Hello all... New to the forums and this website.. I guess I am on here just looking for some kind of support. I am not one to generally "reach out" to anyone, but I am having an extremely difficult time dealing with the loss of my lil man, Shizzy. I had to make the difficult decision of putting him down on November 20th at the young age of 10.
He was my everything and I am so completely lost without him. I don't have any friends or family for support as I moved away on my own in May and I just thought I would come on here and see if this will help me cope a bit better, in terms of dealing with the loss of a cat as everyone on here can obviously relate, and hopefully offer some advice.
I APOLOGIZE in advance if this gets to be long!
In 2003, when Shizzy was 3 years old he was hospitalized with fatty liver disease. We got the best result possible out of a bad situation and he made a complete turnaround after only being in the hospital for 2 days. Now, fast forward to just these past few weeks ... I had noticed Shizzy was coughing, maybe once or twice a week and thought nothing of it. I figured it was a hairball that he was trying to cough up. Though nothing ever came up. Then I ended up going out of town for a few days.. I came home to find that Shizzy felt alot lighter when I picked him up and that he had definitely lost weight (he was a big boy). The food I left out was hardly touched, between him and his brother, which I thought was odd. I was more aware then, and kept an eye on him, noticing that he wasn't eating as much and was coughing more frequent - maybe 3x per day. I decided to look online to see what it could be and seen that it could possibly be Asthma. I then became very worried and booked an appointment with the vet for the following day.
That day at the vet they performed a general exam - he was always an overweight cat - he was weighed in @ 18 lbs (even after losing of weight), took two x-ray views, and felt his stomach for any abmornalties. The vet figured it was just lyrngitis as the x-ray looked fine. I told the vet he had a history of fatty liver and he said his organs all looked normal on the x-ray. So he gave him a cough suppresant shot and I was sent home with antibiotics. I was told to feed him wet cat food for a week or so as it'd be more comfortable for him to eat. That visit cost me $250.
Well I took him home and he was great that night, I went out the following day to buy him wet cat food, fed him and he threw it up an hour later. He turned very sickly, almost deathly within hours. I was very frustrated as I had a feeling walking out of the vet that they should have done a blood test. I ended up staying up all night with Shizzy, as he drank water excessively and threw it up right after. He could hardly walk, and every time that he did get up from lying down was only to drink and pee, constantly. I called the emerg vet @ 2am and contemplated bringing him in, but with my situation it was pretty impossible. He puked about 5-6x that night.
I noticed jaundice the next day and brought him in right away. The vet told me he'd keep him on fluids and have him hospitalized. I figured he'd pull through again, but it was much worse this time. The blood results came back the following day and I was told that he not only had fatty liver, but also developed diabetes and kidney failure as well. I visited him for two days in the hospital but he was not making much improvement. I was a complete wreck and still am, especially having to go through this by myself - no job, no car, had to bus and cab it there every day - very stressful.
Anyway, I kept him alive for two days because I wasn't ready to let him go right away. I knew I couldn't afford to bring him home, even if he did improve. I can't afford to take care of a cat with diabetes and kidney failure. Also every day that he was hospitalized was a fee of over $100 - DAILY. So I called the vet up and told him to just put him down. I was originally going to go in and be there with him during the euthanazia, but I don't think I could put myself through that..it'd be way to hard on me. I am thankful for my visits with him even though he did not seem happy to see me.
In the end, I was left with a $1200 vet bill and I couldn't even have my lil guy. Shizzy was the sweetest cat I've ever known or met - everyone loved him and couldn't get over how sweet and friendly he was, anytime I brought him into the vet he purred like crazy and would let the vet do whatever they wanted to him. He was the loudest purr and the nicest demenor. He's my lil angel.
Shizzy left a brother behind who I'm sure is missing him, but he does know show it. Has anyone else experienced this? I find it odd - his brother, Smokey, is 12 and has had Shizzy around everyday for those 10 years of Shizzy's life..they were inseperable..yet he seems to not even be fazed by his absence?
