Scratch that.

Well, our diagnosis is not stupidity.  Unfortunately, my "mommy" instincts were right that there was something far worse than fear of puppy going on with Oz.

The vet called this morning with his test results, and his liver enzymes were fine.  His kidney enzymes were not.  They are something like triple or quadruple what they should be, and he is in acute kidney failure.  

Some of you might remember his major cystitis incident in 2003, the night before I had to leave for Darcy's wedding, where he almost died on me, and had to spend 4 days at the vet's office in kitty ICU.  That severely compromised his kidneys, and is why he's had to eat special "urinary tract" formula cat food, and watched to make sure he is always drinking.  His kidneys were the first thing I was afraid of this time when he wasn't drinking.

With kidney failure, some cats can be brought back away from it with sufficient fluids, IVs andnutrition.  The vet told us that she had only occasionally seen that work, and only with cats who had MUCH lower levels than Oz does.

At his stage, all that can be done is to keep him well hydrated with subcutaneous fluids daily, try and make sure he eats, and watch until the Mommy instinct says that he is suffering.  There will be positively no suffering at all.

It is not a good day in my world.  Major lymphedema pain, major neuropathy pain, a right hand that really isn't working because it's numb and painful, a near-migraine, nausea, pain where my incision was, allergic-ish whle body itchiness, exhaustion from being kept up all night with puppy, mounds of paperwork to work on for disability, and a cat with acute kidney failure that I have to stick a needle into.  Not only do I have to process this myself, the cat I raised from 3 weeks old, but I have to tell the kids, and there will be much crying involved.

Nope, not a good day in my world at all.  I'll go back to the paperwork.