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Another update on my cat - not sure what to do
8 years ago
"We look for things. Things to make us go."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeFoGo3N_4g
She's taken a turn for the worst. This is probably going to be tl;dr, so if you aren't interested in the sick cat of a random furry porn artist, feel free to press the back button.
After coming home from the vet, and the anesthesia wore off, she did go back to eating soft food, though she was sneezing a lot. After a couple days of still seeming to have trouble chewing the meaty bits in the food and just licking the gravy off, I got her some pate food, which in the past she didn't like very much, but seemed to appreciate it much more now that she was hungry because it was easy to eat.
Then on Thursday, I saw her fall off the cat tree. She landed on her feet so it didn't seem that big of a deal, but it concerned me because she's never fallen off of things before. Then later she fell off the back of my chair, but caught herself and hung on and dropped safely to the floor. Figured the residual ear infection maybe made her dizzy, but the vet gave her an antibiotic, and she wasn't scratching at her ear anymore. Then the next day she fell off the cat tree again, except this time she landed on her side and started gasping for breath. I pet her until she started breathing normally again, it seemed like she'd just winded herself. That night she didn't eat very much. Also I don't recall her sneezing at all after she fell, which she had been doing pretty often up until then after her dental surgery.
On saturday, the only thing she ate was a very small amount of pate from my fingers, but was mostly refusing food. Later that night, I could hear her breathing from across the room. It sounded like a faint ticking clock. Sunday was the same, except she ate nothing at all, turned her head away from me whenever I offered her food. Her breathing was a normal rate, but was still making a faint ticking sound. I didn't think too much about it at the time. But I was concerned about her lack of eating at all over the weekend, and called the vet on monday. He saw her that afternoon. I mentioned about how she had fallen off my chair, and off the cat tree twice, and her appetite had declined again. He suggested that she might still be dizzy and nauseous from the ear infection. He checked her over, and gave her a b vitamin shot and I think more antibiotics. I bought a few cans of Hills a/d to try to get her eating again. He said to call the next day to let him know how she's doing. That vet trip was another $75.
She ate a small portion of the Hills a/d, maybe the equivalent of a tablespoon, and drank a bit of unsalted chicken broth. But by yesterday morning, her breathing became more shallow and rapid, the ticking sound sounded more like a soft patting. She refused to eat more pate from my hands, but every so often would lick some more chicken broth. She did get up and go to the litter box around 4:30 in the afternoon, which was surprising because the whole weekend she'd basically been stationary.
I wasn't sure what to do about the breathing issue, so I called the vet. Mentioned the breathing issue and her continued refusal to eat. He said he wasn't sure what could be causing her to breathe that way, and she would need to get an xray in order to provide any further clues. For the inappetence, he suggested I try syringe feeding her, so my brother in law went to the pet store to get a syringe for me.
While I was waiting for him, she came out from under the kotatsu where she'd been not-sleeping, and had a sudden terrifying attack of gasping, panting with her mouth open, flopped over onto her side and laid there gasping for at least ten minutes. I was so sure that this was it, and she was dying right there.
Thankfully, her breathing returned back to how it was before the attack, still not ideal, but at least stable. After I got the syringe, I waited a little while before trying to feed her. Chaosie and I managed to get a little bit into her before she started struggling and triggered another gasping attack from the exertion.
Basically I've been awake since around 8pm monday keeping an eye on her, stressing out, and crying. Spent an hour or more in the bathroom with her with a humidifier on, slowly and gently easing more food into her. Got about one full syringe of diluted food into her over the course of that hour with no incident other than she was probably tired of me sticking things in her mouth.
I spent most of yesterday and this morning looking online for various causes for rapid breathing and refusal to eat, thought it could have been a reaction to the antibiotics. Then I thought about how she'd fallen off the cat tree and landed on her side, and now I wonder if she's got a collapsed lung.
I'm calling the vet again when they open. It's likely I'll need to get her xray'd. I'm not exactly poor, but the medical bills for her already have been over $400, and we just don't have the money right now to deal with this. I'm not asking for handouts, but I really really would be eternally grateful for any commissions of any kind right now. I'm thinking of doing a pwyw stream on Friday, (or multiple ones) to help pay for her medical bills. I'll post a separate journal about that though.
Please, if you've been considering getting a commission from me at some point, (or have before and thought about getting another) now is the time. If you can't get or don't want a commission, spreading the word helps a lot as well. Anybody who posts a journal or tweet or whathaveyou about my situation and link back to me will be entered in a raffle for free sketches.
After coming home from the vet, and the anesthesia wore off, she did go back to eating soft food, though she was sneezing a lot. After a couple days of still seeming to have trouble chewing the meaty bits in the food and just licking the gravy off, I got her some pate food, which in the past she didn't like very much, but seemed to appreciate it much more now that she was hungry because it was easy to eat.
