Orange Julius

Julius was at the veterinary hospital for three days.

Every morning I woke up spontaneously not long after the clinic opened, and called to ask about him. I am a night person, so waking up that early is not common for me. Every morning I waited, heart in throat, expecting to hear he was dead. Every morning I heard that he was there, alive, no change. I would get up, get ready, have a cup of coffee and go see him. His blood work indicated that his kidney function was not good, but not so terrible as the veterinarian and I had feared. The severity of his condition did not make sense.

When I arrived he’d be curled up in a miserable ball the back corner of his cage, neck flexed down, dogs whining and barking in the room. I would spend an hour or more holding him in my lap, careful of the IVs he was hooked up to, fretting about his tremors, petting him until he worked his toes in pleasure. The vet techs would bustle in and out of the room, stop and smile down at me sitting cross-legged on the floor. Julius would have his head on my arm, toes working on my leg. “He’s so sweet” they’d say, not even knowing my normal, goofy, lively, happy, cat.

The vet and I discussed my taking him home. The vet thought he’d be better off with me from when they close the clinic at noon on Saturday through Monday morning.

On Saturday when I called in the morning, they said to come get him.

When I arrived, they took my carrier back, and returned with Julius upright and alert, if skeletally thin. Low potassium levels had been the source of his extreme distress. Potassium supplements had finally gotten up to enough where he could move normally.

So, Julius is back home. He is still on some potassium supplements, almost done with those, enalopril which helps his kidney function, and 1/4 tab of Pepcid AC (generic equivalent actually) to relieve the gastric distress caused by bad kidney function. Every other day I give him 100 cc of fluids (lactated Ringers) subcutaneously. This is the current standard of good care for Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) cats here and now, and it works very very well in most cases.


Julius is so much better! He is eating and drinking and hanging out with his cat friends, in particular his daughter Creaky, who adores him.

When I see him galloping about the house, or tossing toys high in the air, I will know he is entirely back to being himself. He may have a number of good years left.