Happy birthday to Stella, and a vet visit

Stella is 21 this month. She is the oldest cat I’ve ever had. She has been very healthy and spry for the most part.

Since the move to the new apartment, she has been losing weight and not looking as good. She is looking more her age instead of being so kittenish. (She did play with her tail last week in the bathtub. First time she had done that in a while and the first time in the new place.)

She still seems to be losing weight and this week she has started sleeping away from me. She’s hiding in dark corners — same thing Ambush did when he started going down hill. (In fact, the vet said it can be a signal that something is really not right.)

I have been encouraging her to eat by following her around with food bowls. She walked up to me just a few seconds and I offered her the food bowl. She ate a few licks and then groomed herself. She did stay on my lap for a few minutes to be petted. Then she went back to laying down under my old desk on the other side of the room. She hasn’t been wanting to sit on my lap much either.

Kiesha has been rather annoyed with me because I’ve been feeding Stella and keeping Kiesha out of the food.

Stella just came up and meowed and asked for food. Gave her a little and then she walked off.

I am supposed to go to Mom’s this weekend but I’m a little worried about Stella. I’ll only be gone from Saturday morning through Sunday afternoon, so just over 24 hours. Stella has a vet appointment in about 30 minutes. I’ll update with what we find out.

Update: Stella’s blood work came back at a reasonable level. Her kidney numbers were only slightly higher than the tests from 8 months ago. She isn’t anemic, either. The urinalysis showed that she has a UTI. She was given a shot of antibioitcs and that should take care of her.

Related Images:

Similar Posts

  • Cat Battles

    It’s funny how much you miss cats purring in the morning until you don’t have both of them in the room with you. Brie Brie, my Maine Coon cross kitty, was downstairs staring out the sliding glass doors when the neighbor’s cat walked up and sat about a foot from the door. Brie Brie didn’t…

  • |

    Gun shot

    It is about 2:00 AM. I just heard the first gun shot in my otherwise quiet neighborhood. This is very surreal. The last time I lived in an area where there were gun shots, they were from hunters tracking dear or other game. The time before that was when I lived in Durham. I rented…

  • Young, Spry Basette

    One of the scanned pictures of Basette; she was seven. This is the Little Black Wonder Cat(tm). See the sparkle in her eye? That sly calculating look? She was purring when I took this photo. She posed for a series of five pictures. Such a photogenic little critter. I took some of the original pictures…

  • |

    One Last Purr

    Basette was my Little Black Wonder Cat. She recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge on June 11, 2004. It has been so hard to try and write anything here since that time. This blog journaled her story, the intense roller coaster ride from February through June, and beyond. Funny how treating and nursing a pet through…

  • Stellster and the bed

    Stella has developed a bad habit: if any piles of clothes are left on the bed or within her reach (like the laundry basket), she will pee on them. If the litter box is not clean or does not have enough litter in it, she will pee on my bed. (Mattress covers are worth their…

  • Update on Ambush

    I called my vet in Tennessee for a second opinion on the way in to work this morning. She said it is possible that another vet could hear a murmur that she missed. She also suggested getting a second opinion: 80% of the cats she diagnoses with murmurs really don’t require much treatment because it…

One Comment

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.