A few days after we lost K.J. things seemed to go from bad to worse. We realized that my cat, Mosi, was no longer eating or drinking and was declining very fast. Her symptoms seemed to suggest constipation (which can be fairly common in older cats...she's almost 11), so we began to treat that by force feeding and force watering, but that didn't help, and she continued to decline.
We took her to the vet, and she determined that she had a lung infection with fluid on the pleura...plus she had a very high white blood cell count. A few possible diagnoses were just a severe infection, pancreatits, heart disease or cancer. The first two are treatable (usually), the last...not so much.
So, three days ago we started her on twice daily antibiotics, and we've also been infusing her with fluids twice a day. That's very hard for me to deal with, because I'm horribly terrified of needles, and the idea of someone poking my little baby is very disturbing...but it has to be done...
Yesterday she started eating on her own, and she's spent most of today cleaning herself. She'd gotten quite dirty from all of the force feedings, and she was just too fatigued to do anything about it. She also has started acting a little more like herself today as well. She follows me around meowing, and she hisses and growls at Rebecca...this is all pretty normal for her.
We still haven't seen her drinking on her own, and if she doesn't start before we go to bed, we'll have to infuse her with fluids again. Her breathing is also a still labored, but it's not as bad as it was.
We still don't have a diagnosis, and we don't know if she's going to make it, but she does seem to be doing better...and that at least is giving us some hope.
2 comments:
I have been giving my older cat Max fluids every other night for about a month. Luckily cat skin doesn't seem to be that sensitive. I stick Max and he doesn't seem to notice. You just pinch up the skin and give it a poke.
Max has a thyroid condition where he has no appetite so we have to give him thyroid medicine and now give him fluids. The last time we took him to the vet he had a heart murmur and a shadow on his lung which looks like cancer.
Cats are so fragile and short lived, but I can't imagine living without cats as friends.
I hope Mosi gets better! I'm sort of in the same boat here with my eldest cat. She's 15 and has literally thrown up all her life. It has been getting worse, she's getting thinner. Today I saw her playing, something she rarely does to begin with as it tends to hurt her. I'm going to be just as devastated when her time comes. I check her every morning just to make sure she's still breathing. Even when you know they're old, it is still a shock. They're like our kids, aren't they? Only much furrier. :D
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