What I am trying to get at is, I do not want Smokey to end up having to go through what Shizzy did. I fed my cats dry food all their life, now I did some research only to find that this is killing my cats? How do I incorporate wet canned food into Smokey's life - do I feed ONLY wet food, no dry? Or can I feed dry half part of the day, the other half wet? Do I need to completely eliminate dry food? Just looking to see what everyone on here is doing... Also, what are some good brands to feed? I did complete the veterinary assistant course a few years back, so I do know what to look for in cat food brands as far as the ingrediants go, and have been feeding them chicken and brown rice dry food.
If you have read this far - THANK YOU SO MUCH, I really do appreciate it.
Thanks in advance for those who can give me a little insight on this!
I APOLOGIZE in advance if this gets to be long!
In 2003, when Shizzy was 3 years old he was hospitalized with fatty liver disease. We got the best result possible out of a bad situation and he made a complete turnaround after only being in the hospital for 2 days. Now, fast forward to just these past few weeks ... I had noticed Shizzy was coughing, maybe once or twice a week and thought nothing of it. I figured it was a hairball that he was trying to cough up. Though nothing ever came up. Then I ended up going out of town for a few days.. I came home to find that Shizzy felt alot lighter when I picked him up and that he had definitely lost weight (he was a big boy). The food I left out was hardly touched, between him and his brother, which I thought was odd. I was more aware then, and kept an eye on him, noticing that he wasn't eating as much and was coughing more frequent - maybe 3x per day. I decided to look online to see what it could be and seen that it could possibly be Asthma. I then became very worried and booked an appointment with the vet for the following day.
That day at the vet they performed a general exam - he was always an overweight cat - he was weighed in @ 18 lbs (even after losing of weight), took two x-ray views, and felt his stomach for any abmornalties. The vet figured it was just lyrngitis as the x-ray looked fine. I told the vet he had a history of fatty liver and he said his organs all looked normal on the x-ray. So he gave him a cough suppresant shot and I was sent home with antibiotics. I was told to feed him wet cat food for a week or so as it'd be more comfortable for him to eat. That visit cost me $250.
Well I took him home and he was great that night, I went out the following day to buy him wet cat food, fed him and he threw it up an hour later. He turned very sickly, almost deathly within hours. I was very frustrated as I had a feeling walking out of the vet that they should have done a blood test. I ended up staying up all night with Shizzy, as he drank water excessively and threw it up right after. He could hardly walk, and every time that he did get up from lying down was only to drink and pee, constantly. I called the emerg vet @ 2am and contemplated bringing him in, but with my situation it was pretty impossible. He puked about 5-6x that night.
I noticed jaundice the next day and brought him in right away. The vet told me he'd keep him on fluids and have him hospitalized. I figured he'd pull through again, but it was much worse this time. The blood results came back the following day and I was told that he not only had fatty liver, but also developed diabetes and kidney failure as well. I visited him for two days in the hospital but he was not making much improvement. I was a complete wreck and still am, especially having to go through this by myself - no job, no car, had to bus and cab it there every day - very stressful.
Anyway, I kept him alive for two days because I wasn't ready to let him go right away. I knew I couldn't afford to bring him home, even if he did improve. I can't afford to take care of a cat with diabetes and kidney failure. Also every day that he was hospitalized was a fee of over $100 - DAILY. So I called the vet up and told him to just put him down. I was originally going to go in and be there with him during the euthanazia, but I don't think I could put myself through that..it'd be way to hard on me. I am thankful for my visits with him even though he did not seem happy to see me.
Shizzy left a brother behind who I'm sure is missing him, but he does know show it. Has anyone else experienced this? I find it odd - his brother, Smokey, is 12 and has had Shizzy around everyday for those 10 years of Shizzy's life..they were inseperable..yet he seems to not even be fazed by his absence?
What I am trying to get at is, I do not want Smokey to end up having to go through what Shizzy did. I fed my cats dry food all their life, now I did some research only to find that this is killing my cats? How do I incorporate wet canned food into Smokey's life - do I feed ONLY wet food, no dry? Or can I feed dry half part of the day, the other half wet? Do I need to completely eliminate dry food? Just looking to see what everyone on here is doing... Also, what are some good brands to feed? I did complete the veterinary assistant course a few years back, so I do know what to look for in cat food brands as far as the ingrediants go, and have been feeding them chicken and brown rice dry food.
If you have read this far - THANK YOU SO MUCH, I really do appreciate it.
Thanks in advance for those who can give me a little insight on this!