Barney Cat

Well crap. Another male member of the family is in the hospital. Barney stopped eating a few days ago. It actually may have been a week or more. With Richard being in the hospital and how crazy our routine has been, I'm not entirely sure. I did notice that Barney started to turn up his nose at our water when it started to smell a while back. He would drink the water downstairs, so I wasn't too worried, at least not until Friday when I realized he had stopped eating. Then I realized that he hadn't been sleeping with me the whole time Richard had been in the hospital. He was also acting odd in other ways. He would start to meow very loudly in the wee hours of the morning. Something he'd never done before. He was also wobbly and his little feet pads felt cold. He was getting weak. I called the vet's office on Sunday and took him in.

We found out years ago that Barney has severe kidney problems. We've known that we had to be on the lookout for him to be up chucking. Once is OK. Treat him for it. Twice, take him to the vet. It could be serious. He hadn't been up chucking that I know of. Well, when the vet ran the blood work on Sunday, we discovered that Barney is severely dehydrated and his kidneys aren't working properly at all. We don't know which came first and triggered the other. There's no way to tell for sure really.

Barney is in the "hospital" getting fluids. If the fluids help and he starts to eat and the kidneys start to work more efficiently, he may survive. The vet called to update me this morning. There has been very little improvement. He's a little perkier, but he's still not eating. He told me that he is not as optimistic as he was yesterday. We're keeping him there one more night, but the vet said that if there is not a significant improvement overnight, he doesn't think there will be. One way or another, I'll be going to the vet's office tomorrow. I'll either be picking up my sweet boy, or euthanizing him. I knew he wouldn't have a long life when I learned of his kidney problems and quite frankly, he's lived longer than I thought we'd be blessed with him, but I sure hate the thought of losing him. I love his company, his power boat purr, his beautiful spirit, and his long white whiskers.

I sure hope I get to bring him home.