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I don't really know how much to say here. I just feel the need to share. My parents and I have three cats. They are all 14 years old, all from the same litter. One of them is diabetic. His diabetes has been monitored and under control for almost two years now. On Sunday (my birthday, of all days), my cat let out a distressed cry from the kitchen. We got up and found him laying down in the middle of the kitchen. He started breathing heavily through his mouth, but calmed down quickly enough. I petted him, he was purring, and he tried to get up. His back legs seemed like they were weak or sore, and he couldn't stand on them or didn't want to, and he laid back down after a few steps. He kept doing this as we got ready to take him to the hospital. We got there, and long story short, they discover his glucose levels are unexpectedly high, and he's anemic. They put him in an oxygen cage and keep him overnight to run tests on him and figure out what's causing the anemia. Over the past few days, he's had multiple blood transfusions, and is currently on two antibiotics on the off chance he has some sort of infection. All the things they are testing for are coming back negative. The only thing they appear to have determined (and it might be wrong) is that his red blood cells are mildly regenerative, but not to the point they should be, and are continuing to be destroyed due to some unknown cause. Today, they even had a medicine specially made (the company makes products for humans, but they made his upon request) for him to suppress his immune system, in case that was causing this. He either has something that isn't come up in their tests, something more rare that they haven't tested for yet, or maybe something they've never seen before. Meanwhile, his red blood cell count drops, they give him a transfusion to bring it back up, it drops again, and the process repeats. He's kept in oxygen because he can't breathe without difficulty otherwise. When they give him a transfusion, his breathing becomes rapid and distressed, but he has calmed down once the process is over. We have spent almost all our money in the past four days. I don't want to give up on him. He's doing "okay" right now, in the sense that with the transfusions and oxygen, he's not necessarily deteriorating. He's holding steady and is being given time while we look for answers and see if we can make him better. So as long as he's hanging in there and not getting worse, I want to give him all he needs. The idea that we're going to hit a wall we can't pass, and that's going to be the reason this is all over, is tearing me up. To imagine that he could end up just needing one more day, and the doctors will go "Hey, we figured out what's wrong! He just needs this, and he'll be all better!" but we'll fall short of giving him that day. All we can do right now is hope what they're giving him right now is the miracle we're hoping for. Tonight's another transfusion, and tomorrow's another update, where they once again re-assess his situation and figure out what direction to take now. I don't know if I'm asking for advice or just sharing. It's just been a really, really emotional week and I needed to put it all out there and see what it looks like I guess.
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Aug 7, 2014 01:30
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We ran out of options, and time.
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Aug 8, 2014 01:07
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I'm sorry for your loss 
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Aug 9, 2014 02:35
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Didn't think I would be going back to this thread. I know nobody has anything to say, but just for my own sake... One of my other cats got sick yesterday. Took her to the vet today. Complete kidney failure. There was nothing they could do to save her. Two cats in 6 weeks. I don't know what to do with myself.
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Sep 18, 2014 23:37
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I took one of mine last friday because he was having trouble eating, he was diagnosed with cancer, I weighed my options, treatments, quality for life for him and agonized all night, barely slept. On saturday I held him in my arms as he drifted off to rainbow road, much like yourself I found myself in the terrible position once all the factors came together. He was the last one of a little cat family that was born here, out of 4 he was the last one, now they're all gone. You did everything you could man and at 14 they had tremendous lives, little comfort I know but you loved your pet so much that you did a completely self-less act to ensure he was no longer suffering.
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Sep 19, 2014 10:30
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Sorry dude but your cats are pretty high up there. These things start to happen. Kitties have an expiration, but 14 years is pretty incredible. You did really good.
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Sep 19, 2014 13:17
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I AM NOT A VET Did you have any new cleaning products, pesticides, or herbicides, or potted plants come in or near your home recently? STILL NOT A VET
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Sep 20, 2014 00:38
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Sorry for your loss It may not help now, but in the future you'll be able to feel good about having done everything you could for them.
