Chum's status

The mobile vet came to the house yesterday afternoon. She took blood samples and tried to get a urine sample but his bladder was empty. She will know the blood results later tonight, hopefully. In the meantime she told us to try and get a urine sample and then within 24 hours take it to one of the two veterinary hospitals she's affiliated with. Both are over 10 miles away, which doesn't seem that far but I'd have to drive thru city traffic to get to either one. I am willing to do that but since the urine sample is time sensitive (and I'll probably be doing this more than once) I wanted to see if I could just take it to Wrigley's vet, just a couple miles up the road. The mobile vet said for me to call them first thing in the morning and see if they'd be willing to do that.

The vet left us some pellets that you put into the litter box (without any litter) and they will help keep the urine fresh for 24 hours. I didn't think that was going to work for Chum so instead we put a bunch of plastic on top of Chum's existing box and moved the box off the couch because Chum is not able to jump up, and put it on the floor in the living room. Tom picked him up and placed him in the box and shockingly, he peed on top of the plastic. I was able to syringe the urine (which was a dark brown color) and then place it in the fridge overnight.

This morning instead of calling Wrig's vet I decided to go there in person and ask them if they would be willing to test the urine as well as provide the prescriptions our mobile vet wrote for Chumley. They told me there was no problem testing the urine but that one of their doctors would need to examine Chumley before they would provide any medications. It's amazing when you string words together like "feral", "extremely aggressive" and "has bitten vets and vet techs pretty bad in the past" will do to change one's mind. The assistant said she would confirm with the doctor if they could make an exception in this case. Within a minute she returned to the desk and said I could come by later in the afternoon to pick up his results as well as the 3 prescriptions I needed.

So now, we just wait. And Chum is not improving at all. He hasn't eaten since Saturday morning. We successfully gave him IV fluids last night and tried again this morning but the needle kept going through his skin and squirting out the other side. He has had some licks of water off my finger as well as some licks of chicken broth, only off my finger, he won't lick anything from the bowl. I think the smell may be too strong for him.

Then this morning I tried a little bit of yogurt and he did take a few licks of that as well, maybe about a teaspoonful before he had enough. I pureed broccoli, carrots and potatoes and tried to give him some of that but he didn't want it. I mixed the puree in with a little bit of yogurt and he barely lifted his head up to sniff and then went back to sleep. Last night I poured some chicken broth into popsicle molds which Chumley used to go INSANE over, and when I held that up to him he just stared off into space.

I am grateful for the flexibility I have to be able to stay home and be here with him. And I am thankful that right now, we are able to pay these vet bills, especially since we're now working with 2 vets.

Chum's inside his fuzzy little hole, sleeping. From time to time his breathing appears more labored and the vet said that is concerning. I'd be lying if I didn't say I keep checking inside his hole, every 15 minutes or so, to make sure he's still breathing.

I'll update more as we go along.