I Can't Believe This

Our lovely Snowy, our odd-eyed white seems to have had a stroke.

He doesn't seem to be able to see, his tail keeps thrashing from side to side (not like him), he has a vacant look on his face and keeps walking round in wide circles, completely disorientated. His front left paw also jerked erratically a couple of times, one time quite pronounced.

I am also sure that the pupil in his left eye is slower in responding than his right.

It is 2.45am here in the UK so first thing in the morning we'll get an emergency appointment with our vet.

He did manage to eat but it was really strange.

He would go to his food bowl, eat a little, then go to the door, sit there for about 30 seconds, return to his food bowl, eat a little more, then back to the door. This went on for about 20 minutes. I noticed when he moves it is always in an anti-clockwise motion.

Snowy was Lucy's best friend and I have no doubt her passing has disturbed this beautiful cat deeply as it has all of us.

Snowy is just over 12 years old.

Please send out healing vibes and prayers for him tonight - and us, as we may be facing losing him exactly 3 weeks to the day Lucy passed away.

I feel sick, I really do

Yes there is but they are horrendously expensive. We've spent so much out on getting Poppy treated (ongoing treatment) that we have virtually nothing left.

He's sleeping quietly with my husband at the moment. Vet opens at 8.30am so we'll phone then. They're very good at seeing emergencies quickly.

Lucy had 4 strokes and fully recovered from each one fairly quickly so I'm hoping Snowy will too but I do think he's had a fairly big stroke so I'm not sure.

Time will tell (as will our vet).

I am absolutely reeling with shock over this.

Back from the vets.

Snowy's a bit better, more responsive, his eyes are more responsive and he's starting to purr again. He had a quiet night (what was left of it) and chose to curl up close to our GSD, Buddy.

Everything's inconclusive at the moment but it looks like Snowy might have kidney problems.

Our vet listened to Snowy's heart but Snowy was panting - not unusual for him when he goes to the vet and it is very hot here today. The vet said he felt Snowy's heartbeat was muffled i.e. there could be a build up of fluid round the heart - common when there's kidney disease - one thing we always had to watch with our son was whether he was carrying fluid "onboard" and we had to adjust his dialysis regime accordingly.

Topsy, Snowy's mother was PTS because of renal failure last year. I think this may be hereditary. Topsy was 13 when she died. Snowy is 12 years old now.

He is home and we are keeping a close watch on him over the weekend. If his condition worsens, we have to call the vet immediately. It's a case of waiting now for the test results to come back from the lab which should be around Tuesday next week.

Lucy had 4 strokes, one was quite major and she fully recovered on her own in a few days.

On the plus side, Snowy is eating and drinking normally and he's getting his purr back.

I had to go out for a couple of hours this afternoon. Went up to check Snowy to be greeted by loud purrs. His eyes are responsive again, he's coming to me when called and he's carrying his tail high again. It's still swishing every so often, but much improved from last night.

I lay down on the bed beside him and he was over me like a rash - then JUMPED over me. He couldn't do that last night.

He is still favouring walking in an anti-clockwise direction but is also starting to go the other way now.

I was reading up about stroke in cats last night and found a website which looks like a compilation of stroke problems in cats from many different people. There are so many, I couldn't read them all, but I did read one with interest.

The lady had a 17 year old cat who had a major stroke. As she couldn't get to a vet (think she lived miles from anywhere), she gave her cat cod liver oil. Seemingly, this helps to break up any blood clots and keeps the blood running better (same as humans). I tried this with Snowy last night. I take cod liver oil capsules because I find they help with my eczema and help prevent me taking colds in winter.

I checked the bottle to make sure it doesn't have Vitamin A in it - which can be harmful for cats (can cause kidney problems), but Vitamin E which is good for cats. Mine is the Vit E one, no Vit A so I got a syringe, sucked the oil out of the capsule and gave it to Snowy. I don't know if it helped or not but I'm hoping it did. I shall give him another one later on.

This might be useful for anyone else who's having similar problems.

Here's hoping Snowy continues to progress.

I wonder if the stress of losing his pal, Lucy has had a lot to do with it.

Reading up on strokes in cats, the youngest one I read about on that site was only 2 years old, sometimes, just like in humans, it can happen with no underlying reason, other times in can be high BP, renal problems or (more uncommonly with cats), heart disease.

Definitely stroke but unsure what's caused it at this point. Hopefully we will find out early in the week. So far, so good. Son checked on Snowy about 30 minutes ago and his actual words were "Mum. Compared to last night, seeing Snowy now, you'd never know he'd had a stroke".

Lucy had 4 strokes, the first being 5 years ago, then the second about 10 days later, then another about a year later, with the last one about a week after that. She never had another one and fully recovered from them all. Even when she was in her final days on this earth, she never took another stroke.

Snowy's almost back to normal. He's started "padding" again (kneading) and gave himself a good wash this afternoon, well, actually he gave himself the cat equivalent of a long soak in the bath!

Purring non-stop, eating normally etc.

One thing which is out of character with Snowy is what he did last night. He spent all night under the duvet with us, cuddled up to my husband for a while, then with me - in exactly the same position as our Lucy used to - cuddled up to me with his paws on my arm just like she used to.

Having seen a cat grieve before, I really am wondering if Snowy realised Lucy was never coming back and got depressed?

He more or less looked after her for the past 3 years, grooming her, playing with her, curling up with her.

Not sure on this but right now I wouldn't rule anything out. I just hope he continues to improve. We shall see what comes back later in the week but it wouldn't surprise me if nothing untoward was found.

Although Snowy displayed signs of having had a stroke the night before our vet couldn't find anything physically wrong with Snowy other than he thought his heart sounded a bit muffled but he wasn't certain because Snowy was panting quite hard. It was very hot - something quite rare in our usually cooler UK and Snowy always pants when he goes to the vet. We were only home about 5 minutes when the panting stopped. Snowy is in our bedroom and we have an air conditioning unit in there so it is the most comfortable room in the house.

We're keeping a close eye on Snowy until we find out if there is anything wrong or not.

Usually by the signs the cat is displaying/has displayed or by MRI scan which, quite frankly, we can't afford. It's costing us a fortune trying to get Poppy's corneal ulcer healed and she could yet face surgery.

In the many years we've had our cats, this is the first time I've had 3 ill at the same time - Lucy who was PTS age 22, Poppy with her eye problem and Snowy with his possible stroke.

This morning, I get wakened with a "Miaow" and a paw patting my face (another Lucy trait that Snowy is now doing - how strange). Purring at me like a 2 stroke engine, demanding I give him his breakfast and 100% back to normal, even making overtures that he wants to go out.

I really am thinking that he's been grieving for Lucy. I saw it many years ago with Leo our cat who grieved after his doggy pal, Tara passed away through old age. Leo grieved for 3 weeks after Tara died. It is 3 weeks since Lucy died.

Like I said, I'm keeping a very open mind but at least Snowy is back to himself again.

One thing I'd never noticed before though, Snowy is left-pawed.