Yuki is showing some improvement today. Last night was a very bad one for her; I feared I'd find her under the bed, either dying or already expired. She was breathing very rapidly last night and hiding and she was agitated although her mentation was kind of disoriented. I was really worried that she was going into full-blown heart failure. I gave her a small oral dose of Lasix since her breathing was so harsh and she hadn't urinated all day. I was beginning to think that perhaps the diltiazem was worsening her heart condition. Maybe it was more a matter of the stress at sitting in a cage at the campus and getting jabbed with needles and hearing strange noises and seeing strange sights and all of the weird and unfriendly smells bombarding her.

This morning I "compounded" her heart meds into a liquid emulsion made from pureed fish, taurine, l-carnitine, fish oil, vitamin E, co-enzyme 10 Q, and enough water to make it liquid. I pulverized and blended the hell out of it and made it to a dilution that she will get 2.5 ml twice daily. I guess the fllavor was a bit awful in spite of my efforts; nevertheless, I noticed that she responded differently this time. I took her pulse pre-medication and it was clipping along at a pace between 180 and 240 beats per minute. Two hours after her meds, she was comfortable and her heart rate was around 130, which is ideal. Her appetite is good and she is back to being her typical affectionate self again.

I will remain cautiously optimistic.