Saturday Surprise

 Our package from Lithuania (!) came yesterday. I had bought some stuff for the amigos 2 months ago and we were eager to see what they actually looked like.

 WOW! They looked like real caves! (not that we have seen or been to many in Singapore). These cat beds come in 3 sizes. The purple is for large cats aka Bujang. The green one is S for Ms Akira.

As usual, intrepid kitty Tanaka got the idea pretty quick :)  To date only Tanaka The Fearless had the courage to get in the purple one. Ms Akira, being adventurous herself, had used her green one but as usual, she prefers her blanket.

  Too True! I am Tanaka the Fearless. My heart is as big as my courage and nuffing frightens me!

Finally

His picture and his nature was the same - he was beautiful to look at and wonderful in his goofiness

We got his ashes last Saturday. It came in this small jar decorated quite simply - just like Totoro when he as alive- a simple sweet kitty.

 

The kitties gathered around as it was some time ago that we were so busy at night. They sat around this space waiting for what was going to happen. We have become a rather quiet household, not because Toro was a noisy kitty. He was quiet and preferred his own company and ours of course. I think we are just trying to figure out our spaces again without him. But Bujang missed him most of all as he has not stopped looking for Toro in all of our rooms specially at night or at dinner.

We buried him here, in this 7 year old jasmine plant. Toro liked the smell that it gives off in the evenings. He would sniff the air whenever the jasmine flowered.

Totoro - 1st Mar 2005- 16 Sept 2012

Toro and I have the same birthday :) We would be celebrating his life for some time yet:)

Run Free Totoro!

My cat Totoro never went anywhere without his toy. It looked just like him.

Some of his best poses...

 Cat by the window, the better to look at flowers and feel the breeze...

 Cat sleeping by the door, the better to catch the breeze right off the bat, at dawn...

 Cat sleeping on the coffee table, head anywhere at all...

 Cat on a new couch. Its mine if you please!

The superman pose- his favourite one of all

My cat Totoro went to the bridge this very evening, at about 7 or so. He was in an oxygen tent for 2 whole days, his breathing laboured and his lungs full of fluid. He persevered with me for 8 days before he said goodbye with his head on my hand..softly meowing. I told him it was okay and that I would see him tomorrow and brushed his fur, which he liked mostest of all. I gave him some water and then quick as lightning he turned to face the wall and went limp. He was 7 years and 6 months.

They tried to resuscitate him (the 2nd time in 2 days) but I knew that he was gone. 

No more pain Totoro and no more needles and doctors and groomers and all that nonsense! Run Free! Thank you  Fern for helping me throughout this time and also cat_aunty and dell and everyone else who wished us well.

We are taking a break from blogging for a bit.

Totoro Thursday on Friday

Toro at hospital yesterday 13 September. He was curious as to the little noises that he heard. It transpired that there was a hamster in the cage beside him! It was robustly running in its exercise wheel and ruffling through its tray that was full of shredded paper:)

Test results on 12 September that prompted Dr Ly to hospitalise him again

His pcv was 22% from 20% on 11 September.

Dr Ly's plan for Toro was to keep him in hospital in the morning to flush out his kidney and for me to bring him home at night where he would be able to rest and relax somewhat since he gets stressed when he stays overnight at hospital. So that was what we did. 

This morning I brought him to hospital before I went to work and later I would bring him home, at about 7.30 pm. We have to do this for about a week. I am glad tomorrow is a weekend so we do not have to rush about.

Update:

When I saw him yesterday, he was alert and gave me many headbutts and purred when I brushed his coat. The nurse on duty told me that he had peed once only and that was a little worrying. They gave him food intravenously so he won't throw up but he ate a few of his renal kibble from my hand, which made me very glad evenso.

His values remained the same as on the 12th and although it was stable, it was not the best values to have but I am grateful that he was in a place where help is available 24 hours a day. He was breathing rather heavily and I was told that if he pees more, he would breathe more easily and another reason for the heavy breathing was that his kidney has to be continuously flushed. It was a little frightening for me to see him breathing so hard and I was thinking of the cats that I would need to have in case he needs another transfusion!

When he came home, he was as curious as ever but I was instructed to see if he peed at night and how much pee he had. I was all ready to have an all-nighter when I realised that I could put him in Ms Akira's room with a litter pan so it would be easier to keep track of in case I fell asleep and this was what we did. It was not a good plan as he was restless and slept fitfully. He kept sniffing at the litter box but did not get in it. At 4 am I decided to we should go back to the bedroom and then I put him near the litter boxes. After a few minutes, he got in the box and peed for some time. It was quite a puddle.

I also had to give him his vitamin C injection at home through a plug that they had fixed on his foreleg. This had to be given s_l_o_w_l_y as if not he might vomit. I would have to do this for 5 days, at 10 pm.

