Beloved cat to ER
 

Cat lovers, nurses, & friends:

On Monday my orange cat, Gandhi ("G"), suddenly developed paralyzed back legs while eating supper. He let out an awful cry. I picked him up and called a friend to take us to Angell, an animal medical center run by the MSPCA . It's a mile away. He cried the entire way and panted.

In the ER I was able to tell them that this had just happened. They took him out of my arms and right into the ICU for pain meds and exam.

G. had a "saddle embolus" blocking the arteries to both legs. They become cold, immobile and it is very painful. They gave him IV morphine twice and then switched to a pump of Fentynl. SO met me at the hospital.

The ER doc (vet) told us that this has a very poor prognosis. That if he lived it would be an average of 25 days in the hospital until he could come home and he might not be able to walk or walk well. They don't use clot-busting drugs on cats for several reasons but major bleeding is one of them. Life span for those cats that do get discharged is less than a year.

We were asked to make a decision about euthanasia or treating w pain meds and O2 and having cat cardiology see him. We were not in agreement so we decided to go for the 24 hours.

In the morning, the cat cardiologist called and said that G's heart was full of clots and it was likely that even if this did resolve it would happen again soon. He said it was a nasty disease w no good treatment option.

SO and I went to the hospital and visited G in the ICU. They took off the one side of the incubator like cage. I talk to him and nuzzled him and kissed him on his head. He knew I was there and leaned against me. We traded off so SO could do the same. After 40 minutes we gave the order. It was the hardest thing I have ever done.

Gandhi was 14. He lived for 20 hours after the initial event.

I cry when I see one of his bowls, his box, a toy. I look up when a piece of newspaper is disturbed by one of the other two cats. I had such a special relationship w the Orange Guy, Orange Mouse, Gandhi-ji. My teacher. It hurts bad. And if I cry, I get TN and if I hold it in I get TN. It's a small price to pay.

ANN

oh, how awful.

Our beloved Tippy (20) had this in Jan 2011. We had her put down within 20 minutes. This type of thing is really not treatable, for the most part. It can come from cardiac myopathy and the clots form in the heart.

I know the scream/cry. It freezes me thru and thru. Tippy went down at lunch.. It happened to us 20 yrs before so we were prepared to have the quick euthanasia, this time. Until this happened she was active, jumping up to high places (unlike our other old cat Sheba who couldn't do that), and there was no warning. The only thing she had was a vaccine reaction a year before to rabies vaccine. (she almost died that day).

My condolences and sympathies are with you. The stress from the Vet is also horrible. It will take a bit for you to just recover from THAT IMO.

Tippy followed Sheba (24) by 2.5months. It was then I decided on a new kitten within days. It was Weezie. It was the best thing I could have done at the time--for her as she was not adopted with her littermates, and for me, grieving so much it was making me ill! Weezie was desperate for a mommy and I believe now that God closed the door and opened the window for Weezie to come to us.

This is Tippy:

I'm so sorry this happened to your precious furbaby, Ann. Know that you did the right thing by taking the pain upon yourselves and releasing him. I know from experience that this is one of the hardest things we are called on to do but time is really a healer when the good memories remain and the bad kind of fade away and become bareable........:hug:

Oh Ann, my heart sank when I read the first sentence and guessed what had happened to your dear baby. I am so sorry.

Fly free dear "G". :hug:

I'm so sorry. We lost two cats this year, and I can still hardly say their names out loud. Thank you for letting us share your grief.

Mrs D- thank you for responding- I hoped you would. I suspected you would know about this condition that I had never heard of. Saddle clots don't happen in people as our vessels are so much bigger.

I would have had G euthanized w/in two hours but SO was not ready. We are a team so that is the way the decision went w a promise from the ICU doc to be generous w the pain med.

Last time I was down to 2 cats, G. showed up on the patio and stayed for 2 weeks until I finally let him in in a bad rain storm. I am back down to 2. They are litter mates and are now 8 yo indoor cats. So, I think I am staying at 2 but you never know.;)

ANN

I'm so sorry Ann. :( I wish there was something I could do or say to make it better. :hug:

Ann, my old Friend, you are in my heart and in my prayers. I am so so sorry.:hug:

no words just hugs........

Oh Ann, I am so, so sorry and know exactly how you feel. Seven years ago we had to put down our beloved 18 month old Kiwi, a Pom/Maltese mix, at this exact time of year from Encephalitis, which came on just as suddenly. My heart goes out to you. I am so sorry.

