Bleak House on PBS

There are a hell of a lot of storylines going on in this program. Now I remember why I never attempted to read this particular book.

And Gillian Anderson has either lost weight or she's sucking her cheeks in. I can't tell which. I don't remember her looking so hollow-faced in the X-Files.

The actor playing Nemo reminds me of someone, but I can't remember who it is. Who will the orphan housekeeper end up with - the owner of the house or the poor doctor? Nathaniel Parker has done a total 180 playing Mr. Skimpole - quite a leap from Inspector Lynley. What an odd character Skimpole is. I can't quite believe that he's that "childlike."

I love the names Dickens came up with for his characters - Skimpole, Krook, Smallweed, Squod, Nemo, Jellyby, Turveydrop, Dedlock, Rouncewell, Mercury, Boythorn, Pardiggle, Tulkinhorn, Guppy, Snagsby. Some of them sound like names Beatrix Potter would have used for her animal characters.

can dogs cause trouble in the Universe?

Right. So I went to my acupuncturist yesterday, and I was telling her all about the weird and mostly stressful things that seem to be happening to me and my co-workers lately, and she said many of her clients were coming to her saying the same thing. She thinks it’s the effects not only of the recent full moon but also because we get a new animal this Chinese New Year (the dog), and the time just before a change to a new animal has historically always been a little wacky.

Just thought you’d like to know. It’s not just us, it’s the rest of the world too.

cat update

The vet gave me a different med for Louise that's supposed to stop the vomiting altogether. It’s orange liquid stuff that I give her via plastic syringe. It’s a bit easier than trying to get her to take the pills, even when I did try to hide the pills in food. My dog only requires a bit of peanut butter on her pills and she gobbles them up. Cats are pickier.

Frankly, I'm not sure this orange stuff is working. She seems to be vomiting more than before, not less. Poor thing.

my own personal Angel

It was great to come home to a box of surprises from my friend, Angel. I had been going back and forth with the vet trying to get an appointment with the radiologist for an ultrasound and an aspiration for Louise (a mysterious mass near her heart showed up on her x-ray, which may or may not be related to the vomiting - turns out it's a benign cyst, which is good). The radiologist keeps weird hours, so I had to re-schedule the appointment twice and finally got one for today. I had to get her there by 7:30 this morning, and then I worked all day (and it was pretty chaotic with one of our client contacts suddenly getting fired and another client wanting to move up an ad board, which gives us less time to prepare for it, and then Emily called and sounded near tears because her employers are hinting that she should quit her job until she gets this IC thing worked out - they seem to think it will just magically go away, when it's actually a chronic illness), and then I got on a conference call at 3:30 that ended up starting late and was still going when I finally left at 6 to get to the vet to pick Louise up before they closed. There was some kind of emergency at the vet with a puppy that had just been spayed. They're usually groggy after surgery, but this one apparently collapsed in the waiting room and wasn't moving. They managed to revive it and were keeping it overnight for observation. Then Louise was yelling at me the whole drive home (she hates going out of the house). So Angel's box of surprises was the nicest and least stressful thing that's happened to me all day.

Louise again

Louise hasn’t vomited in several days, and she seems more like her old self, which is a relief. I assume it’s the medication that’s helping. I’ve been online on cat sites doing a lot of reading. I found a probiotic that’s good for vomiting, and I’m thinking of switching to a different pet food. Apparently, many commercial pet foods contain meat products that aren’t even fit for human consumption and have ingredients that are common allergens for pets. I found one called Blue Bull that I can get at PetSmart that has human-grade meat in it, and no allergens. They also make soft food too. It’s not too much more expensive than what I’ve been feeding her. I’m also going to stop free-feeding her (meaning a food dispenser that can hold half a bag or so of food that she can nibble on whenever she wants), because cats often gorge on food, which can make them vomit. Then they’re hungry again after they vomit, so they go back for more food, and vomit again. Once the vet says it’s okay for her to go back to solid food, I’ll just give her a limited amount daily. I’ve also read that canned pumpkin (yes, really) is actually better for hairball prevention than the gel stuff that most people use. The gel stuff can leach calcium out of an animal's bones, and can be harsh on the digestion because of the ingredients. The pumpkin mix is much gentler on the stomach, and gives them fiber too. Cats’ digestion is much more sensitive than people realize. I’m considering acupuncture too. The vet I go to has an animal acupuncturist. There are all kinds of studies about how good acupuncture is for animals. It used to be used mainly on horses, specifically racing horses, to help with injuries and tendonitis and whatnot, but pretty much any animal can benefit from it, and most are remarkably calm during the sessions, and often fall asleep because it’s so relaxing; they don’t even need to be restrained. I may start supplements too, if the vet thinks it’s a good idea. Louise will be 10 this year, so she’s considered geriatric. All of this will be moot if she’s got cancer, but I’ll find out today or tomorrow if they want to aspirate it, which I think they will.

Oh, Louise

I have a sick kitty. She's vomiting nearly every day now, and this has been going on for a month. When I first called the vet about it several weeks ago, they told me to take her to the emergency vet, which I did. The emergency vet thought it was hairballs, because she was vomiting up hairballs, undigested food, or both. He recommended more frequent brushing, a gel for hairball control, and a switch to a hairball control food. I did all that, and she stopped vomiting up hairballs, but was still vomiting up undigested food. It looked like she wasn't even chewing it, just gulping it. She had her teeth cleaned last Friday, and they removed a tooth because roots were showing, so I thought maybe that's why she was gulping food because she couldn't bite down on that tooth. She was fine for about four days, and then the vomiting started up again, so I took her back to the regular vet. They took x-rays because they thought it might be something in her esophagus. It looks fine on the x-ray, but they did find a mass near her heart, which may or may not be related to the vomiting. The radiologist won't be in until Thursday to look at the x-ray, and they'll probably want to aspirate the mass to determine if it's cancerous or not. If it is cancerous, that could definitely cause vomiting, and I'll probably have to put her down because I don't want her to have to suffer through chemo and whatnot, and I don't have the funds for it anyway. If it's not cancerous, they can drain it and see if that makes any difference in the vomiting. It's one of those symptoms that can take a long time to pinpoint the cause since there are a ton of things that could cause it. They may need to do ultrasounds and a tube down her throat to look at her esophagus. It worries me on two fronts – one, all this diagnostic stuff is expensive, and I may soon run out of money to pay for it, and two, I don't like to see her suffer this and possibly waste away from lack of being able to keep food down. All her blood work is normal, as is her heart rate and BP, and she's drinking and using her litterbox, and hasn't lost any weight so far. Until the radiologist reads her x-rays on Thursday, I'm supposed to feed her three or four small meals a day of soft food, like a teaspoonful each time, and before two of the meals, I'm supposed to give her this stuff that is the feline equivalent of Tagamet or Pepcid, since they think she may have some heartburn, which also might make her vomit. I've got towels all over the place, and I try to get her on one so she doesn't mess up the carpet. Sometimes it will be in the middle of the night, out of the blue. It's put me on edge because I'm not getting much sleep since I'm so worried about her and I'm keeping one ear open for her all the time. I hated leaving her this morning to come to work. I'm going home around noon to check on her. This is the part of pet ownership that I dread.