Old Wicked non PC Christmas Card
Where did the year go?
It’s a little over a week until Christmas Day, and I must admit I am not feeling all that merry.
The Cat Politics domicile has a sick cat, whose condition has been ongoing for the past two weeks.
The cat in question is Willy who went off his food at the end of November and refused to eat hardly anything for a couple of days, looking out of sorts and depressed into the bargain.
So off to the Vet we took him to try and discover what the problem was. We feared it might be kidney failure and were steeling ourselves for the big decision.
A blood and urine test and thorough physical examination proved negative as far as kidney failure or diabetes was concerned, and the Vet couldn’t provide any answers as to why he was off his food, but he did give us a few appetite stimulant tablets to get Willy to eat.
These worked for a few days, but his behaviour was still uncharacteristic and it was obvious that he wasn’t improving, so another vet visit was called for.
We saw a different vet this time and she at least had a theory as to what his problem was. Her opinion was that he had pancreatitis due to his being overweight. He has weighed in, in the past, at over 8 kilograms and is a heavy cat.
She prescribed cortisone to reduce the pancreatic inflammation. Cortisone also acts as an appetite stimulus, though it took some time for it to kick in. For the past week, Willy has eaten well every second day, and sparingly on the other days. Yesterday was one of his eating days and we were relieved when he showed interest in food this morning and ate a hearty breakfast.
I’m covered in scratches, as his lack of interest in food means that we have to give him the cortisone pill manually, ie shoving it down his throat as he struggles to resist. It’s much easier if you can hide it in food. but alas a cat without appetite has to put up with the stress of force feeding. It also leaves us shaking and stressed out as well.
Willy is showing some improvement, but is not back to his old self yet. He’s slimmer at least, but has given up climbing on the roof, which was one of his favourite places to be a fortnight ago. However, despite his spending most of his time under the house, he still recognises us as his litter mates and on cool nights still climbs into bed with us.
If the vet is right in her diagnosis, pancreatitis is curable in cats, so we live in hope that Willy will be with us for several more years.
We are taking Willy back to the vet tomorrow for assessment, so cross fingers the prognosis is hopeful.
We’ve hardly dared to be optimistic over the past few weeks, so it has been very much doom and gloom in our household as we slouch towards the festive season.
Anyway, if there are any blog readers left, I wish you all a happy Christmas and a stress free 2017, despite the new world order.
4 comments:
oh PollyCat how stressful. Poor Willy. My cat had to go to the catgods this year. she was 16.5 and had dementia. Getting a pet just puts you in line for losing a pet. I don't like Christmas much and hope to ignore it, and 3 consecutive days of 30 degrees will nail that plan down.
Cheer yourself slightly by visiting these Melbourne guys Edwardian House Renovation
Christmas in the Edwardian House who moved to England, renovated a house and put their gorgeous cats in catshows and came out big winners
Love from me, just west of Hamilton
Sorry to hear of your elderly cat's demise. Our Lizzie was about the same age when she developed dementia and had to be put to sleep.
Willy is nearly 13 years of age, but was doing OK up to three weeks ago. Last week he looked on the improve, but today he's back to being worrying, having gone off his food again.
Agree with you about Christmas, but if you have family it has to be endured.
a week on, just checking and hoping Willy is his usual self. x x
Alas not good news. See my most recent post. Thanks for thinking of him and us.
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