Please, I need advice for a friend

My friend's cat (6 years old) was rushed to the evet last night and is in critical condition. He has a clot and congestive heart failure - specifically they diagnosed Arterial Thrombo Embolism. Her kitty has a 50% survival rate and if he does survive, 1-3 months to live. What can I do or say to comfort her? This has to be just awful!

Is this a real life friend or online one? If anything, a hug would probably go a long way - maybe bring over a home cooked dinner for her. And if you can afford to do so, contribute a little towards the vet bill or get supplies and help her make a scrapbook of her cat.

I'm not good with words, sorry. So I can't really offer any to help.

When Stormy died last Dec my sister came over and took us out to dinner.
If she is a friend that you know in person take her out.
If she is online send her a card and talk to her

she's an online friend........ I'll send her a card......

^A card and a gift then. As I said, if she's a good friend and you can afford it help with the vet bills or help make a scrapbook. Personally I think a scrapbook would be perfect.

Those sound like great ideas....I feel so bad for her....her 12 year old cat just was diagnosed with CRF (early stage) just a couple weeks ago.

Just being there helps more than people know. When I lost Damita, having the RB forum to go to made a world of difference.

I just heard back from her - here's the current diagnosis

Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

So sorry he is sick.
You can send her to the petloss site.
It has a prayer list also and my Coco is on it for Crf now.
You can send a gift to her.
The end of last year and start of this year were very bad for me but coming to this group helped alot.
Coco and Meeko sick and Stormy and Yoshi Pts.
I joined this group when I got Oreo because she has fcks but did not know I would lose Stormy 2 weeks later to arf and kidney cancer they think.
Do you do Psp?
You can make a pic of her cat with psp.

When our Chavela died (in 1989), the vet that had cared for her sent us a card letting us know that a donation had been made to the local shelter in Chavela's name. That actually helped us feel better, that Chavela left this world with an act of kindness done on her behalf.

I dealt with a similar situation when Duke's liver was failing He had about a 40% chance of getting better and I put all of my effort and research into feline lHylpatic ypadosis (sp?) I force fed him for a few days and he was not getting any better. He ended up asperateing on his own fluids only 4 days after diagnosis. If I had though about it and reasoned with myself I probably would have had him put to sleep rather than staying up all night watching him struggle to breath and obviously in pain.
I was devistated by watching him die and would never allow one of my pets to suffer like that ever again. But you think your doing what is good and right by provideing medical attention and doing everythign you can to effect their quality of life. Duke was only 5 years old and I thought it was worth everything to give him a shot at life.
The vet's office made a donation to the vetrinanty school of medicine for research in Duke's name and sent me a card signed by everyone that had fallen in love with Duke at the vet's office. At the time I was angry at the vet's office but later I can't tell you how much I appreciated the card.

I think a donation to a rescue group or something similar in the cat's name would be a good thing to do. Maybe a group like http://www.imom.org/loss/tributes/index.htm or somewhere that helps people in need with vet bills for sudden or chronic illness.

thanks, I will do that.

Micah died today......

Oh no! I'm so sorry to hear that

RIP Micah

Oh, I feel for her! It's always hard when the felines get sick but to pass away that fast is simply tragic.

Prayers for your friend, maybe you could invite her to TCS. and tell her about our rainbow bridge. And tell her that lots of people have her in their prayers. When I lost Tavia I was heart broken and I think we all know how your friend feels.

She just blogged about him last night. It's so sad I'm going to ask her to post a tribute - I don't know if she will because she may do it on another site.......

But anyway. I don't understand why this kind of thing happens. Micah just went to the doctor a couple weeks ago and everything was A OK in the bloodwork....

HCM is a hereditary disease. It is diagnosed by echography (research is turning up the genes that cause it but that work is not finished yet) , so not something that is picked up if you don't look for it. Cats may seem fine one minute and drop dead the next.
A friend of mine lost her beautiful Persian boy to HCM.

If you want to make a donation in his memory you can also donate to the Ricky fund for HCM research; http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/RickyFund.html
You will get a certificate after you made the donation.