The End of 2025 was a Face Plant

 This year did not end the way I had hoped.  The horses had been doing well and the kitties inside were doing well. We'd gone to Cancun for Thanksgiving with friends. We were excited for some more time off.

Steve and I were planning to go to FL to see his family for Christmas.  We were really looking forward to it since it'd been a while since we were down there for a holiday. The evening before the flight, we were getting ready to go to our homebrew club holiday party. I went out to feed the horses and while grabbing hay after giving the supplements to Seamus I heard a very odd sound.  It was kind of a retching sound.  I saw Seamus spin slightly and stomp his front foot. I went into the house and told Steve, and went to grab my phone.  When I came back out he said there was a lot of mucus coming out of Seamus's nose....it was choke. I called the vet. immediately.

The vet told us since it just happened to wait about 15 minutes and call her back, sometimes things aren't that bad and it sorts itself out.  That was a long 15 minutes.  We tried to walk him some and she said to stroke his neck in the area where the blockage was. Things didn't improve so she was there shortly after my second call. He was in pain, coughed up a lot of mucus and a lot of mucus came out his nose.  I felt helpless.  Once she arrived we got warm water started since she was going to tube him to get the obstruction out. It was a gross process, I don't do well with vomit, snot and the like.  I held it together without retching myself till just about near the end when a lot of the food bits came out.  I did good though and Seamus's obstruction was  finally clear. 

The Unbeetables Pellets I used as the carrier for his supplements didn't get soaked long enough and Seamus has been bolting his small ration lately so that combo led to this incident.  I feel like such a fool.

Some snot still two days later so we started antibiotics

The next couple days were busy.  We didn't go to FL which our family understood.  I fed very small mushy meals of just hay pellets....er, hay mush.  After about 48 hours he still had a good amount of mucus from his nose so I contacted the vet about that.  To prevent a lung infection due to any aspiration from his procedure he was prescribed antibiotics for a week.  Within a few days the snotty nose did clear up; he was good about taking his apple flavored powder for the course.

We are still on a mush regimen since I'm now paranoid.  My old 27 year old gelding hates mushy food but he takes his time eating his pellets.  Seamus, the 6 year old is the one that has to eat the mush....it's so backwards!  But horses are weird. I'm glad to say that he is completely back to his normal self. Not how I wanted to end the year though!

A week after Seamus's ordeal Stubs started eating less and less to almost nothing.  She also started to have trouble getting up on the sofa where she liked to sit with us. We got her into the vet and she'd lost a good amount of weight since her October appointment.  Stubs has been on a kidney diet for 5 years now and in the last year has been getting a little skinnier (she's 13 years old). She's been in a couple times for tests etc. Thyroid is slightly low and she now has high blood pressure. She was already on some medications...now we have a little mini cat pharmacy going.

Two weeks before she was "helping" me wrap presents

The vet did many tests and all were inconclusive.  The suspicion was a urinary infection, though that seemed very slight. We treated for the symptoms with a planned x-ray or ultrasound the following week if things were still off. There could be a tumor, gut inflammation or even some type of spinal injury.  Her backend has gotten weaker where it's very hard for her to walk about.  It's been a few days since we started the treatments and she has eaten a little. We are giving her treats, sneaking in kibble, and have a couple senior cat higher calorie supplements she seems to like.  One evening she came all the way down the stairs to come to bed to sleep in her normal spot by my head. Eating is off and on, sometimes she just not interested. I just have no idea where to go from here.  We are in the wait and see and it just sucks. We have her on meds for nausea, a steroid and then also a painkiller/anti-inflammatory- plus an appetite stimulant. 

The little ICU built around the spot she's decided to stay

She has sequestered herself on the bottom shelf where we've had a self warmer (reflective) pad that the cats like to take naps on.  We've set up a little ICU around her with her microchip feeder nearby, a water fountain which she is still good about drinking and then a litter pan that is shallow and easier than the other one to navigate.  We've seen her use both but it's good to have options. We are trying to give her options to eat throughout the day...I haven't seen her use her feeder so we bring stuff directly to her. We have another appointment set up this week, unless we feel she need to come in sooner. This wait and see is no fun. 

My holiday break has been different from what I'd planned. I've been nurse to one animal or another and the worry has left me less motivated to do any of the projects I had on my list. It's been a little rough but I'm happy to do it; they are my babies. It's so stressful not knowing what to do to help them but we try our best I guess.