CatWatch 2008: Hungry Hungry Hippo edition
An upswing on the rollercoaster after the break.
Last week Beth took Ian into the vet with the intention of doing the fluid injection herself under supervision. They weighed him at 12 lb 10 oz, so that just proved what we'd already known. The vet also advised us to bring Ian in on a weekly basis now, which we've scheduled for every Friday.
To cut to the chase: the fluid injections have completely restored his appetite. We'll see what his weight is on Friday, but I expect he's topped 13 lbs again. He's been back to his piggy self. The vet also peeked at his tumor last Thursday and noted that it hasn't appeared to have grown much, if at all, since the prior visit. We'll see if that holds up for this Friday. We've given him injections (150 ml of the fluid) last Saturday, again on Monday and we'll do it again today and Friday. It turns out it's not a huge deal to do these injections and Ian doesn't mind so I'm certainly OK with continuing with this for as long as it takes.
The downsides are that his drooling is still borderline extreme. As well, he's taken to biting his front paws to clean them (since licking is ineffective with his nubbin) which has left them patchy-looking, drooly and bald. It's quite a look.
I was pretty convinced this week would be his last until the fluid injections perked his appetite back up. I think his decline has plateaued for at least the short term. I'll rate his quality of life since last Thursday as a fairly consistent 6.5 to 7 out of 10.