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Jul. 22nd, 2010 12:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuI was aiming for no more angsty pet posts, but unfortunately they're unavoidable lately! D:
Princess, my sixteen-year-old cat, is not doing so well again. :( Dehydrated, thin, not eating or drinking, and very weak. We've started her on subcutaneous fluids so hopefully she'll bounce back soon. She was this bad or worse a while ago and then bounced back completely after a few days with some subcutaneous fluids and Pepcid AC. Hopefully she will bounce back again this time. I'm not holding my breath because if she doesn't improve she will likely die or have to be put down and that is a possibility, but we're doing our best to try and get her back feeling good again. It's rather stressful, but I've accepted that all we can do is our best, and if she does end up dying, it will be very sad and difficult (she's been with me since I was six!), but she's had a great life. We'll see how things go. I'm hoping for the best and trying to be optimistic, but also remaining realistic in that she is in bad condition and she could go either way.
The injured chick is doing all right. I'm giving it water every couple of hours and I guess I'm going to start force feeding it soon because its eyes are closed. The wound it has on its head is pretty severe, almost as bad as that of The Salula, but I'm going to try on it! After all, The Salula is doing awesome. Another chick had hatched this morning and the injured chick and the new chick are keeping each other company. :)
I must confess I'm feeling a bit stressed by the unusual amounts of pet injuries and deaths lately. I'm pretty good at dealing with it but it does take a toll on me gradually. I'm trying to do what I can to keep my stress levels low, which means everything that is not taking care of the animals is lower priority and I'm trying to relax and enjoy myself when I can. There are only two badly injured or ill animals right now (the chick and Princess) so it's not like I'm crazily busy or anything, but just between everything happening in the last two weeks I can't help but feel a little frazzled.
Here's why:
* Lost over two week old duckling unexpectedly, due to my bad decision.
* Nearly had to euthanize The Salula and deal with a traumatic injury to her, also a result of a bad decision on my part.
* Lost three newly hatched chicks.
* One badly injured newly hatched chick, trying to nurse it back to health.
* Princess is not doing well.
* Honey got sick while I was gone from eating gross eggs (I threw them out in the yard, and now that the tall grass is cut down she tries to sneak over to eat them all the time) and had diarrhea all over the house. She's fine now but I've been cleaning up the carpet.
* Hana had to go to the vet while we were gone because she got a fox tail in her ear and hurt her eardrum. (Also mostly fine now.)
* I was told one of my chicks from April, all of which I'm quite attached to, had been killed. (None had been, but I still got upset about it before I knew it wasn't true.)
All of this on top of taking a vacation, which is stressful in its own way, augh!
Anyway, that said, there are five live serama chicks, four of which are perfectly healthy, all of my April chicks are alive and well and GORGEOUS, the two older serama chicks from early June are doing great and now have names, and most of my animals are thriving. Things are nowhere near all bad. :)
Just, please be understanding if I get forgetful or anything--I don't give myself much credit for the things I do so I tend to say nothing is going on, but things are chaotic and I do have a lot on my plate. 98% of the time all of my pets are easy to care for and cause me little/no stress, but that other 2% of the time can be a little intense. I'm gradually getting things together to ship, hopefully I'll be able to do that by Monday. Saturday I'm going down to the bay area for my grandmother's birthday party. Other than those two things, I'm trying to relax and keep my cool.
Anyway, time for a less depressing entry methinks. ^^;
Princess, my sixteen-year-old cat, is not doing so well again. :( Dehydrated, thin, not eating or drinking, and very weak. We've started her on subcutaneous fluids so hopefully she'll bounce back soon. She was this bad or worse a while ago and then bounced back completely after a few days with some subcutaneous fluids and Pepcid AC. Hopefully she will bounce back again this time. I'm not holding my breath because if she doesn't improve she will likely die or have to be put down and that is a possibility, but we're doing our best to try and get her back feeling good again. It's rather stressful, but I've accepted that all we can do is our best, and if she does end up dying, it will be very sad and difficult (she's been with me since I was six!), but she's had a great life. We'll see how things go. I'm hoping for the best and trying to be optimistic, but also remaining realistic in that she is in bad condition and she could go either way.
The injured chick is doing all right. I'm giving it water every couple of hours and I guess I'm going to start force feeding it soon because its eyes are closed. The wound it has on its head is pretty severe, almost as bad as that of The Salula, but I'm going to try on it! After all, The Salula is doing awesome. Another chick had hatched this morning and the injured chick and the new chick are keeping each other company. :)
I must confess I'm feeling a bit stressed by the unusual amounts of pet injuries and deaths lately. I'm pretty good at dealing with it but it does take a toll on me gradually. I'm trying to do what I can to keep my stress levels low, which means everything that is not taking care of the animals is lower priority and I'm trying to relax and enjoy myself when I can. There are only two badly injured or ill animals right now (the chick and Princess) so it's not like I'm crazily busy or anything, but just between everything happening in the last two weeks I can't help but feel a little frazzled.
Here's why:
* Lost over two week old duckling unexpectedly, due to my bad decision.
* Nearly had to euthanize The Salula and deal with a traumatic injury to her, also a result of a bad decision on my part.
* Lost three newly hatched chicks.
* One badly injured newly hatched chick, trying to nurse it back to health.
* Princess is not doing well.
* Honey got sick while I was gone from eating gross eggs (I threw them out in the yard, and now that the tall grass is cut down she tries to sneak over to eat them all the time) and had diarrhea all over the house. She's fine now but I've been cleaning up the carpet.
* Hana had to go to the vet while we were gone because she got a fox tail in her ear and hurt her eardrum. (Also mostly fine now.)
* I was told one of my chicks from April, all of which I'm quite attached to, had been killed. (None had been, but I still got upset about it before I knew it wasn't true.)
All of this on top of taking a vacation, which is stressful in its own way, augh!
Anyway, that said, there are five live serama chicks, four of which are perfectly healthy, all of my April chicks are alive and well and GORGEOUS, the two older serama chicks from early June are doing great and now have names, and most of my animals are thriving. Things are nowhere near all bad. :)
Just, please be understanding if I get forgetful or anything--I don't give myself much credit for the things I do so I tend to say nothing is going on, but things are chaotic and I do have a lot on my plate. 98% of the time all of my pets are easy to care for and cause me little/no stress, but that other 2% of the time can be a little intense. I'm gradually getting things together to ship, hopefully I'll be able to do that by Monday. Saturday I'm going down to the bay area for my grandmother's birthday party. Other than those two things, I'm trying to relax and keep my cool.
Anyway, time for a less depressing entry methinks. ^^;
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no subject
Date: 2010-07-22 01:40 pm (UTC)I wish I could have so many pets. Although it gives you more to worry about you are giving a lot of animals a home and love.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-23 07:37 am (UTC)Yes, it can be very difficult and stressful to have this many animals at times, but overall it is overwhelmingly wonderful. I really do love every one of my animals and I am thankful to be able to share my life with them. Of course as a result I do face a lot of tragedy, but for every tragedy there is plenty of joy and life so ultimately I wouldn't have it any other way.
Thank you for the support--I guess we'll just have to mutually send each other good thoughts for our pets! I really hope Midnight's heart murmur is just one of those that will barely affect her.
no subject
Date: 2010-07-23 06:08 pm (UTC)