Musings on a Small Life

Not really wordless -- just to finally show what a (mostly) good boy Nicki is.  :-) The first from my uncle's cell phone (highly cropped) and the second from Dad (also cropped).   Peace .

I did a post on the boys' blog late this afternoon, so apologies for repeating here. Nicki's Flovent dose of 125 mcg (110 mcg US) just isn't working, he's been having several bouts of asthma (that I'm home for) daily, and today was particularly bad, with three severe bouts so far, all about 4 hours apart. All the reading I've done seems to indicate that for moderately and severely asthmatic cats, that dose is too low, and that 250 mcg (220 mcg US) twice a day is needed. So I popped into my vet clinic this AM on the way home, after checking that Nicki's vet would be there and be in-between appointments, and spoke to him. He consulted their new feline health text (seriously, they don't know anything about feline asthma), and while the current protocol does recommend 125 (110) mcg, it also states that doubling is fine in difficult cases. There's also a new med (which might or might not be available here) that combines both the inhaled steroid w...

I'm SO proud of Nicki I could "bust a gut!" I filled the prescription for Flovent on Saturday (meds are cheap at Costco, couldn't believe how inexpensive compared to the online price I had seen), gave him the first dose Sunday night. He resisted a bit as usual, but we managed. Gave him dose #2 this morning and we got through that too. I was so proud of him I don't even have words. I'll keep him on the Prednisolone for a week or so (alternate days), to ensure the Flovent is in his system (takes up to 7 - 10 days) before discontinuing. Provided he remains reasonably compliant with the mask and inhaler. Fingers crossed for us, please . Two things: 1. If you'd said to me, a couple of months ago, I'd be doing this I'd have said you were nuts. 2. If it weren't for Sharla (Isabella and Angel's human over at Beaded Tail ) going this route for Isabella's asthma, I never would have had the courage to try with Nicki. I...

Our "new" boss brought in cookies leftover from a meeting this morning. It's indicative of how I'm feeling that I ate three large, heavily-iced shortbread cookies before 10AM. They were very good, not that that justifies it. LOL. There's nothing like an abundance of sugar and butter to comfort oneself, though. Day 8 with Nicki and the Aerokat mask and I'm starting to think that all the cats I've seen in pics and YouTube videos actually were drugged. Or are extremely laid back cats, which is so not Nicki. In fact, my continued "failure" is what precipitated my early AM complete meltdown at home, though wasn't the only factor. Yep, Kim's going to fail yet another cat, health-wise -- or so it seems today. Are there any cookies left???

All I can say is that it’s TOO early for this white stuff! Snapped yesterday around 8:10AM, waiting for a bus. We have snow again today, though it was supposed to have rained. That’s not happening, at least not yet. More of the same for much of the week, and of course I have to take Nicki to the vet tomorrow for his anal glands and blood work. Fun times. BTW, the score is Nicki 247, Kim 0 re: the Aerokat mask. Well, almost. He’ll let me put it on for a few seconds, then pull away. He gets rewarded with a treat every single time he lets me do it, of course, so it’s going to be interesting to see who caves first. I’m a little discouraged, I admit. It’s easy to see why most people who have asthmatic cats don’t go this route, or so I’m guessing. Cost aside, it’s a huge challenge to train your cat to accept this. Entirely different if you’re wrapping him/her up or having an extra pair of hands and just doing it. I don’t want to go that route yet, today is “only” day 6. Still,...

Yep, I'm doing the Friday happy dance, because it's been a long week. I had wanted today off, but my "new" boss is on holiday this week and my "old" boss wafflfed so much (uncharacteristically) when I asked that I finally said forget it, I'd take a day another time. It was p*ssy of him, but I wondered after the fact if he just doesn't want to get involved in any "supervisory" issues with me anymore. So I'm at the office, when I really could be taking care of a few things. I will, however, leave about an hour early today (came in for 7AM anyway, instead of 8AM, so I'm not cheating the institution out of my time), so I can get home while it's still light and get into my garage, to see what has to go, what's for donation, etc. Everything's a jumble in there right now. My bad. *** As for other things, I had ordered this blanket from Amazon.ca a few days ago. It was supposed to have taken till November 18th to get he...