My 17y/o Sophie is sick, and I don't know what's wrong with her. I've got her at the vet's right now; he's going to blood & urine labs on her & let me know tonight what he finds out.
Sophie was diagnosed with hyper-thyroid several years ago, but has been stable since she's been on meds for it. The last few days she's refused to go near the litterbox, and just "went" wherever she happened to be. I thought her arthritis was bothering her so didn't really worry about it too much, intending to get a heated pad for her. Her fluid intake seemed to be increased, but I assumed that was part of her hyper-t. She stopped eating yesterday morning, but she's gone a day or 2 without eating before. (I don't know why, she just stops eating)
When I got up this morning she was lying in the kitchen in a puddle of urine. I cleaned her, fed the rest of the cats, and she didn't budge at all. She finally got up & went to the water dish, but just staggered away from it. I got on the phone immediately; luckily, our vet is having a special adoption day and was going to be in anyway. He said she was severely dehydrated, which absolutely stunned me. She's been drinking like crazy the last few days. She also appears to be constipated ( a result of the dehydration). If he had to make a guess at this point, it could be diabetes, but he won't know until the labs come back. It could just be the dehydration, which he said would also cause the weakness in her hind legs (the staggering this morning and not getting into the litter box)
He checked her over a few months ago and said her kidneys and heart were in amazingly good shape for her age. (of course, when she refused to drink today my first thought was kidney failure!)
I feel like the world's worst cat-mom; how could she get so dehydrated without me noticing?
Please say a prayer for my baby girl.
Sophie was diagnosed with hyper-thyroid several years ago, but has been stable since she's been on meds for it. The last few days she's refused to go near the litterbox, and just "went" wherever she happened to be. I thought her arthritis was bothering her so didn't really worry about it too much, intending to get a heated pad for her. Her fluid intake seemed to be increased, but I assumed that was part of her hyper-t. She stopped eating yesterday morning, but she's gone a day or 2 without eating before. (I don't know why, she just stops eating)
When I got up this morning she was lying in the kitchen in a puddle of urine. I cleaned her, fed the rest of the cats, and she didn't budge at all. She finally got up & went to the water dish, but just staggered away from it. I got on the phone immediately; luckily, our vet is having a special adoption day and was going to be in anyway. He said she was severely dehydrated, which absolutely stunned me. She's been drinking like crazy the last few days. She also appears to be constipated ( a result of the dehydration). If he had to make a guess at this point, it could be diabetes, but he won't know until the labs come back. It could just be the dehydration, which he said would also cause the weakness in her hind legs (the staggering this morning and not getting into the litter box)
He checked her over a few months ago and said her kidneys and heart were in amazingly good shape for her age. (of course, when she refused to drink today my first thought was kidney failure!)
I feel like the world's worst cat-mom; how could she get so dehydrated without me noticing?
Please say a prayer for my baby girl.
