What's Callie Up To?

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything about Callie, so I thought I'd bring you all up to speed. (Is that sarcasm, or wry humor? It's so hard to tell... )

Thank you for all the additional suggestions on things I could try for getting Callie to eat. I decided to check with Dr. Vet when I called to update them on her status yesterday, and though he wasn't there, the assistants said that in general most of the ideas sounded good to try, although they vetoed the chicken broth on the thought that it would have too much sodium (that might be unique for Callie's particular situation; for another cat, it might be an okay option). So I went by PetSmart and got some kitten milk, both pre-mixed and dry, and was going to get NutriCal but they were out so I got something similar whose brand name I don't recall offhand. Then it was off to Wal-Mart for some baby food and also some plain Fancy Feast flavors, despite her general reluctance to eat stinky goodness normally. I'm desperate and clutching at straws here, figuring even if she'd lap at gravy, that would be *something*.

So, after getting home and wolfing down a little dinner first myself, I took her off into the closed bedroom so all the other cats wouldn't be bothering us. First up was the pre-mixed kitten milk. She sniffed at it and walked away, so I smeared a little on her mouth. She decided it wasn't so bad after all, and proceeded to drink a little from the bowl after that. A small victory! Then it was on to the turkey baby food; a little on her mouth, and she consented to lick off two small smears from my finger, but that was it. The ham baby food, no interest whatsoever. The chicken - ding ding ding! We had a winner. Even after she decided she would eat some, she would only lick it off my finger, she wouldn't eat it off the spoon or a dish, so it's hard to gauge exactly how much she ate; but it still wasn't much more than maybe half a plastic spoonful or so. After that, she drank a little more kitten milk, and then she was done. I didn't even try with anything else, she made it clear she wanted nothing else to eat. A smear of the Nutri-Cal substitute was not greeted with joy, either.

So maybe half a spoonful of baby food, and perhaps 2-3ml of kitten milk. Not nearly enough to keep a cat alive for long. But better than nothing, I guess.

This morning, I was short on time so thought I'd just go with the proven kitten milk and chicken baby food rather than trying something new, but she had no interest in either one despite repeated attempts to smear some on her mouth to stimulate appetite or interest. She was Not Amused or Interested. It's not looking too good here, and I'm guessing we'll be ending up with more of a forced-feeding thing soon. I'll call Dr. Vet later and see how long they want to give it before we make the next decision.

In the meantime, I know we've been the All Callie Noos Channel here on the bloggie for the past week, for obvious reasons, but I wanted to reassure everyone that the other kitties are all doing fine and are getting plenty of love and attention even with all that's going on with her. Sassy continues to get daily warnings that just because her littermates Bugsy and Callie have had and/or are having major health issues, she does not get to have her own somewhere down the road. She has to stay healthy forever. The rest of them get general warnings to the same effect, even if they're not littermates.

I'm sorry we haven't been around to visit much lately, it's just seemed a bit overwhelming to keep up right now. We do very much appreciate all your support, though, and hope to get caught up sometime soon.