Rainbow's downturn

Rainbow, refusing to show her abscess

I am finding it hard to tell you about Rainbow’s condition this week. Last week she saw our veterinarian for a recheck and came home with bad news. Not only have her kidneys gotten worse, the abscess on her cheek has also resulted in a large patch of dead tissue covering her entire left cheek. We might consider surgically removing that tissue and trying to reconstruct her cheek but with her kidney disease she would probably never make it through anesthesia no matter how quickly we worked.

Over the weekend I upped her subcutaneous fluid administration to daily doses and she seemed to be pretty bright and alert. She ate a little and moved around well. However, early morning Monday she grew weak and listless. She doesn’t get around very much on her own right now and she doesn’t want to eat her cat food. I started offering her baby food and she’s happily eating that so far.

I am normally an optimistic person but am finding that hard right now. I guess, on the brighter side, she doesn’t yet have to face the nausea and vomiting that kidney failure can cause. I don’t believe she is in any pain and seems happy enough to just lie with me in bed. Her favorite “thing” is to be by my side and kneading me. Sometimes she gets so involved in it that she uses her back paws as well as her front.

So, as long as Rainbow is willing to keep eating and kneading and doesn’t fight her treatments then I’ll support her the best I can. I don’t know how long that will be but every moment is precious.