July 27

I have a houseguest this week who has been helping me do the sub Q fluids. It is difficult to do them twice a day, but we are trying. She seems to be a bit stronger and fights us every step of the way. I'm not sure how I will be able to give her fluids on my own. This will happen after Friday. Does anybody have any suggestions for trying to give a scrappy cat sub-Q fluids solo? Right now we have been wrapping her tightly in towels and holding her. The pet hospital has offered to do them for me (at no extra charge, just bring in her 'rig"), but I can't take her in there twice a day for that, even though they are within a five minute drive. She gets stressed out very easily. She is a one-person cat and that complicates her treatments.

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July 29

The good news is we "soloed" last night with her sub-Q's. I did not have my houseguest help me at all. Of course, now Fuzzy may be suspicious when a big bowl of shrimp gets placed near the setup. When I set up the bag, after warming it, she hid under the bed. Shrimp lured her out and while she was eating, I stroked her back and scratched her head. Then I decided to go for it and uncapped the needle, having already bled the line. I pulled up the skin and she didn't catch on until the needle was inserted. I held onto her scruff and she seemed to forget all about fighting and only murffed at me a couple of times when I kept her from backing up under the bed. Afterwards she ducked back under the bed but was out on her chair again within the hour. It was a lot easier than I ever dreamed and now I think I have the confidence to keep doing it solo. She was certainly a lot less stressed over not being restrained and didn't hold it against me.

Reading everyone else's posts of soloing with your kitties gave me the confidence to try it with Fuzzy, who I expected to be feisty and impossible!

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August 19

I have been lucky enough to see a dramatic turnaround for the better just with sub-Q's for the past four and a half weeks. Fuzzy is acting and feeling better now than she has for months! She's not eating huge amounts of food, but I'm sure she is eating way more than she had been probably since April. She's friendlier without being clingy, and chirps and talks, and when it's sub-Q time, she even jumps up on the bed most of the time and walks over to the towel. The sight of the bag and needle don't seem to bother her. 100 ml twice a day is a lot of sub-Q's and will make it difficult for me to find a cat-sitter when I have to take the inevitable business trips and vacations, but I will deal with that when it happens.

Fuzzy is much stronger and healthier now, but she doesn't fight the sub-Q's or seem to get mad at me for doing them. She gets impatient with the longer times with the Terumo 21G needles, but if I hold onto her just right she leans into my arm and purrs, sometimes she even eats while getting fluids. She really doesn't hold anything against me for sticking her with a needle twice a day. Of course, every cat is different, but it seems like the majority of cats getting regular sub-Q's don't hold a grudge against their humans about it. I would never have believed that part of it if I hadn't seen it with my mom's CRF cat in the past and with Fuzzy now.

Laurie K. and Fuzzy