In reply to jimbob_racing :
So sorry to hear that, she looks like she was a wonderful cat.
In reply to jimbob_racing :
So sorry to hear that, she looks like she was a wonderful cat.
Sorry for your loss
Breaks my heart every time.....I've got a bazillion but I'm in HTown Tx....and they're WILD as HELL
Quick update on our cat, who was diagnosed with Lymphoma a few months (and pages back).
13yo DSH indoor only female.
She's actually done surprisingly well against the lymphoma, with really good appetite and so/so energy levels. The oral form of chemotherapy is reasonably priced at $50/pill. She only gets one of those pills every month or so, so it's not too bad. The associated blood work and vet checks are the expensive parts. We're about $3000 into it so far, but only $500 of that is chemo pills.
Late last week she developed a combo of diarrhea and vomiting. Out of no-where. One night she housed a big plate of wet food, the next day she didn't eat at all and was crapping everywhere.
And now it's been 5 days of not really eating.
Xrays and blood work looks good for a cat with lymphoma. No apparent signs of kidney disease.
She's on anti-nausea, appetite stimulant, and steroids.
We're at a loss. Really don't want to hospitalize her, but it's so sad that she's in good shape on paper, but bad shape from a quality of life standpoint.
Lately I have been feeding the feral cats every night around dusk. I have basic names for the regulars now. Usually when I walk to the area, either Sylvester or Gray Tail is near the bowls waiting.
Soon afterwards, a few others appear from nowhere and converge on the food. The regulars that I can get within six feet of are the two mother cats that I've taken kittens from, Sylvester (black and white that I trapped and neutered), and Calico. Most of the other cats are more transient and keep further away. Tonight was the most I have ever seen; Ten cats and none of them look like kittens from this spring.
I'm finally expecting to have time to trap and bring some to the vet in the next couple weeks. Ten is too many, yet if I have seen ten there are probably twenty nearby.
Had to say goodbye to our cat of 13 years yesterday.
After 5 days of not eating more than a few pieces of kibble and a few licks of water, the outcomes weren't looking good. Xrays, Ultrasound, and Bloodwork didn't reveal anything concerning. On paper, she was fine. She didn't react to appetite stimulants including steroids, so the Vet thought a feeding tube would be the only thing to really save her. We didn't want to put her through that, especially as we were planning on being away for the entire month of July, and the cancer would eventually get her anyway.
Here's her as a young cat, nearly 13 years ago.
Being a goof more recently:
Classic cat in a box antics:
She was a great cat. Very even tempered. Easy to handle at the Vet. Never bit anyone. Slow to anger and very patient with our kids. Brave (always held her ground against other cats) but had accepted other cats into our house on a temporary basis.
She always greeted us at the front door when we came home. I think I'll miss that the most.
In reply to pheller :
Sorry for your loss. Sounds like she lived a great life for a cat and you gave her your best care.
pheller there will be another.....believe it
She always greeted us at the front door when we came home. I think I'll miss that the most.
My Bombay, Jack, was almost always at the door to greet is when he heard the driveway monitor. If he wasn't, I just had to call out "Jack, we're home" and he would quickly appear. He's been gone for more than two years but I think of him every time I come home. It's a mix of good and bad feelings.
This is a tough thread for me to read.
I follow it, and all of those who post here can be sure that I have you in my thoughts, but sometimes it's too close to home for me to be able to reply. It's been a few months since I helped one of my favorite dogs ever with a dignified and gentle exit from her pain, and there's been a bunch of them since, including one today.
Karly
I first met Karly in 2013, when she laid on the floor trembling, and was terrified that I might come near her. She didn't need vaccines or blood testing, so I crouched against the opposite wall with my body turned sideways, and called it a "visual exam only" in the record. She was a big dog, some sort of lab, ridgeback, shepherd mix, so certainly had to be treated with caution.
The next year, with the help of some antianxiety meds, I was able to examine her. She was still trembling, enough that she became dangerously overheated the first time we had her at the office for a dental cleaning.
The years went by and Karly because more tolerant of her visits, but was always anxious. I always had the feeling that she just tolerated my attention. I would sit on the floor with her, give her as much attention and affection as I could, and finally one day she inched herself towards me. Dog body language is very subtle, and that barely discernible movement of maybe a centimeter was hugely significant. She was more relaxed, although still very timid, but didn't pull away from me anymore.
Last fall, she was in for an appointment, and I had missed seeing her on the schedule. I walked down the hall from our treatment area, and saw her owner standing around the corner on the other side of the reception desk. I said, "Hey, Karly's here!" She left his side, came around the front of the reception desk and down the hall to meet me. That's a brave move for any dog, and I was stunned. It was my best day ever as a vet. After that, I could sit on the floor with her snuggling up to me and trying to fit on my lap, even though the whole family might be present. I don't have the time, the space in our home, or the budget to have a dog, so I get what I call my "dog fix" at work. We were in love.
A few months ago, she suddenly stopped eating, and it quickly was apparent that she had lymphoma. There's often a very effective short term palliative treatment that can get the dogs a few to several months of excellent remission and quality of life, but Karly didn't respond at all. I helped her one last time when she needed me the most, and now she's a memory.
