Followed by a nose dive

Of course, after writing my last post about how great Kaesea is doing, we had to take a nose dive over here, didn't we? Le sigh.

He was fine on Friday after chemo and then he had a hairball yesterday morning, which is normal for him (fluffy = hairball). In the afternoon, however, he vomited food. And then, about an hour later, bile. Additionally, he had stopped eating. So I called his doctor and she recommended an anti-nausea drug we already had on hand but after talking about it further, we decided to take Kaesea in for a quick ultrasound.

Good news on the ultrasound: there was no obstruction; the pancreas, stomach, and intestines all look good; and there is a very minimal amount of fluid in his body cavity. No real explanation of what is causing the vomiting -- speculation that it may be a delayed reaction to his chemo on Thursday. So he got one anti-nausea med there and then one at home. He had an additional two hairball-like barfs last night, but then he slept well. No eating, but I had high hopes for the morning.

He still was not interested in food this morning (Ugh. Flashbacks to the recent months of pushing him to eat all the time. We have been so happy this past month with his increased eating. Going back to this sucks.) At around noon, he vomited again. Not just "hairball-like," but actual vomit. At this point, we were worried about dehydration and we took his temperature. It was 102.7 (normal is 99.5-102.5, but Kaesea runs low normally -- around 100). Coupled with his lethargy, inappetence, and a distinct lack of fluffiness... back to the vet.

Side note: Emergency vet on Sunday afternoon/evening = hell. No one is there for a simple checkup, I assure you.

The vet agreed he was dehydrated, so he got some subcutaneous fluids. They also did bloodwork and found what I had begun to suspect: low white blood cell count. He has had this problem once before with the chemo, but didn't have any outward signs of it. I guess this time he decided to. Whee. So we got some antibiotics and went on home.

He did eat a little bit of shrimp this evening, which was good, but he was really down, which was depressing. After hanging around under the cat tower for awhile, he did hop up on the bed with me and knead his paws and give me some rumbling purrs. Not exactly the Mr. Perky McFluffyPants we've had in recent weeks, but a bit of improvement at the end of an exhausting weekend.

Fingers crossed we'll see some improvements from the antibiotics tomorrow. I'll keep this space updated.