Sam’s Regime

Well actually it’s more like my routine for taking care of him. Not that he is officially an old cat with health issues he needs special things. The easiest by far has been his new food.

He has a special kidney diet because he’s having problems with his kidneys. The first food he was on after getting home from the vet he would not touch. I ended up feeding him tuna fish, chicken and lunch meat. Not the best of diets. He lost some weight. So I called up the vet and she recommended a different food. Thankfully he eats it. The only problem I have is how much to put out at one time. Because Sam had dry food in the past, he ate whenever he wanted to. The thing with wet food is that it dries out over time. If I put something out for him around 9pm by 6am the next morning it’s ready to be thrown out and is probably not all that good to eat.

I also have to add some sort of supplement to the food. There’s something for the morning and another one for the evening. So far that’s been fairly easy to do.

Sam is also on medicine for the next week or so. I have to wrap him up in a large towel. This keeps him from moving around. I then use a syringe to squirt the medicine into his mouth. Sometimes this is successful and other times most of it ends up on my arm. Thankfully this is only once a day and should end in the next few days.

The final thing I have to do is hydration therapy. Twice a week I get to put saline solution into him. I have an IV bag and I give him 100ml of saline. I do this by grabbing a bunch of loose skin behind his shoulders. I make what they call a tent with the skin and then stick a needle into him. I then release a clamp and saline flows into him. It takes about 3 to 4 minutes for the saline to run into him. I’m getting used to doing this. I think I screwed something up this morning because as area by his shoulder swelled up. But by the time I left for work Sam looked fine.

And that’s my routine with Sam. Things will improve once he’s off the daily medicine.

I’m taking Sam to the vet tonight for a check up. They’ll do blood work. The results should come back and Tuesday. Hopefully everything will be fine. If so I’m going to go to New York for a couple of days next week. It’s a vacation that I really need considering everything going on at work and at home. Here’s hoping.