Oranges Update

[Stang Girl]

As some of you may or may not know...Oranges had a stroke sometime last Saturday night or early Sunday morning. I took her to the emergency vet on Sunday and they kept her overnight. Jeff picked her up Monday morning then dropped her off at our vets in Bastrop.

She is at home now and doing better. Her head has an extreme tilt to the left, her right eye is completely dilated, and she walks with a little stagger now. She can't see well and follows the walls to where ever she wants to go. She is eating and drinking well and can find her way to the litter box. It's been very hard for us to see her this way since she has been such a joy to us but we are taking very good care of her.

The vet says it will take a few weeks to know the extent of the damage done by the stroke but other than the affects she is still a very healthy cat. Also, the ER vet said she is around 13 years old.

[Stang Girl]

Before I begin my update, I guess I should fill you in on what has happened since my last post. Oranges had gotten so much better. She still has her head tilt and her right eye completely dilated but she has been cruising around the house, wanting your undivided attention all the time, even to the point of jumping up on the bed by herself. We don't think that she can see clearly, but can see shapes and shadows and we keep everything in place so she knows exactly where everything is. She was back on her normal dry food and except for her front leg,head tilt, and her sight, she was pretty back to normal.

Well, now we have been in stress mode again. Starting sometime Saturday, Oranges started losing her ability to walk. By the end of the night, she couldn't even stand up. You would hold her up and she'd just fall over.

Sunday, we just watched over her and kept a close eye on her. She was eating fine, drinking fine, everything fine but walking. We had the long talk of the possible decision we may have to make. It was so hard. This kitty has us wrapped around her cute little paws and it's hard to think that we may not have her much longer.

So Jeff took her to the vet yesterday morning. they checked her out, more blood work, and yes, everything normal AGAIN. He kept telling us again about CT scans, ultrasounds, and spinal taps to find out the root cause but without that all he could say is that it can be anything from a brain tumor, mini stroke, to an infection and anything in between. Great, huh?

He did give us a week's worth of antibiotics and some kitty aspirin (made for them and better than baby aspirin) so we started giving them to her last night.

I just got up (working from home today ) but Jeff had told me that she was moving around more this morning which is a good sign. She is laying on the BIG pillow I got a couple of weeks ago.

And of course, since this happened, Bailey aka Mr. Jealous, has been a royal PIA. And even right now he is in trouble because I busted him red-handed eating the cat food. Maybe he thinks that if he keeps eating all the cat food that they won't be here anymore because there is no more food.

Anyhoo, Ms. Oranges is a fighter and she has been fighting this whole time to get up and walk. I am just hoping that whatever is keeping her from doing it, that the drugs will help. Just keep her in your evil thoughts if you don't mind.