Rissa-Tai and Lai-Tai

[WORKPARK]

Hi all,
Last week was a horrible week, in addition to the tragedies that occurred, my gradmother died and my husband lost his job.  But, I'm writing to update you on Rissa-Tai (and Lai-Tai too).
Rissa-Tai has had many more ups and downs than I have reported.  In the last few weeks, she has been in a pretty bad downward spiral with a hematocrit of 15% and a severe weight loss (she was over 10 pounds two months ago, and is now just over seven).  She was given an anabolic steroid a little over a week ago and then dropped to the just over seven pounds.  We did a superchem blood panel, and even though she is now up to a hematocrit of 25%, she is testing positive for Hemobart once again, and the vet called me and gave me her home phone number because on top of the FeLV, Rissa-Tai is now DIABETIC to boot.  Normal high blood sugar should be 170, hers was 444, her electrolytes were out of whack, potassium extremely low.  So, we are now giving her potassium, salt (just a pinch), an appetite stimulant (she is really bony again) and insulin by injection.  There was a possibility for ketoacidosis, but thank goodness, her urine checked out OK. &n! bsp;This poor cat has been through so much, but she is still purring, starting to ask for food although she isn't eating hardly anything, and lets my 2 1/2 year old pet her, and she is still social.  So, as long as she keeps trying, so will we.
Lai-Tai, my oldest cat (9), went into respiratory distress last Thursday evening.  After going to the ER, and speaking with a specialist on Friday, we don't have any definitive answers and we're $650 in the hole.  She could possibly have asthma, and even though the ER vet said he thought it was heart failure, she was so heavily sedated that my normal vet and the specialist said it was an inaccurate reading, and that the X-rays they took were horrible.  She was given a steroid injection and is now absolutely fine, but we have to keep an eye on her.  all her bloodwork came back normal.  She may have gotten into something, but we have no idea.  Hopefully, it was a freak thing, but if it wasn't, we now have two syringes of medication here should she have a problem again.
Needless to say, I'm completely stressed, I was terrified I would lose them both within the week.  But Lai-Tai seems just fine (for now, anyway) and Rissa-Tai is a fighter, so we'll keep trying.  I'm so sorry I hardly ever post anymore, I'm lucky if I get online about once every week or two and have usually over 400 emails to glance at.  However, I do think of you all and your furbabies and wish you the best.
Pam (I've been around forever, but mostly lurk now)