This morning, I gave him only his painkiller, fortekor and azodyl as he was breathing very hard and I did not want him to choke on anything else. I did not try to syringe feed him as well as he was wheezing.

However, he was quietly chatty in the cab this morning and looked out of the window constantly. When we got to his room, there was a little kitty already there. It was nice that he would have a friend there but of course it was not the best thing for the both of them to be there at all in the first place.

They would take another test later  today to see his kidney values.

Totoro on Tuesday and an Update

Who is that san? I don't recognise the scent...



Toro's older pictures. Sorry I have not taken anything new of him but will try today.

Last night he spent much of the time trying to get comfortable in bed and found a spot close to the wall, on my blanket. We did not have the air con on as the vet techs told me that anemic cats get cold because of the anemia and so we had just the fan.

Bujang and Tanaka did not sleep on the bed as they spent the whole time last night sniffing him and trying to get to know him again. Even Megat came close to sniff him. Toro took it all in good grace and touched noses with everyone except Megat.

This morning he had 10 ml of the rice/fish/veg broth concoction and all of his pills. He went up the coffee table to drink from the public water bowl and gave me one loud meow for a grooming session. Then he decided some rest and hide was in order and hid at the green tunnel. He did go to pee several times.

Later I will try to get him some steamed fish for dinner. Maybe he would get his appetite back.

Today, we would be going to Tampines to get his pcv reading as well.

UPDATE

Our new photos of Totoro

 Toro and Bujang resting easy ...

 Toro pretending that the camera wasn't there. His right eye is smaller than his left but this could be due to him not being well...

His pcv remains stable at 20% when we took the test this evening at Tampines. Dr Tay said that this is on the low side of the indicator, the lowest being 24%. However he said that this was good progress and that when there is a transfusion, it is not good to have such a high indicator right after. We are hoping that his Eprex would do the trick. Tomorrow he gets his last of 3 injections of Eprex. However I remembered Megat had more than that when his pcv was very low 31/2 years ago, sometimes as low as  5% only!

He had his sub q and pills given to him at the clinic. Dr Tay also gave him something for his vomitting as today he had vomitted twice. He was not pleased at this and swatted him. WOAH! But Dr Tay was very understanding and said that Toro has always been such a good boy and probably today, it was one injection too many. He had 3!

At dinner, he refused to eat his steamed fish at 6 pm and I could not get the fish fine enough to go into a syringe. However I had the presence of mind to buy a sachet of Walthams renal pouches. So I had put some through a sieve and given him this to eat through the syringe. He had 15 ml before he refused any more. So at least that was some food in him.

Before I put him to bed (and he is now in bed on my blanket with the fan on), I had given him 15 ml more of the same and he ate quite willingly. He is quite used to being fed with the syringe as we give him a mixture of pumpkin and papaya every day to help with his digestive system.

He drank quite a lot of water and had gone to pee twice when I am home. However during the day, it was difficult to see as there are 4 cats using the bins and I did not want to separate him from the rest. It seemed that he was busy walking about the whole day and had climbed up and down his cat tree by the window. Grandma and Sister N were very worried that he would unravel his stitches. Even Dr Tay told him not to be climbing up and down. But he checked the stitches anyway and announced them secure. 

I hope tomorrow he would decided to eat something by himself but if not I would just need to feed him with a syringe until he is stronger. 

We have a review tomorrow with Dr Ly at 6.15. Please wish us luck.

Update for Totoro

an old pic of Toro

Toro had 70 ml of Type A blood from Bujang. He was all wrapped up in a rowel when I saw him, sitting quietly when a nurse gave him his blood transfusion. He was cold as he was also anemic due to the operation on Saturday.

I saw Dr Ly and he told me that when during surgery he saw that his left kidney was not working at all due to the amount of sand in it. His right kidney was misshapen and swollen and when he cut it, the urine spurted out of it. This kidney was also almost blocked by sand. There was no big stone already as the 2 big calculi has dissolved into sand and he had to siphon all of that out. Of course as a result of the cut, he has anemia as well and his urea and creatinine levels are way up. Dr Ly said that without the surgery, he would only have about 3 weeks before his kidney totally shut down.

Now that the had gotten rid of the sand, he could now urinate better and he was pleased with that. However, because Toro was so stressed in hospital, he was not getting any better so he wanted me to bring him home to see if home would be better. Dr Ly said this would be his recommendation always but he wanted to monitor Toro in hospital and that was why he had to stay.

He also added that he did not know where the sand came from (and of course this was what had puzzled all his doctors from 2 years ago as well). He said all that we could do now is monitor his urea and creatinine and he has to get sub q 250 daily. he would also be given some meds for his anemia. he has to take his usual kidney medicine and we have to come back in 2 days.

