Thank you for asking, CN.  She's doing better now.  She was not eating
for the first few days after her last chest tap.  The first time she
had it done,she bounced back quicker.  I was making sure she ate a
little everyday by either trying to spoon feed her a/d or syringe feed
her but she is verrrrry hard to get stuff into and would let it just
ooze back out of her mouth or start gagging.  I talked to the vet and
he got me all worried about hepatic lipidosis, which I am well aware
of, but I thought as long as she was getting something into her, it
would be okay.  However, he said she needed the equivalent of a 5.5 oz
can of cat food daily and she wasn't eating anywhere near that.  So I
asked him for some cyproheptadine, an appetite stimulant that used to
work very well on my late cat, Cory.  Oddly enough, he was unaware of
this drug and was going to prescribe oxazepam, a benzodiazipine, but I
wanted to try the cyproheptadine first.  Sure enough, a very small
dose, 1/4 tab daily, did the trick and she is now eating.  It must be a
very bitter pill, though, because she has a hard time with it and
scrunches her face up and sometimes begins to foam at the mouth a
little...just with this particular pill.  Fortunately, once a day is
all she needs that.

Last night Tony left for China for 3 weeks so I have done 2 pillings on
my own.  I had to trick her this a.m. so I'm not sure if she'll fall
for that again.  Abbey is not one of those cats that hangs around you
and lets you pick her up whenever you feel like it.  She's never liked
being held much.  She's fairly aloof and independent and, now, with
pilling involved, even more so.  So just getting her is the hardest
part.  Once I actually have her, the pilling itself isn't too horrible
(but sort of horrible).  I can't block off all her hiding places
because we have another cat, Marbles, who has to be separated from
Scottie and Abbey, for the most part.  When he comes out into "their"
part of the house, they need a safe place to hide.  So they go under
the futon in the family room.  From there they can observe him but he
doesn't go under there after them.  He can be aggressive and will
sometimes chase them and I don't want Abbey getting stressed.
Actually, it is more of a habit that they hide from him now; I don't
think they're really afraid of him anymore.  Anyway, that is her
favorite hiding place from me, too, and it's hard to get her out of
there.

So, to answer your question, no, I haven't had the u/s done yet.  She
was not feeling well and it is so stressful for her to go to the vet
that just being in the car makes her start panting and then they think
she's really doing badly when I get her there.  I know I need to do it
but she's just been too unhappy, miserable, and sick looking for me to
haul her in there again.  She is probably one of the worst cats I have
had as far as taking to the vet and it's not going to get any better
when she has to have awful things done to her when she goes there.

Abbey is still accepting prayers and healing thoughts.  Thank you for
thinking of her.

Candace