10 September 2006

Poorly Ill Cat

Si and I have just been over to my Mum's returning the cat to her, I'd been looking after her since Wednesday as Mum went up to Preston for a cousin's wedding.

The cat - Kitty has been rather a trial Wednesday night she was fine, demanding food and hiding under my bed as is her wont on the first night being dropped off. Kitty has an overactive thyroid and she tends to throw up the food that has her medicine in it so it's pretty hard to treat her condition. Because of this Mum tends to feed her on demand and she is still very skinny.

Thursday morning I put food out for her and head off to work, knowing that when I get back she will be starving and a tad cross with me because I would be late, a semi formal semi work do. However what I found when I got back was a flat that stunk of cat shit, no sign of kitty but I could hear her. She was making a dreadful wailing sound and chocking noises as if she was trying to sick up something caught in her throat. I found her in my living room hiding behind the sofa in a pitiful state, she had been sick on the carpet once and suffered from diarrhoea a few times I could follow her path round the living room by the increasing runnyness of the mess. She it didn't look like she was chocking on anything but her breathing was awful, and when I picked her up she was shaking.

I don't have a car so there was almost no way I could have got her to the emergency vet fortunately Mum hadn't set off and she was able to come over to take Kitty to the vets. She was not in a good way the vet, a rugged good looking Australian chap, put her in an oxygen tent because of her breathing difficulties and said that he would like to keep her in over night, he blamed the state she was in on her hyperthyroidism and said there could well be underlying heart problems which would have been made worse. What caused it? Could be anything a cold or an upset tummy. They would then transfer her to her regular vets the next day to continue the treatment.

We left Kitty at the vets along with a multitude of phone numbers for them to contact us with, the vets decided to use my mobile number. My mobile was on silent all during the day and I didn't think to look at it.

The emergency vet had handed Kitty over to her normal vets saying that they thought that she was still a poorly little animal and shouldn't go home that night, her normal vets said that they had taken blood and were running some tests. So I called them, they said I could take her home. So when Simon got here we did, I wish we hadn't to be honest she still was not at all well, She barely ate a thing and spent almost all her time under the bed listlessly almost in a stupor although she did totter out for some water and food last night..

So this morning we took her back to Mum's, she showed more interest in her surroundings on the way to the car than she had on Friday but she is most definitely still not herself. I find it sad it very hard to see her looking so poorly, although she is not suffering so badly that the kindest thing would be to put her down by a long chalk, I am not good with serious illness I've decided, I can not do the strong supportive rock act. Not for human nor pet and it's more than a bit embarrassing, I've always been easily effected by emotion unfortunately I'm not growing out of it. I'm not wishing to be cold and emotionless I just wish I didn't cry so easily.

Here is a picture of Kitty last year healthy and not complete skin and bones.
kitty in the flower bed

*Update* 6:45pm My mum has just rung she is taking Kitty back to the emergency vets as she really isn't happy with how the cat is doing. She still hasn't eaten and she couldn't make it up the stairs with out help. We'll see how she does.

4 comments:

  1. ({)
    My cat, Luki, got incredibly ill two years ago. She'd always been an overweight little kitty, and had gradually started getting skinny. At first we put it down to summer heat, then old age, then I kept having dreams that she was trying to tell me something, so I took her to the vet. He said she had a thyroid problem, and a lump, which could be a cyst, so he'd start her on thyroid medication and see how it went. This went well.

    Then she started getting slightly worse, they said they'd change her medication.

    One day I came home from uni, and drove the motorbike into the garden. She was laying on the ground, and didn't even look up and the bike was coming straight to her. I dropped the bike, and ran to her. She was breathing, just, I breathed a sigh of relief, and then she looked up at me. Her once green eyes were glowing yellow at me. I called the vets, and they said to bring her in, as they couldn't treat her on spot. It was 20:00, but the vet was there waiting for us.

    Liver failure. It wasn't looking good. I handed over my credit card, and asked that they do everything they could, as long as she wasn't in pain. They said it was most likely she wouldn't make it, because levels that shouldn't exceed 60 were more like 300 of something.

    She pulled through. She was so happy she was almost like a kitten again. She made a full recovery from the hepatitis (that's what had caused the liver failure and the lump), and is still a bit skinny from the thyroid, demanding food constantly. But she's happy, and I don't regret the £1k it cost me for a second. She's 15 now, and I love her so much.

    I'm sure that Kitty will pull through, tortoishells are resiliant mogs. It's so distressing when they get sick though.

    ({)

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  2. Mine & Tracy's cat, Ethel (don't ask!!!), went awfully thin; everytime she ate she threw it straight back up. We took her to the vets; they did tests, opened her up and rang me with the news... 'She has a tumor that has taken over most of her stomach... The kindest thing is not to wake her from the anesthetic.' As Ethel was Tracy's cat I desperately tried to contact her so as to give the vet approval to put Ethel to sleep. It took me ages and when we contacted the vet Ethel had already woken up. Tracy was devastated and decided to take Ethel home to die...

    That was just over 6 years ago... Ethel is now 17 years old and as fit as a fiddle!!!

    Vets don't know everything ;-)

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  3. Thanks for your comments but sometimes the fairy tale doesn't happen.

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  4. That didn't come out right. Charlee, Steph I know you meant to cheer me up and show that there could be hope. However when I added my comment I had just had just spoken to my Mum and she had told me that it was not to be for Kitty.

    I'm sorry if I sounded snarly or dismissive I wasn't.

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