Then on Thursday, I saw her fall off the cat tree. She landed on her feet so it didn't seem that big of a deal, but it concerned me because she's never fallen off of things before. Then later she fell off the back of my chair, but caught herself and hung on and dropped safely to the floor. Figured the residual ear infection maybe made her dizzy, but the vet gave her an antibiotic, and she wasn't scratching at her ear anymore. Then the next day she fell off the cat tree again, except this time she landed on her side and started gasping for breath. I pet her until she started breathing normally again, it seemed like she'd just winded herself. That night she didn't eat very much. Also I don't recall her sneezing at all after she fell, which she had been doing pretty often up until then after her dental surgery.
On saturday, the only thing she ate was a very small amount of pate from my fingers, but was mostly refusing food. Later that night, I could hear her breathing from across the room. It sounded like a faint ticking clock. Sunday was the same, except she ate nothing at all, turned her head away from me whenever I offered her food. Her breathing was a normal rate, but was still making a faint ticking sound. I didn't think too much about it at the time. But I was concerned about her lack of eating at all over the weekend, and called the vet on monday. He saw her that afternoon. I mentioned about how she had fallen off my chair, and off the cat tree twice, and her appetite had declined again. He suggested that she might still be dizzy and nauseous from the ear infection. He checked her over, and gave her a b vitamin shot and I think more antibiotics. I bought a few cans of Hills a/d to try to get her eating again. He said to call the next day to let him know how she's doing. That vet trip was another $75.
She ate a small portion of the Hills a/d, maybe the equivalent of a tablespoon, and drank a bit of unsalted chicken broth. But by yesterday morning, her breathing became more shallow and rapid, the ticking sound sounded more like a soft patting. She refused to eat more pate from my hands, but every so often would lick some more chicken broth. She did get up and go to the litter box around 4:30 in the afternoon, which was surprising because the whole weekend she'd basically been stationary.
I wasn't sure what to do about the breathing issue, so I called the vet. Mentioned the breathing issue and her continued refusal to eat. He said he wasn't sure what could be causing her to breathe that way, and she would need to get an xray in order to provide any further clues. For the inappetence, he suggested I try syringe feeding her, so my brother in law went to the pet store to get a syringe for me.
While I was waiting for him, she came out from under the kotatsu where she'd been not-sleeping, and had a sudden terrifying attack of gasping, panting with her mouth open, flopped over onto her side and laid there gasping for at least ten minutes. I was so sure that this was it, and she was dying right there.
Thankfully, her breathing returned back to how it was before the attack, still not ideal, but at least stable. After I got the syringe, I waited a little while before trying to feed her. Chaosie and I managed to get a little bit into her before she started struggling and triggered another gasping attack from the exertion.
Basically I've been awake since around 8pm monday keeping an eye on her, stressing out, and crying. Spent an hour or more in the bathroom with her with a humidifier on, slowly and gently easing more food into her. Got about one full syringe of diluted food into her over the course of that hour with no incident other than she was probably tired of me sticking things in her mouth.
I spent most of yesterday and this morning looking online for various causes for rapid breathing and refusal to eat, thought it could have been a reaction to the antibiotics. Then I thought about how she'd fallen off the cat tree and landed on her side, and now I wonder if she's got a collapsed lung.
I'm calling the vet again when they open. It's likely I'll need to get her xray'd. I'm not exactly poor, but the medical bills for her already have been over $400, and we just don't have the money right now to deal with this. I'm not asking for handouts, but I really really would be eternally grateful for any commissions of any kind right now. I'm thinking of doing a pwyw stream on Friday, (or multiple ones) to help pay for her medical bills. I'll post a separate journal about that though.
Please, if you've been considering getting a commission from me at some point, (or have before and thought about getting another) now is the time. If you can't get or don't want a commission, spreading the word helps a lot as well. Anybody who posts a journal or tweet or whathaveyou about my situation and link back to me will be entered in a raffle for free sketches.
It was very hard for me to read this because it is very similar to how my Bombay went. Some of the things you describe were the signs my vet told me to watch for, which would indicate Bombay's lung cancer had gone to far, she was suffocating, and it would be time to euthanize her so she wouldn't suffer. That was a very hard decision, and still painful to me.
I hope your little kitty is fine, that it's just a reaction to the antibiotics and she'll fix right up. The Xray at the vet is necessary, and I hope it's all good news. If not you will have to be the loving parent.
I'm sorry.
The only thing I can offer by way of help is that if getting food/liquid into her is an issue try fork whisking the pate with water -- up to 200% water at a time, adding water whenever you start seeing the food. It might not be much but it'll get liquid and some nutrient into her if she'll drink it. Also, the stinkier the better, since she probably has almost no sense of smell left. No sense of smell often = no appetite.