PASSIONATE RATIONS

I had no idea that potassium helps me hold my head up.

I mean, I knew it was important and all, what with those constant childhood reminders to eat bananas. But hold my head up?

My kitty, once again, has taught me so much.

Fourteen years old, Cote (pronounced like Cody, to the never-ending horror of French speakers everywhere) is an elderly feline. A black-and-white gentleman with spats. For the last couple of years he’s had a spate of health issues. Most recently, I could see he’d been losing weight rather quickly and seemed dehydrated. A trip to the vet kept him there for four days of IV hydration and evaluation. When I went to pick him up, he looked at me askance from the floor, his head bowed low, his small bony shoulder blades poking through the silky black fur on his back. He appeared more of a mess than when I’d left him.

Before I completely freaked out (or not), the vet explained that he couldn’t raise his head, his potassium levels were too low. She explained that she’d been aggressively dosing him with the stuff, and that, if we continued to do so at home, he’d be able to hold his head high again. Although his hydration levels were good for that moment, he’d unfortunately entered chronic renal failure and his prognosis was uncertain, since he’d hardly eaten at the vet’s.

We were sent home with bags of yellow-tinted fluid and needles, a bunch of prescription food, and a determination to make him feel well again (though I am very disheartened by the fact that renal failure is irreversible).

I am pleased to report, however, that, a couple of weeks later, my gentle boy is sitting here on my lap looking up to me with normal neck functions and deep, contented, golden eyes. Soon, I will give him his “hydration therapy” (subcutaneous fluids), which I now do twice a day and likely will have to do for the remainder of his life.

Apparently renal failure is not an immediate death sentence and cats with that Dx can live weeks, months, even years, with proper management.

Would that Minu had had it so good.

For Cote, well, I’m not going to let that potassium out of his system.

And I think maybe I’ll have a banana myself…