An update on my cat... My heart is breaking.

GirlinContempt

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Thu Jan-10-08 08:37 PM
Original message

An update on my cat... My heart is breaking.

First thread is here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=7282521

After that hospital visit, we got him in to our regular vet. They looked at the xrays and blood work, and basically said nothing is wrong with him. The kidney we were told was enlarged is actually normal sized, and the smaller one is undersized. All of his blood looked just fine, he was a little low on potassium, they gave us some supplements and also something to help his bowels as he's old and might be having some troubles there.

They took urine samples, all of that looked normal. The vet suggested that he may have just been passing a stone at the time, or just have passed one, and it was causing him discomfort.

They recommended a new feeding regime and new cat food for all of the 4 cats. We paid the vet bill, bought the food, and came home feeling incredibly relieved.

Flash has never been a big eater, but he started eating less and less each time I fed him. I would feed him every time he came downstairs because he was eating so little. I switched him back to his old food because I was worried he was protesting the new food.

A few days ago, he just stopped eating. And drinking. He's like skin and bones, can barely get up the energy to walk. Petting him is like rubbing a skeleton, it's really scary. Nothing we came up with could tempt him. Once, years and years ago, he stopped eating. We never knew why, the vet couldn't figure it out, but we force fed him on baby food until he started eating on his own again. So we started force feeding him baby food and water. He was throwing it up.

I'm painfully poor right now, I'm still off work with my knee problem and I haven't even received a cheque from EI yet. I begged the family to take him back to the vet. I pleaded. I can't afford to. I do not have the money, in a very real sense. I was told he's just 'old' and he's 'upset' about something (their theory the last time he stopped eating). I tried to point out that he was throwing up what we fed him, etc, and they wouldn't listen. One even went so far as to compare it to people with terminal diseases or the very elderly who lose their spouses and basically decide to die on their own terms. I pointed out that he's a *cat*, not a human being. I was told that maybe we just had to let him go, and i said that if that is the decision that is made, we have to put him down, not just let him starve himself slowly and painfully to death.

My sister got back from the Bahamas last night, and got her boyfriend to pay to take the cat to the vet as no one else would.
He has some sort of severe infection. His kidneys are actually shutting down for real now. He's on the brink of death. His white blood cell count is off the charts. Everything is off the charts. He's at the vet now, they're trying to save him, but we all get the feeling it's going to be a lost cause. They said if we'd left it any longer they wouldn't have been able to do anything at all.

I feel so horrible. It's like, all of this happiness and hope I felt hearing he was ok has just made this worse. And I'm absolutely livid that no one would help, no one would take him to the vet, loan the money (that they *HAVE*, and I know for a *FACT*). If they had, he might not be suffering, dying at the vet right now, away from his family that loves him. I feel so angry. And sad.

Thats all. I don't think he'll make it, I really don't. And it's killing me to think that we, i, could have stopped this horrible suffering and didn't.

I'm so sorry Flash. You deserve so much better than that. I'm so, so, so sorry.
I can't stop crying. I'm pathetic.