My cat is very sick

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Ramble on, my friend. That is what we are here for.

A small tale, to perhaps give you some small amount of hope. A lady I cat-sit for (who is also a friend) has a cat with Inflamatory Bowel Disease. Her employment was causing her to have to go out of town for almost a week while he was having a very bad time. She and the vet decided to have him stay in the clinic while she was gone.

Every morning, I would go to her house and spend an hour with Felicia, feeding and brushing and changing the litter box. Felicia doesn’t really like me (which hurts my feelings, because most cats like me - we think it has something to do with the fact that I trapped her as a feral kitten), but I was better than being totally alone.

Then I went to the clinic (where I used to work) to spend some time with Zack. The first day or so, he would eat a little bit while I was there. Other than that, he was being force fed.

Every evening, the same routine - Felicia, then Zack.

Zack started to eat a bit more, but still hadn’t eliminated on his own. The vet said he could go home as soon as he pooped.

When my friend got home from her business trip, she only lasted a day with Zack in the clinic. She asked to take him home, and if he didn’t eliminate she would bring him in for euthansia.

When she released him from the carrier at home, he ran to the litter box and took a massive dump. He’s been fine ever since.

I realize your baby isn’t going to “be fine” since she has cancer. But she may well eat better at home than she will in strange and often frightening surroundings. If you have to take her in every day or so for IV fluids - if she seems to be happy and is eating and pain free, love her while you can and let her know she is loved. When it is time for her to cross the Bridge, it will be easier for having the love.

{{{jsgoddess}}} I am thinking of you and Ugly, and sending out all the love I can. I wish there was more I could do. E-mail me if you would like.

22

It’s ok to ramble. Grieve as you must, if she survives this, then it will be that much sweeter to have her back.
My heart goes out to you. You and your furry child, are in my thoughts.

23

Oh dear, now the fact that my Bernadette (dog) is limping for no apparant reason is making me really nervous. She’s only six (maybe seven), same age and size as the cat (Ali Khan). They think they’re related. I am having a friend who used to work at a vet’s office come over to look at Bernie-bern on Monday, and if necessary, take us to the vet. Please let it be somethig silly, like she’s so lazy she’s just given herself shoulder-ache. Ali would be devastated without his sister, troublesome as she is.

My heart goes out to all who are experiencing trouble with loved fur-family right now.

Respectfully,

Inky

24

taking her home may help. if she is good at traveling, it may be less stressful for her to travel to the vet than stay at the vet.

i cat sat for a kitty that wouldn’t eat at the vet, but ate at home, (fancy feast) with a human sitting with her.

25

That sounds like a good idea - take her home and try her on her favourite foods or whatever enticing foods you can find. If she still doesn’t eat, I can see that you already know that it’s time to let her go, then.

I have two cats at home, mine and my husband’s, and neither of us has lost a personal pet yet (just the family pets, which isn’t quite the same as your own pet, who follows only you around the house, and cries when you leave for work). I really don’t know what we’re going to do when it happens. My cat is a real pest sometimes, but I know I’m going to miss her terribly when she’s not around to demand my attention any more.

26

Cats vary, but I know my almost 20 year old kitty, who has been living with kidney failure for 5 years now, would not be doing swell staying at the vet’s. It’s such a hard call, though. There have been a couple times in the past couple years where she would not have survived without a night at the vet’s.

Sending hugs and gentle pats to Jsgoddess and Ugly.

27

Lots of hugs to you, jsgoddess, and skritches and head kisses to Ugly. Keep us updated.

28

Well, we have an appointment with the vet again to go over her most recent blood work and decide what to do next. So if anyone has a spare thought around 4:40 EST, I’d appreciate it being tossed our way.

29

i’ll send some positive vibes for Ugly. Just love her. That’s all you can do.

30

Well, she’s home. Her blood work showed improvement. My husband is upstairs in the bathroom with her seeing if she wants to eat for us.

31

That’s good to hear-I’ll be thinking of you.

Have you tried maybe some broth? When my cat was sick (we later found out it was a bad sore throat and a few bad teeth) and wouldn’t eat, we eventually fixed her chicken broth on the stove-just cooked the chicken in the skillet-and she gobbled it right up.

32

any news? i hope she is eating for y’all.

33

I’m thinking good thoughts for you too. A hug for you and some skritches and a kiss between the ears for Ugly.

34

She’s not eating. She crawled up into an old recliner and hid when my husband let her wander for a little bit, so she’s shut in the bedroom and all of the other cats except Irving are shut downstairs.

I don’t have much hope left. She’s being so affectionate, more than she is when she’s well. Oh, she’s normally a friendly cat, but right now she wants to be touched, to be held, or to hide in the chair.

It’s death, then. She was curled up on my husband’s lap and he was trying to get her to eat, putting food in her mouth with a syringe, and I just envisioned the two of them eighteen years ago when Ugly was a little sick kitten and Steve fed her drop by drop until she could eat on her own and now I guess it’s all circled back around again, hasn’t it? He nursed her into the world and is going to nurse her out of it. And he’s so calm about it, though I know that he’ll be devastated when she dies.

I guess it’s why I love him so much, because he can love her so much.

I don’t know how much she knows, but I was attempting to put a little food in her mouth as she sat on his lap and those eyes. I call her my Moon Pie Eye for absolutely no reason but that I like the sound and she opens her eyes round and wide and shining. And the look she gave was so calm, so forgiving, so something inhuman and wise and accepting that I felt I knew that she wasn’t going to eat on her own. That she knows.

My rational brain isn’t so sure of that, but the rest of me knows that she knows.

So. I’m not asking for any more get well wishes or get better wishes or anything similar. Just send healing wishes for my husband, who has lost so much and is about to lose more.

Thank you all.

35

Six years ago it was Mr. S’s babydog who died in his arms. She fell in love with him when he brought her home on his lap in the car, at age six weeks or so, and he returned the favor. Eleven and a half years later she was back on his lap in the car, leaving this world halfway to the vet’s office one Sunday night.

I thought he would fall to pieces. But no, it was me, and he was the rock.

Best wishes for Ugly and those who love her. May she go gentle into that good night.

36

anySIL is waiting at The Rainbow Bridge to make Ugly’s crossing a safe one.

37

Oh, jsgoddess, I’m so very very sorry.

hugs to you and Ugly.

38

It’s so hard.
So very sorry, Jsgoddess.

39

Oh, that’s not good news. The picture of your husband patiently trying to feed his kitty is just doing me in, jsgoddess. Here’s wishing all of you a painless passing and nothing but good memories of a good cat.

40

Ernie, the Best Cat Ever, suffered through two bouts of liver failure. He recovered from the first, and partially from the second until his kidneys gave out.

Both times, Dr. Warren gave us some can food which we mixed with water to make a pasty gruel and we syringed into him. He explained that Ernie didn’t want to eat, and the fact that he had nothing in his stomach made food LESS appealing to him. An empty stomach in a cat is an upset stomach. It only took a day or two both times to get him to eat on his own using the syringe.

It was literally force feeding him for a day or so, but it brought him back.

This is so sad, I spent all last night with one of three cats on my lap, taking turns scritching their heads.