A Hope-Ful Update

Things with Hope have certainly been eventful. The above pic is from last week. Her wound is no longer bandaged and has formed a very nice scab. All closed up and healing nicely. That is the good news. The bad news is, last night she could no more than hold up her head. Once again, I was stunned to find she survived the night. She had 70 cc's of a baby food meat/pedialyte soup yesterday given orally with a syringe in 10 cc increments. That stuff stinks and she is not a dumb cat and soon learned to close her throat so she could spit it out. Still I pressed on, unwilling to give up. This morning she was holding her head up better, but still unable to sit up or stand on her own. When she needs to use the litter box, she struggles to get up and I carry her over to her box and hold her up while she does her business. I got a very welcomed e-mail this morning from a blogging friend who has experience with sick animals. On her advice, I contacted the shelter lady again.....since she is mentioned so often I may as well call her by name.... Jane listened as I asked pleaded BEGGED for more help. I asked for a bag of lactate ringers and a needle. She finally said she would do her best and within the hour, Jane was at my door with a bag of ringers under her shirt (keeping them warm) and some hypodermic needles and a 60 cc syringe. She showed me how to put the fluids under her skin with the needle. We are putting 30 cc's at a time in her and that is wonderful!!! It takes me hours to get 30 cc's of the "soup" in her. Hope is cooperating for the most part, but has some fight in her yet. Jane only got 23 cc's in her before she pulled away and the needle came out. I got the whole 30 the next time, and the time after that I only got 15 before she started to pull away. We will continue to give her up to 180cc's a day of the ringers, sub-q, through tomorrow. I ran up to the store and got some of the stinkiest wet cat food in liver, as she is anemic, and for the first time in a couple of days, Hope ate on her own. Not a huge amount, but she ate. She is able to sit up now but is quite wobbly. She still is unable to walk at all. I am hopeful, as always, that she will pull through. It has been decided that if she does, Hope will stay with us for the remainder of her days, whether it be 1 day or 10 years. She is our cat now!!!!