For Scooter

Well, I'm still here, and I've nicked Luvbug's laptop:)
Scooter is in the kitchen tonight, on mouse duty. We haven't had a mouse in the kitchen since the winter, but he has a long memory :)

Anyway.... look what I found! This is a poem about Scooter that I wrote five years ago...

I watch my friend rest

at my side, paws curled in sleep,

eyelids tightly closed.

A flicker of tail,

a shudder ripples through the

fur, betraying dreams.

What night-thoughts does he

see, that stay out of my reach?

Mice and birds and hunts?

Perhaps it was just

a shiver of old age, a

warning to me: be

ready for the time

when I shall search for movement

through tears, and in vain.

Never mind. Rest now.

I will not let that future

sadness soil this peace.

And so, I watch him

stretch, yawn, pad, roll, sigh, curl back

into precious sleep.

I wish I had known in 2007 that I would have at least another five years to share with Scooter. I'm glad to know that I told myself to enjoy him while I can and to focus on the present..... the poem is painfully relevant now.

Meanwhile, I have spoken to the v-t. He said that it sounds like Scoot is having a reaction to the prednisolone (steroid). He advised I cut the dose of one tablet (5mg) a day right down to a quarter. So, this is what I did today. He still had a bad reaction. He cries out as though in pain, he limps, he goes very lethargic (not the usual 'sleepy cat', something else, can't quite put my finger on it). I think the steroid is making his joints hurt worse. I know steroids did that to me once. I had them after a bad asthma attack years ago, and my joints grew swollen and painful while taking them.

So, I'm not going to give him any more of it. The v-t said that there is another steroid he could try, but I can't remember the name of it. He asked me to call and let him know how things are going, so I shall call him tomorrow and ask if we could try a couple of the alternative he mentioned.

Thank you again for all your love and support........

**** *** **** *** **** ***

Love, tea & cake,  
Helena

Oh dear........

Just when we thought we'd clinched it.... another seizure today. Or seizure*S*.  

Face twitching and front paws jerking. WIDE, huge opaque eyes.
I covered his eyes with one hand (best to make it dark for them, and quiet- less stimulus) and talked to him gently, lying next to him. The seizures kept letting go, leaving him tired and resting his head down... then the seizure returned and started again. They came in waves.... at one point mum took over, trying to reassure him. She had felt at a lose end, and was in tears.

After 40 minutes or more, I covered half his box with a towel to make it darker inside. He's near the open door, so he shouldn't get too hot.....

Mum is now sitting on a floor cushion next to him, while he is dozing with one eye open.

I had to break away to cook dinner, and it's salmon, so I wanted to have some cooked and ready to tempt him when he comes too....

We are all stunned. Not much conversation going on here this afternoon. We are all shocked back into reality, after thinking that -hurray!- we had solved the seizures...

The v-t prescribed one 5mg tablet of prednisolone. I can give it in one go, or split into two doses.
On Friday night I gave him his first dose, a half tablet.
Well, within half an hour it took effect- he was up and about, alert. He trotted in from the catflap, almost a little run! Later, he climbed up to the windowsill again. WOW, we thought. This is working!

That night, I stayed up with him, but didn't need to coax him to eat as he was back on nightwatch- investigating all the places that mice had enticed him before- and in between investigations, he was eating from his biscuit bowl.

Yesterday I thought, well, it will be easier if he takes the tablet in one dose, won't it? And down it went.
OPPOSITE reaction. Totally lethargic. And a few times over the course of the day, he cried out as though in pain. I wonder if he had stomach ache from it.

He perked up last night, and i wondered if this was because there was then less in his system. OK, I thought, I won't give him any more till Monday morning, and it will be a half dose.

But today I thought better of it, and gave him a half dose this morning.
He had been out before, but since the dose stayed to his bed.
And now the seizures...............

It is SO painful to watch your little one in pain and scared, and to suspect that it was something YOU gave him that made it happen.

I'm not giving him any more steroids till Tuesday now, and then a half dose.
I should have listened to my gut..... after all, it was my own gut feelings that led us to the blood sugar problem. I should trust my own hunches.....

SH*T SH*T SH*T*