I took a chance and weighed Cow Mau just now.
Now, I don’t know whether to celebrate or not yet….
On Wednesday at the vet’s, using their scale, he only weighed 3.55kg (his usual weight was 4kg). So that’s a massive weight loss which isn’t good news. Cow Mau has cachexia (muscle wasting) which isn’t uncommon for an elderly cat like him.
The vet also was worried if he is leaking protein through his kidneys but she did not want to take blood that day as Cow Mau already had a 14-needle acupuncture plus three injections for pain management. I agreed that taking blood would have stressed him too much and am thankful the vet felt the same. So she told me to try and collect his urine for proteinuria testing.
But I tried to collect his urine yesterday and I failed because the moment I went near him while he was squatting, he stopped short and moved away. This is the very first time I’ve experience this in a cat. For previous cats, I had no trouble collecting their urine as long as I’m right there watching them squat into position. I could even collect Cleo’s urine and we all know what a fussy royalty she was.
So anyway, I weighed Cow Mau this morning and he tipped the scales at 4.2kg!
What??? From 3.55kg to 4.2kg?
Could my scale be wrong?
It’s the same type of scale as the clinic’s but I know different scales can show slightly different results.
So, should we celebrate yet?
Well, I would like to, but let’s keep it low key for now and continue doing what we are doing.
Just now, Indy came to call me at the door. He was doing it for Cow Mau. So there was Indy, calling me, with Cow Mau sitting beside him.
Aww….
I’ve been feeding Cow Mau as much diluted Hill’s KD canned food as I can. I know he doesn’t like it diluted as the taste would be reduced and he prefer eating it neat, but it causes a lot of mouth irritation because of the texture of the food. When diluted, it’s much smoother, but the taste would be diluted too.
One other bonus of diluting the food is that Cow Mau would end up drinking more water. He needs to, because he is dehydrated and being a heart patient, the maximum subcut I can do for him is 60ml daily. This is definitely insufficient to address the dehydration, but this is the maximum we can go. Otherwise, it taxes on his heart.
So I consulted our vet who has now gone overseas, she says to increase his water intake as much as we can. One way is to add water to his food.
Do I think Cow Mau has kidney issues? Yes, I think he does. I wish I didn’t have to know because there’s nothing more I can do besides what I am already doing now. I’m constrained by his heart condition. But the vet is keen to check for proteinuria because if Cow is leaking protein, he can be given Semintra to address this.
If I still cannot collect his urine, we would have to stick a needle into his bladder (guided by ultrasound) to get it next week when we go for his next acupuncture.
Did you know this?
The theory and practice of acupuncture originated in China. It was first mentioned and recorded in documents dating a few hundred years before the Common Era. The first documentation of acupuncture that described it as an organized system of diagnosis and treatment is in The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine, which dates back to 100 BCE. Earlier, instead of needles, sharpened stones and long sharp bones were used around 6000 BCE for acupuncture treatment.
So, the documented practice has been around for more than 2000 years but the use of sharpened stones and bones goes back 8000 years!
3.55kg to 4.2kg!