The Cat Politics household is tired and emotional at present, due to a very sick cat.
It is our old cat Lizzie, who this time last week was her usual sparkling self. Then, for no reason at all she went off her food last Wednesday. We managed to persuade her to eat a little on Thursday, but she was becoming stranger as the days went by – listless and pointlessly wandering around yowling and not with it at all.
Last Friday we took her to the vet, who checked her out thoroughly, took a blood test and reported that nothing was seriously wrong with her physically. But her condition continued to deteriorate over the weekend. She refused to eat anything for those two days, though was still drinking water. It is heartbreaking to see her as she is now - a ghost of her former self.
We suspected that the problem was cerebral, rather than physical, caused by old age and possible dementia.
Lizzie was taken back to the vet today and was given an even more thorough examination. The vet could find nothing wrong with her physically and agreed it could be a mental problem. He applied a saline drip to keep her moisture levels up, and also gave her a cortisone pill and an appetite stimulant injection. However, his prognosis was not optimistic.
Tonight, she did lap up some beaten egg but still refuses solid food and remains dull and unresponsive as well as appearing to have difficulty in walking. The vet assures us she is not in pain, but it is very distressing to witness your beloved cat slowly dying.
If she doesn’t improve tomorrow, we will have to make the big decision on euthanasia.
All this has been costing us sleep, and a sad gloominess has invaded the house. Even Willy is affected, craving more attention from us.
Today I escaped for a couple of hours in Ur and Babylon, at the Melbourne Museum’s Wonders of Ancient Mesopotamia Exhibition. I’d pre booked a ticket months ago, so rather than waste it I decided to go. It did distract my mind for a while, though the stone relief sculpture of The Dying Lion, brought me back to the present – that now familiar sadness that has haunted us for a week. It is a very interesting exhibition, well worth attending and I’ll write more about it when my brain is functioning normally.
4 comments:
Sorry to hear. Best wishes, Anne.
Sorry to hear this too Anne. We have an ageing dog who now has a terrible cough due to pulmonary oedema which is preliminary to congestive heart failure. She's managing OK now, still eating and getting around pretty comfortably in her stiff arthritic way but we know her time is coming.
I hope whatever happens your cat is comfortable but for your sake I hope she picks up and yo have more time with her.
my 17-y-o cat went under the bed and refused to come out and after 3 days and a forest of sustenance saucers were under there with him, we lifted the bed up and aside, took him to the vet who said 'kidney failure due to age'.
Love to you both and I hope your outcome is positive. x x
Thank you all, for your kind thoughts.
Alas, she is no more, as her situation was worse rather than better this morning, so we decided to do the decent thing. It was well handled, and we were there with her.
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