d received it mid-week last week, and she said that’s fine, I can use it when the bile vomit gets more frequent. She wasn’t able to get his blood pressure on Saturday because their doppler broke, but going by his test results, Dodo’s doing well. She said it’s surprisingly good news given that he’s an old cat with severe polycystic kidneys, but apparently the core of the kidneys are doing their job filtering. The reduced protein diet helped (so the kidneys don’t have to filter as hard) and the blood pressure meds helped (so the “firehose blasting through a weak strainer” analogy no longer applies). Since the yowling has reduced, he must be getting less headaches, too.

I noticed that Dodo seems to be a little constipated. He strains in the litter box and scoots a little in there. Over the weekend he strained with no results, came out, drank water, went back, tried again and got poopies out. This morning, same thing. I’ve never heard a cat do little soft mewing grunts before, and it’d be cute if it weren’t so sad. The vet said that this is “normal” considering the kidney disease, because his kidneys are using every spare drop of water to do their jobs. This makes his poop harder. If it becomes a big issue, we can treat that symptom with stool softener meds. *picturing Dodo with one of those old-people multi-tiered pillboxes*

I asked how she thought Dodo would do if he’s unmedicated for a few days while we go on this road trip. She hesitated and said that she certainly wouldn’t recommend it because we’ve made such great headway in treating his kidney disease symptoms, and I agree, but I don’t see that the stepdaughter is able to medicate Dodo twice a day. She’s uncomfortable around cats because she hasn’t had much exposure to them, and when we were in Europe when Dodo got sick, Ann found out just how scared of picking up Dodo the stepdaughter was. I think people assume all cats scratch and bite, altho Dodo doesn’t. Anyway, fighting down a struggling cat and squirting meds in his mouth twice a day is going to be a little much for the stepdaughter, I believe, assuming she’s able to get up in the mornings to do this, and will be around at nights to do it again (we rarely see her at home). So the vet offered another alternative: the vet hospital technicians do house calls! I spoke to the office manager and she agreed to come by the house for $10 a visit to medicate Dodo when we’re gone. Now I’ll have the peace of mind to know Dodo is getting medicated effectively and on time.

I love this vet clinic.