I'm so sorry for your loss. :hug: :(

My heart was crying already then I saw what you wrote about he knew you were there and leaned into you. My heart goes out to you and your SO.

This thread reminds me of our recent losses too.

Since Oct 2010 we have lost 4 kitties. Sheba (24) who was very very old, and Tippy, who was not quite as old, but 20, recently Oreo (14) with her year long cancer struggle, and little Houdini (8mos) who disappeared one night with no warning--and not knowing what happened eats at me still.

Each has been extremely painful, but each in its own way.
The grief with Houdini is the worst for me. The others had long happy lives, and I have wonderful photos of them to remind me.
So the sadness I feel for them is very different from the recent loss of Houdini.
Houdini, left me with GUILT...that I it was my fault somehow.

I think that people who connect well with pets, share a bond with them, that is very difficult to break. As a result of all this, I have become overprotective of our new kitties. And I spoil them terribly. I won't let Maya out at all. And Weezie is only going out in daytime, for short periods, and she is slowly accepting an indoor life now. I do let them on the screened in porch however. Eventually they will both be all indoor, I hope.
Maya however, is quite a character, and I don't know what the future will hold for her. She may become difficult to restrain indoors 100%. She comes from barn cat background and displays alot of hunter behaviors. I just don't know what will develop next year.

We can only do our best for our furry friends. Love them, give them food, acceptance and respect. And there are so many out there suffering right now needing a home, as well. I can tear up now almost from nothing, and I was never like that before.

I'm the same way mrsD. And those ASPCA commercials just send me over the edge! I'm frantically looking for the remote to mute the TV until I can get the channel changed. :o

I think (and know) that all of us here do the very best we can for our beloved fur families. Just like with humans....things happen and we can't always predict the outcome. :( But we do give them our best and I believe they know this. In a way I almost think they have a better deal......because we won't let them suffer needlessly and for prolonged periods of time just for our own selfish needs. Nobody likes having to say goodbye - especially at a time like this - but I choose to believe that our furbabies know that we're doing what we feel in our hearts is the best thing for them. :hug:

Yes, Kitty. Oreo "knew". When I took her in that last time and
the Vet said, "now"...and retracted his Okay for vacation...
she knew. I have her face etched in my memory as I put her back in her carrier.

I brought her home, because hubby was going to take her in for "it" later in the day. She was really HIS cat, and she wasn't bonded to me quite in the same way. But when I said goodbye to her that afternoon, she looked at me that way again... she knew... sigh...:Sob:
We both thought it would be better for her, if he took her in. I was the one who had to do the painful vet visits for the cancer.

It never gets easier, and time does help ease the pain. Dog or cat, was your baby, and it hurts. The good memories will surface and crowd out the pain.

And I felt with the past 2 fur kids they would want me to have another. Not to replace them, couldn't anyway, but to keep an eye on me.

My sympathy to you.

So sorry for your loss, Ann. :hug: And the education about this awful disease.

Are your other kitties loving a hugging you more today? (((((ANN)))))

Sally brings up a point...but not the one she intended, I bet.

When we put Oreo to sleep 3 days before our trip upNorth, we didn't expect Weezie to be very affected. Oreo was a loner, and only interacted with Weez now and then. Oreo did however "protect" Weez outside--and I witnessed that myself.
But Weez had the indoor domain, and Oreo the outside for the most part.

Well 3 days into our vacation, Weez became very ill. Coughing, sneezing running eye, high fever, and finally a light coma (she stopped eating). The Vet up there thought she had feline herpes at first, but then days later, a bite appeared on her left back neck.
We took her back to him, and he explained to me how cats grieve, and react to stress. (he has cats of his own).

He said Tippy's sudden illness could have been a stress/grief reaction to Sheba's passing. And Weezie seemed to have 2 things going on that the coughing, etc didn't reflect on a bite.
So he wouldn't allow us to adopt Maya, yet. We had to wait 3 weeks before we could.

So the loss of Ghandi, may shake up your feline household somewhat, Ann. It may be subtle, and not necessarily what you would think even. I couldn't imagine Weezie missing Oreo (who seemed to dominate her). But she seemed to react to Oreo's loss in her own way. When hubby came home with Oreo in her funeral box the vet provided....he put it on the picnic table out back, where Oreo used to sleep. Immediately Weezie was there standing vigil over it. So when he finished the burial hole, in our wildflower garden area, he came in and we decided Weezie should come in and not watch that part. Who knows what she could be thinking about THAT!