I'll never forget her.
big hug Floating D
Vets are a special breed and I don't think I could do it.
I trapped (momma) 'Koala' this morning. She was calm when I got to the cage and was easy to transport to the vet in the Camry Hybrid -my quietest car.
At the vet's office I found out that they can't do surgery until further notice. They are out of anesthesia meds and can't get resupply. All the local veterinarians are in the same situation. I know that where I work we ran out of a particular med and had to get some from a hospital since our supplier could not get more. The national drug supply crisis is serious.
Bill (the vet) is going to see what he can come up with. He offered to keep her for a few days. She may have a kitten in the wild, so if she appears to be nursing, I'll take her back and release her without being spayed.
The kitten that I took from her a couple weeks ago is doing well at it's new home. They were worried how their Australian Shepherd would react to it, but it became her baby.
In reply to Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) :
somebody's chopping onions in my office today. thank you for sharing that.
AK2 has decided to be a Veterinarian. I hope she sticks with it.
Goblin is recovering well-- has moved well into leggings from no pants.
I dropped Koala off at the vet about two weeks ago and she is still there. They expect to have the drugs they need for spaying her (Ketamine I think) this week. She's been in a boarding cage at the office this whole time and I felt kind of bad for keeping her - a wild animal - locked up so long. It turns out that she had the worst parasite infestation they had ever seen and her time with them has been good to get her healthy. Hoping to release her back home on Wednesday or Thursday.
I hadn't seen kittens for over a month. I was relieved to see a cluster of them last week and every day since. Often under the watchful eye of their mothers. They should all be well over 12 weeks old now and becoming independent at this point.
Momma Gray is the mother of the kitten we adopted in April. She is now the first to come out when I bring food and approaches me to about four feet.
Callie is more cautious. She will approach me to about six feet, but runs away if I move towards her. I'm concerned that she is losing weight and hope to get her to the vet soon.
Sylvester, the black and white cat that I had brought to the vet has not shown up for over a week now. He would often wait at the back gate for me and lead me to the food bowls. I miss him. Another male cat has been showing up more often. I have seen him for years walking down the street every afternoon around the same time and thought he belonged to one of the neighbors. I suspect that 'Big Tom' is the father of many of the local kittens.
Our cats are doing fine, Miso and Scout are close sisters now, always chasing each other and having no-claws-out wrestling matches.
We got a call from Bill the vet. He's got a little bit of Ketamine and he's spaying Koala right now. Mrs AAZCD has renamed her Matilda and I think that might stick. During her time in captivity she has not assimilated or become at all tame. Bill said, "Do *NOT* try to pet her." I'm picking her up this evening.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
I trapped a feral cat in early April just before a blizzard the day before she was due to give birth after my daughter saw her get pregnate 2 months earlier . I put her in a pen I built under the stairs by installing a hinged screen door and the next day she gave birth to 6 kittens. When I had to clean the litterbox I wore heavy coveralls, boots, and gloves and used a broom to protect myself. She tried to kill Mrs Heretic and myself for about a few weeks, but eventually turned into the nicest cat in the world. You wanted to make sure you never made any quick moves in front of her though and we had to give her away because she kept trying to kill our black lab female dog. I kept two kittens and my son and daughter each took one. Luckily, Judy never had rabies because she got a couple of good bites into me over a coupe of months.
In reply to VolvoHeretic :
I wish we could give more of them a home. I had thought of keeping 'Matilda' after her long stay at the vet, but it wouldn't work.
She stayed in the trap last night as the anesthesia wore off and I released her this morning. Hopefully she'll still be one of my regulars for feeding.
Bill wouldn't let me pay for her month long stay or her operation. He gave me a bottle of worming medicine for the 'colony'. I put it in the food last night and will continue for three days.
Orla is huge this evening.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
Bill sounds like an ideal vet - in it for the animals. Altruism is awesome.
Truly blessed to have an individual that cares.....
Not all of us have that option.
I don't know of any other profession where the standard for showing you care is to work for free.
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:Not all of us have that option.
I don't know of any other profession where the standard for showing you care is to work for free.
He explained it to me that he and other local vets regularly do spay and neuter clinics with the Humane Society for free and that he was counting this as one of those.
This is well beyond that though. For the anesthesia, he took some left over concentrated Ketamine to a compounding pharmacy to get a safe dose. He boarded her for a month, restoring her weight and health. He did the operation after-hours and stayed for me to pick her up. He showed me his list of about 200 other animals on his waiting list for surgeries when he gets more meds. This was all for a wild animal that we may never see again after I released her.
Still, reviewers online write about how he didn't 'respect them' when they brought their neglected animals in or that he charged them more than they felt due. I know that it is often a trying and thankless job. I really appreciate and respect you, him and the others that have made it a life-long career.
In reply to AAZCD-Jon (Forum Supporter) :
That truly is a great example of someone trying to make a difference for the community. As a corporate employee, I don't have those options.
I am sensitive to this topic since I got a lot of grief about expecting to get paid during my unsuccessful attempt to keep from losing my practice to bankruptcy during the Great Recession.
Thanks for your reply and understanding. After I wrote my reply, I very nearly deleted it. I changed my mind and posted it because I feel that this forum is so much more than just "social media" to me, and I believe I can be honest. You know, like family.
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