When I left him in hospital, he was asleep and so I hope that Dr Ly is right - that home would be better for him. (He did perk up a little when he heard Bujang wailing in the hospital). I hope his PCV is better but I will only know this tonight.

UPDATE:
Toro's pcv is now up to 20% from 10%, thanks to Bujang. But it sems sometimes it would take much longer to get a true reading so tomorrow we are going to Tampines to get his pcv reading. His review with Dr Ly is on Wednesday.

He came home at 7.40 and immediately inspected the house. Then he hid in the tunnel but he actually allowed himself to be syringe-fed with the mixture that Katie had shared with us, but only about 5 ml of it before he decided that enough is enough. he drank some water by himself (HOORAY!) and is now in bed, sitting on my blanket.

He has eprex for anemia and a herbal remedy to increase his blood pcv as well. Of course he came home with painkillers and anti-biotics. It is lucky that he is also quite easy to pill.

Totoro Sunday on Monday

 We tried to keep things normal at home...as much as we can.

 Tanaka: I am keeping the bed warm for bruffer Toro san. Its quite comfotable I must say...

Toro at hospital yesterday Sunday 9th Sept...

Close up of stitch...

Toro spent much of Saturday and Sunday sleeping. The good thing was he had peed several times on Saturday night and Sunday. So toxins are out of his body while his kidney kicks in. I am also encouraged as the vet tech (who lnows Toro very well) said that Dr Ly kept a close eye on him on Saturday night and Sunday as well. Dr Ly would not be in until Wednesday but he keeps tabs on Totoro where he is.  I hope that he would be up on his feet today to eat on his own as yesterday, they had to tube feed him food and water as he was not interested in food or water at all. He just wantd to sleep. I would see him later this evening and would speak to Dr Lee as to his care.

The operation went well and he has to be in hospital where they need to flush his kidney until Tuesday. It was quite fortunate for us that Dr Ly was able to do the operation immediately on Saturday. After his ulta sound with Dr Sabine, we had a consulattion with Dr Ly and Dr Ly recommended an operation as he only had one kidney that is working and not very well at that as he has calculi in it. Dr Ly told me tht if we did not opearte to get rid of the big stones, he would only have a few months! I did not have to think long (!!) and told him that we should do the op immediately.

The next day, we came at 10.00 am and Fern also came in to see him and to give him Reiki. He was calm and quiet the whole time. Dr Ly said he was also under great stress as Toro had only 1 working kidney. He ordered a hole lot of tests - PCV, blood clot and ordered various clamps and a hardcopy of the ultra sound. We had done a blood test last month so that was quite helpful as well.

He had the op done at about 3 plus and I was told that Toro was recovering 'nicely' at 5.20pm. I saw him for a few minutes after that. He was awake but quite weak and then I had to leave as he was in the ICU and Dr Ly had another op to do.

The other kitties were a little subdued on Saturday and they were better yesterday. Tanaka has decided to take charge of Toro's scratch bed and he hangs around that quite often:) 

 PS: I just got a call that he needs a blood transfusion so am levaing now for hospital/

Kidney Surgery for Totoro

 Toro resting after the ultra-sound visit

Toro waiting for Dr S at 10.00 am this morning...

Toro will be undergoing kidney surgery tomorrow at 10.00 am with Dr Ly. His left kidney is now not working at all and his right kidney has 2 stones measuring 7.6 mm and 6.5mm, both too big and dangerous. These stones are also blocking his kidney and Dr Ly said that it would be a matter of a few months and his kidney will also fail. So since he is a young at only 7 years old, Dy Ly said it would be in his best interests.

So he will go in for surgery tomorrow at 10.00 am. We have all our fingers and paws crossed.

Wednesday Wiles

 I am trying to catch up on my reading.

Bujang: The book is too thick san. Are you sure its at all interesting?

san: Yes. I am sure you would enjoy it. But I can read it first and then tell you the shorter version. How about that?

Bujang: OK! I think that will be best as I have to watch the house and can't do both things at once!

Hmmm I am just trying to keep this toy to myself..shhhh....

Just Because

Need to catch that flashy monster!

Saturday Outside

 san brought me outside for a bit this morning...but only at the corridor. But I was glad even so :) I have not been outside for a whole week because of the rain!

 Tanaka went outside as well :)

 Here we both are. Tanaka went out first. I was second.

 Tanaka liked sniffing at the roses. san laughed and laughed as she thought Tanaka was funny.

 But Tanaka came in after about 15 minutes. He sat outside of the house until san decided to bring him inside. Then I got out. san had some mint and I smelled it. I didn't like it much.

 I spent some time just sitting here looking at the corridor. Sometimes people walked past us and got a  shock as they were not expectng me at all. :)

I sat here for a long time. I like just sitting about on the cement as it is cool and I get a nice breeze.