Packed with Helga's diagnoses given by the ARC (Tampines) veterinary clinic, I brought Helga down to our vet to see Dr Hsu this morning for follow-up and to start her treatment regime. I was accompanied by one of our volunteers who had personally cared for a CRF cat herself before.
Dr Hsu advised that we put her sub-cutaneous injections on hold first, and see if Helga's kidney function improves after she starts on a renal diet and oral medication. She will be due for a follow up in four weeks where her kidney function will be tested again to see if she responds to the diet and medication.
Her oral medication is Fortekor -
We also bought for her more loperadamide for her digestion, and will be continuing to clean her ears with the antibacterial solution bought from the vet by Sam when he first brought her to the vet.
The renal diet we bought from the vet - 4 kg worth of Royal Canin Renal Feline dry diet, and one dozen pouches of Royal Canin Renal Feline wet. So far Helga has taken to the wet food well, and I will be easing her into the dry diet slowly to ensure her digestive system remains stable.
Her vet bill today was S$187.25 -
She will be going for a follow up visit to Dr Hsu in four weeks' time. The estimated expenses in this next visit will include the following itemised expenses:
- Consultation = $26.75
- Medication (Fortekor) = $40.75
- RC Renal Diet Dry 2kg = $42.80 (if she needs more to top up from today's purchase)
- RC Renal Diet Wet 2 dozen = $77.10 (she likes the wet food, consuming about 1 pack a day which means I have to top up her wet food soon)
- Kidney function test = $53.50
If Dr Hsu advises after her next visit that we need to start her on subcutaneous injections, that will cost more and we have enough if this is not the case, but our current vet fund as of today 7 June will not stretch to include the subcutaneous injections. We still need your help to prepare for the worst.
If you are donating towards Helga, after transferring to our bank account please text me at 90880675 to indicate your gift was sent for Helga.
As for her skin growths, Dr Hsu said it was likely not cancerous and we will not be putting her under surgery to remove the growths - they are more like warts. Her dark patch surrounding the kidney detected by the vet at ARC can only be diagnosed if surgery is done to do a biopsy. Dr Hsu advised that we should leave this alone because if part of her kidney is removed to the biopsy it might worsen her already frail condition. So we will be sticking to solely treating the CRF and your funds will go towards her CRF treatment.
Helga has taken her medications for today and we will still need to clean her ears and put Revolution on her to clear up any remaining ear mites infection. She is eating and drinking well - she refused to eat the tablets, so I mixed them into the RC renal wet food and she gobbled them all up! So that is good news for her, for now.
