Monday, February 28, 2011

Snow in AZ

This was the scene from a road in Fountain Hills yesterday. Beautiful snow covered mountain peaks.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Kidney Disease

Our Casey is 16 years old now and relatively healthy [we thought]. However, this past Fall I noticed she was losing weight and when we checked her blood work, what I had hoped was a thyroid problem turned out to be much worse. Kidney disease. Or more specifically chronic renal insufficiency.
Our vet is holistic and believes more in supporting the body and helping it toward health rather than overloading Casey's system with diet restrictions and medications. So we kept her on her diet [Nature's Variety], made sure she got enough water, and placed her on some homeopathic drops and a renal pill that would help her system process.
That worked for a while. Now she is apparently moving on to the next stage. She's not as active and her appetite has decreased. So today I learned how to give her subcutaneous fluids which I will have to do daily for a while and then probably every other day. More lab work is in her future as well.
I don't know how long she has. This might perk her up for a while. Or she may go downhill quickly and join her sister Charlotte over the Rainbow Bridge.
But whatever time she has with me I will make sure is she is happy and comfortable.

Sunday, February 6, 2011