Snowball. She from before the marriage. She who ruled the other cats and DeHusband with an iron fist and allowed me to live in her house and be her pillow. She was almost 14 years old.
She got thin again. (She would do this from time to time. Not a regular eater, a few times a year we would have to coax her to eat. Soft food, tuna juice, roast beef. A little pampering and she would plump up.) Noticed her not eating last week. So we gave her some roast beef. We kept pampering, expecting her to perk up. By Monday, she would just turn away. She was still drinking water, but didn’t even want tuna juice. DeHusband and I had “the” talk. She hated the vet so much, she was always sick for days after going, so we decided to wait. She wasn’t in pain. Her eyes were normal but she was just getting really boney. Until yesterday. No pain, but it was like she was struggling to breathe. Not raspy, no blockage, just exaggerated breathing motions.
So this morning we took her to the vet as soon as they opened. Doc said they’d put her on an IV, test her blood and call me at work with the results. Call 1: Blood work seems fine. Nothing elevated, nothing too low. Not thyroid, or virus, or kidneys. Might be her heart, but probably not. Gave permission for him to do Xrays. Call 2: Xrays show lots of fluid built up around the lungs, compressing them. Gave permission to drain off the fluid. Call 3: They gave her something to calm her slightly so the needle wouldn’t hurt and started setting up the room. Doc said that she sat there watching them. Then she stood up as if startled and slumped down. No pulse. They kept trying to restart it but never really could.
She probably had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. She’d probably had it for years but we never noticed. She was just in for blood tests in September and she was fine. Now we’re home, $700 poorer, DeHusband is digging a hole underneath the bird feeder, and I just can’t stop crying. Sorry to push this on everyone, but I just really needed to get it out.
Oh, DeVena, I am so sorry for your loss. I had a similar situation with one of my cats a few years ago. He kept getting very thin, but we were able to plump him up time and time again, so we didn’t think much of it. One time he just couldn’t eat anymore and he was so thin and starting to get weak. We brought him to the vet and it turns out he had Fatty Liver Disease and that was why he kept getting so thin. Unfortunately, because we had waited so long, it was too late.
I understand your pain and I promise you it does get better with time. Again, I am so sorry. {{Hugs}}
I know that later there’s probably going to be the urge to beat yourself up over not catching the HCM, but don’t do that. Just don’t. There was nothing you could have done. She was asymptomatic until this episode, so unless you think it was reasonable to a cardiac ultrasound on a seemingly healthy cat, there was absolutely no way you could have known anything was wrong with her. And even if you had, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome. She would have eventually built up fluid and gone into respiratory distress and coded, even with treatment, and the treatment would have been horribly stressful for her. There is nothing, absolutely nothing, you should have done differently. It was just her time, is all.
And don’t be sorry about turning to us; if you can’t turn to fellow Dopers in a situation like this, what the hell good is this place?
Pets really hold such a huge part of your heart. I dread the days that I will have to say goodbye to my babies. I know it’s difficult, but hang in there.
::big hug, sharing a good cry with you::
I will make sure I spend extra time with my little ones this weekend . . . funny how these sad situations make you appreciate what you have.
DeVena - My sincere condolences. Last year I lost a cat that had cronic kidney disease. Sub-Q fluids ever other day, meds every day. In the end, after about a year, she died. But the important thing to remember is that you, and I, did our best for our pets. We can’t always save them, but at least if we know we did our best, there’s nothing to regret. You can still hurt and moarn, but never think you were somehow to blame.
DeVena, I am so sorry to hear about your loss. Maybe you can take some comfort in knowing you were doing everything you could. I lost a cat recently and I still miss him, and so does the other cat.
Cry with your husband, get it out. Give the other cats extra treats and petting. We will all be thinking of you. Email if you need to.
Oh, hon. I’m so, so sorry. I wish I could fix it for you somehow, but unfortunately all I can do is tell you that you’re in my thoughts, and your lovely kitty is at peace. Hang in there, and email me anytime.
This explains a lot. I have a 13 year old neutered male–Merlyn. Very fit and very tall, sort of the Jack Lalanne of cats. He was laying on my chest as I was on my back reading bedtime stories to the kids–this is his thing–when one of the kittens bounds up onto the bed and pokes his nose in Merlyn’s ear. Merlyn immediately stands up and SPEAKS! “Snowball’s been called? Why…that means…I’M KING OF THE CATS!” He ran out his kitty door and into the night and we haven’t seen him since!
But seriously. I’ve lost a lot of kitties, but every now and then you do get a special one–sort of a “Dunedain” kitty which is far superior to any mere ‘mouse eater.’ The loss of such a cat belongs to all of us. Inigo extends as much sympathy as he can without losing his composure.
Oh, I’m so sorry to hear about your Snowball! She had a good life here with you and your husband, and I’m sure she’s ruling the roost wherever she is now.
We, too, had a premarital cat. She was about 18yo last year when she got very sick in the middle of the night, and spent a night in the hospital with lots of IVs and bloodwork. She had feline renal failure, but lived for more than a year in great luxury, with special food and LOTS of attention. When she started having problems jumping up onto our bed (her favorite sleeping place), we chose to have her put down. It was very hard for DH and me, but it was also hard on our two kids, who grew up with her as a member of the family.
Our daughter went into a severe depression a couple of months later. We’re not sure that it was related to the cat’s death, but I mention it to all of her doctors since the cat WAS a member of our family in every possible aspect (including guarding our daughter when she was a newborn, and not letting unknown people get anywhere near her).