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Sep 20, 2014 08:28
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Nth-ing the "You did good" statdments. 14 years is significant no matter what the circumstances, and I'm certain if they could tell you they would say "Thanks".
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Sep 21, 2014 22:50
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Suspect Bucket posted:I AM NOT A VET No. With my male cat, he went through every test they could give him to try to determine the cause, getting deeper and deeper into his system until we were talking about testing his bone marrow for diseases or cancers that weren't coming up in other tests. Things that you are asking about were ruled out very early on. With our female cat, while we didn't have a chance to have any tests done, the doctor seemed to feel it was a natural occurrence connected to her age and there was no indication it was anything else. Just two very unfortunate situations that happened unfortunately close together.
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Sep 21, 2014 23:11
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Jamesman posted:Just two very unfortunate situations that happened unfortunately close together. Sorry for your losses.
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Sep 22, 2014 05:29
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Suspect Bucket posted:I AM NOT A VET I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, OP. Losing one cat on its own is devastating, and a second one so soon after is crushing.
melon cat fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Sep 23, 2014 |
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Sep 23, 2014 02:22
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My cats are strictly indoors. We've brought nothing harmful into the house and they've not gotten into anything harmful. The doctor did not suspect anything other than her age as the reason for her illness. We are planning to schedule a checkup now, but... a simple checkup has become really loving scary and it's really loving hard to think about taking another cat to a doctor.
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Sep 23, 2014 04:28
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Jamesman posted:Didn't think I would be going back to this thread. I know nobody has anything to say, but just for my own sake... This is a weird thread because something like this literally just happened to me about a month ago. Two cats that my parents had (were my cats before I moved out), both fourteen years old, like yours. One seems perfectly fine until one day where he simply refuses to eat, and then won't even stand up the next morning to go drink some water. Take him to the vet, complete renal failure, and we had to have him put down. I'm not sure if I've ever cried harder and I'm not ashamed to say so; we got both of these cats as kittens when I was 12 years old, and they were truly family in every sense of the word. Three days later, his littermate dies of a loving heart attack out (what seems like) of nowhere. Turns out she had pretty advanced hyperthyroidism and nobody noticed. My parents are not great cat owners. Both of these cats dying seemed completely preventable, and I blame myself for not paying more attention. I mean, I don't live there, I can't keep an eye on them, but I could have visited more and said something. I don't know. Point is, I'm so sorry for your loss and I understand completely how it feels. It sounds like you did everything you could have been expected to, and they both had a wonderful family. 14 doesn't feel like enough, but that's, like, eighty in cat years. I've had a cat die at 5 years old, and I've had a cat die at 24. You just never know.
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Sep 23, 2014 23:28
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I'm sorry you've had to go through this too. It's easy to blame yourself or others for not seeing what you think is obvious, but I feel that's the grief speaking, trying to search for answers as to why this happened. You can't look at a cat and say "Hey, they have a serious medical condition that should be addressed before it worsens" because that is not something a cat conveys very well, sadly. My cat that was diabetic? We were concerned about his weight loss, and brought him in for a checkup to talk about diet, which is a hard thing to control with three cats with no comprehension of separate bowls. He had slowed down a bit and wasn't jumping around as much or as high, but we attributed that to age. We had no idea he could be seriously ill, or had been for who knows how long. The doctor later told us that with the state he was brought in, she didn't think he would survive. We couldn't believe we didn't see it and had let him go so long like that. So he could have died from complications related to diabetes two years ago. Instead, he bounced back from that thanks to our doctor's help, my mom's diligent shot schedule, and his strength. I'm thankful for that extra time. His sister who just passed last week? One day, she's running around the house, full of energy, even going ballistic at the window when she sees an outside cat. The next, she's so sick she won't even move. If there was anything leading up to her kidney failure, it was never evident. It's sad to say there was nothing that could be done for her or her brother, but it's the truth, and being free of false guilt is helping me to process this better and focus more on happy memories. I hope you can do the same.
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Sep 24, 2014 08:43
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