Sick cat stuff, might be boring

This week has been pretty stressful as far as the catty-cats are concerned. Last Friday Jan (the 4 year old) began acting like she didn’t feel well. It all started with her coughing, though it appeared to be nothing more than a hairball that she wasn’t able to cough up. She started showing some signs of an upper respiratory infection the same day (sneezing, watery eyes, congestion, etc.), and on Saturday she began losing her appetite. I called to make a vet appointment for Jan and Nathan (the 1.5 year old) for Monday afternoon.

Jan ate a little in the morning on Saturday, and then stopped eating and drinking completely (except for a few licks of tuna on Saturday night). She didn’t eat or drink Sunday, and began drooling and kindof vomiting.  She didn’t eat or drink on Monday either, so the vet gave her some fluids, a shot to relieve nausea, and some antibiotics for the respiratory infection. While they were taking her temperature they discovered that she also had a tapeworm, but wasn’t able to take the de-worming medication because of her nausea. They sent us away with a can of cat food that she would supposedly like, but she refused to eat or drink anything on Monday night either.

Tuesday morning we took her to the vet again, and she proceeded to have diarrhea on the floor that apparently  had some blood in it. She received some more fluids and was also diagnosed with colitis (inflammation of the colon or intenstines or something) so was given antibiotics for that and another anti-nausea shot. We were given some high calorie syrup crap to feed to her that night,but she wasn’t interested in eating or drinking anything at all and trying to force feed her that stuff wasn’t a pleasant experience. We didn’t get much in her and she still refused to look at food or drink any water. Tuesday night she barely moved at all, except to make one trip to the litterbox.

Wednesday morning we went back the vet’s office, and were pretty frustrated because we didn’t feel like they were doing enough for her. She had stopped eating 4 days prior, had no energy, and had a terrifying glassy, distant and frenzied look in her eyes. We were determined that she stay at the hospital that day and be given what she needed. She was running a pretty high fever on Wednesday (105 degrees) and they were worried she had an obstruction in her stomach or intenstines or whatever, and even briefly thought her intestine had ruptured, but an x-ray didn’t show anything. They even suggested doing exploratory surgery, but we quickly refused that because we didn’t want to put her through it without any real evidence. She had gone into shock and they told us that they didn’t think she’d make it, and if she didn’t improve by this morning they’d have to put her to sleep.

Well. She stayed in the clinic all day Wednesday on an IV drip, had received antibiotics, and her temperature dropped sharply down to 95 degrees. Her white cell count had also gotten pretty high I guess. We went to pick her up yesterday after I got off work (because they don’t have overnight facilities there), and she was in a good mood and was being really affectionate and talkative. We felt desperate though because if we took her to the apartment we knew she wouldn’t eat and we’d just have to watch her decline again and do the same thing over the next day.

We were pretty fed up with that vet office because we got the impression that they were more interested in getting her out quickly and having a high volume of patients to make money instead of looking at this little cat that was sick and probably starving to death and figuring out what was best for her. They didn’t seem to care and they seemed to rush us all the time. It was also really frustrating when we told them she hadn’t had food or water for days and they kept giving us things to feed her. It just wasn’t enough in my opinion and she obviously wasn’t taking any of it anyway.

After we left that office we drove Jan to the vet Tom’s mom has been using for about 14 years. They have overnight facilities and agreed to stay open later (it was about 7pm) and accept Jan and keep her there overnight. She spent last night at the new vet office and is still there now, hooked up to an IV and receiving antiobiotics, etc. Tom called to check on her today and she’s apparently in a great mood, is really happy and affectionate and her temperature has returned to normal. She ate a tiny bit last night but I guess she hasn’t been eating today, but I’m happy to hear that she’s energetic, comfortable and happy. I guess we’ll just let her hang out there and see if she starts eating soon. If not there will have to be more tests I guess. Poor kitty.