Day 50 Home 40 - She's heavier now

We sent her to the vet for a monthly checkup this afternoon. Her last visit was on 6 Jul.

She weighs 3.95kg now, 400g heavier than when she first came home on 23 Jun. She used to weigh at around 4.2kg before her illness. The vet was surprised by her weight gain though we are not really since we have been weighing her almost daily and have been monitoring her weight gain closely.

We still syringe feed her 4 times a day with the "horrible tasting" Hill's k/d wet food mixed with a bit of Royal Canin Indoor 27 for flavour. And during our sleeping hours, she finally gets what she desire: Natural Balance Ocean Fish formula mixed with a bit of Royal Canin. That's almost like 1 1/2 can of wet food a day. The only bad thing is that both the RC and NB food are not really suitable for renal/heart patients. She hates her Hill's k/d dry formula and we are now left with a big bag of food. It seems like the whole of Singapore has run out of Waltham's Renal dry formula and the next shipment will only arrive mid/late this month. Waltham also has the renal wet formula but it is not available here.

We knew from our experiences of feeding Chang Chang solely wet food that although the cat will feel full, it will not gain bulk and weight. But when we started replacing some of the wet food with grinded dry food, this formula will assist in weight gain. And sometimes this weight gain is necessary as they need some buffer weight to lose when they fall ill, something like us humans.

If you remember the time when Lee Hsien Loong was diagnosed with cancer and had to undergo chemo treatment, he actually added some weight first so that his health will not suffer as much when he starts chemo treatment which may cause him to lose his appetite. I am applying the same theory to Xin Xin in case she falls sick again in the future. Too much weight loss will mean a lesser fighting chance for her.

The vet is glad that she has gained weight, her heartbeat has dropped from 240 to 180 though she still has the murmur (normal range is between 110 to 140) and is now able to jump, run and even fight with the rest of the gang. For the past 3 days, she has even gone back to her bad habit of pooing just outside the litter box. But I am glad for that as I take it as a sign that she is back to almost normal doing normal things.

She has also been drinking more on her own and for the past week or so, we only gave her sub-cuts twice every 3 days at 150ml each time. She still remains pretty well hydrated and the vet told us that we only need to give her the sub-cut when we find her dehydrated. Her Frusimide intake can also be slowly reduced from 1/8 tablet twice a day to 1/8 tablet once a day. That was good news for us as it means all 3 of us will suffer less from the stress of the sub-cut operation.

This was taken in Jan 08 when she was super healthy.


This was taken when she was hospitalised. Her breathing was very ragged then. Her heart pumped furiously. She was weak. She was not eating or drinking. We thought we would lose her that day.

This picture was taken when she first came home after the hospitalisation. She was still weak and sickly.

This was taken just an hour ago. She looks and feels better now.