Dr. Groover upNorth, therefore provided us with more insight into cat physiology than I understood from before. He explained to me that any STRESS (perceived by the cat's point of view), can lead to illness or erratic behavior. In our case, Oreo died, right before a long car trip (2nd stressor), and Oreo was not upNorth to protect/dominate Weezie, and she sensed that and became ill. Her bite from the mystery animal, may not have turned into such a mess as it did therefore. Cats get into a "routine" type behavior pattern, and a severe change of this they perceive as highly stressful. So just the absence of your Ghandi, may provoke some other "thing" in the near future. Just be prepared for that. Feline herpes is very common and latent in cats, and will come out like human herpes viruses. Running eyes, sneezing and coughing are signs. Treatment involves the amino acid L-lysine and there are Vet products now that have this in them. If not treated properly it can lead to loss of eyeball, pneumonia or worse. Dr. Groover says, he thinks just about all the cats in the Eastern UP of Michigan have herpes and get it from their mothers. (Do not therefore, allow treatment with steroids if you suspect feline herpes--doctors give cats steroids often to help with pain. But in this case it will flare the herpes, and lead to
an awful outcome!). There is a new drug out for trauma and emergency pain in cats...it is called Onsior. Maya got this with her spay.
Dr. Groover gave Weezie Rimadyl by injection..the dog NSAID. The new Onsior is a feline safe NSAID for emergency pain/fever, and I guess was not out yet, last Aug when we needed it. Maya only needed one pill and I never used the other two. It is a 24hr acting medication and very new still...I didn't trust it 100%.
You can look this up on Google further. I really didn't know about feline herpes until just recently myself. Not all vets know about this, so it is up to you to watch for signs, etc.

Hopefully, your other kitties will adjust. It is just we had two deaths, and two emergencies that followed and that had never happened to us before.

Sorry, this got longer than I thought it would be. But I think the information we learned this summer, would be very helpful to other feline households here. :o

Thank you all for your sympathy, comments and stories.

Sally and Mrs. D: Lily and Kofi are inside cats born to a temporarily captured feral Mom. From the very beginning, Kofi, at 2 months, was the dominate male over the very polite G. who was then 5 years old.

Lily, loved to curl up beside G. when the opportunity presented. She loved to smell him and all the outdoor scents that he brought in.

SO and I realize that our job now is to love the two we have and to only change their routine very slowly. So far, things are OK.

It is literally, 1 week since I took G to the ER. Last Sunday between 4 and 5 PM. Earlier this week I was able to say, "A week ago we didn't know and G was still out running around for a few hours a day and sleeping in the bed w me." That stops now. It is hard.

**

ANN

Hugs and loving compassion for you dear friend...our dog Sanford was just 12 when he went quickly this way. His back end became useless, began shallow breathing & lost control of his functions. My husband & son carried him into the van and when we got to the vet they carried him in. He lay down moaning. We knew it was time.
The doc of course wanted to run tests. We said no...it was time. The vet thought he'd blown a clot. We Sid our goodbyes, and he went quickly & without pain. This was 2 years ago last month & I still cry and miss him.

It's one of the most heartbreaking things we as pet lovers go through. Time is the only healer.
Know we all are sending out healing thoughts and love to you....:hug:

I remember when we put our precious Buddy down. He was a beautiful Shelty and had been with our girls since they were little. He developed tumors, eventually couldn't eat or go down our back stairs to use the years. We took his to the vet to be euthanized. My youngest daughter made a wonderful little bed for him to be in while we were driving to the vet. she wanted him to have all the luxuries he could. He was her favorite and she his. When we got there she gingerly took the box out of the car. This old dog hadn't moved in about 2 days but he jumped out of that box, walked himself into that room and looked at us and it was like he was saying he wanted the last say. but he was ready. It was his last gift to us that he was going to go with dignity

I am so sorry for your loss Ann!! I have not had to go through this but can imagine how difficult it is- definitely like losing a family member. I have two cats- the older of which is 6 & she is my companion; always on my lap or next to me when I can't stand to be touched. I truly believe that she is the reason I am still sane through the insanity of this illness. I hope that you have some support to help you through your loss :hug: Take care...

Lisa

I am so very sorry for your loss. its so hard to let go of a fur baby, esp when its sudden and no time to prepare. God Bless you for taking care of this fur baby. :hug: