Mackerel's taken a turn for the worse. :( - Page 3

I'm a bit worried about Mackerel tonight. She seems to be having trouble breathing- she's wheezing and she's had a few coughing fits where she's obviously having trouble breathing. I don't know what I can really do, so I'm just crouching down next to her and talking to her in a calming tone and stroking her very very gently so she knows I'm here. Any suggestions from anyone?

Her coughing seems better this morning, and in the night she scarfed quite a lot of tuna that I'd put down for her to snack on. So that means that yesterday she ate a whole packet of kitten food (for the extra calories), lots of milk (she doesn't suffer from the runs after she has milk so the vet said it'd be ok, especially while she's so thin!) and maybe... 50gms of tuna. Plus a handful of treats. I'm so thrilled that she's showing such a good appetite. Plus, when I got up I put down another packet of kitten food and she hoed into that very readily. Plus I think she's been grooming!!! Her fur has a little less of the greasy punk look than it did yesterday. :-) Her membranes are still pretty white, though. :-(

Thanks Libby, I'll give the gentle patting a shot the next time she starts coughing/wheezing. :-)

LDG I read up on Tuxie's thread last night- is he still lubberly and pink? I hope so. I'm not actually sure if it is Feline Hemolytic Anemia... I mean, it could be, but I got the distinct impression that it was a virus or something foreign instead of an auto-immune disease... K said that it shows up on the slides they do as little black dots in the red blood cells, and the reason they weren't sure about the test they did on Tuesday was because it was day old blood, and some of the cells had the black dots and some of them didn't. Also, it sounds like FHA is not something that can be "cured", after reading Tuxie's thread, and K said that this THING, whatever it is, could be 'cured' instead of 'managed'. I asked her about it specifically. It's so frustrating that I can't remember what the word was! -kicks self-

I'm leaving for the vet in an hour, should be back home in two or three (like I said ages ago, the vet is a loooooooong way away.) I'll update you guys straight away. :-)

Thanks for the vibes, and the kitty vibes. :-3 And RiffRaff- sorry to make you cry! -huggles-

FANTASTIC NEWS!!!

Mackerel's levels were up from 8 to 17.4!!!! The vet says that it's probably not FIP, and that things are looking good!!!! All the normal warnings about not being out of the woods yet, etc etc etc etc... but this is fantastic news considering that she came home on Monday with a two day life expectancy, at the most!!! I also found out today that one of the vets at the practice didn't want to send her home at all, he thought it would be kinder to PTS on Monday. So, my little fighter has turned the tide, against all odds!!!

I'm so incredibly happy.

The bad news is that they don't know what has happened, now. They found Heinz Bodies in her blood, which apparently suggests that there was something toxic in her system and that her body purged her system of the damaged red blood cells... but it was too late after the initial presentation of ARF to be caused by the same thing. The vet says that it's possible that the thing that damaged her kidneys caused the anaemia as a secondary effect, but he was stumped as to what could do that.

I have instructions to call the vet this afternoon and find out what they found in the blood slide- they're going to check again for parasites and in the meantime they're going to put their heads together and try and figure out what is going on!

Aww, LMP I don't think you're weird! It's very sweet to hear that other people are worried about her too.

In a lot of ways it's nice to have people who understand that I will do *anything* to get her healthy again. I think my parents are a little bemused that I'm still fighting, given that this has already cost me over AUD$1500 and the outlook has been so poor. My Grandma sent me an e-mail yesterday that said, "We're sorry to hear that Mackerel's sick, but there's a phrase that applies: Don't give your heart to a cat to break."

So although everyone's been very supportive and kind at home, I don't think they get it.... and I know that everyone here understands. <3 Means a lot, and it's really helped.

Especially because the vibes are clearly helping!

Book - I don't think she's had any onions or garlic at all, but I guess she might have picked something up from the kitchen somewhere? She doesn't normally eat anything out of her food bowl (or my sandwhich, lol) though.

Everyone else, I agree with you all about the value of giving your heart to a cat. There's a phrase which I think fits MUCH better: "What the cat taketh, he returneth many fold." Can't remember where from, but it stuck with me. XD

And sorry, I didn't mean to moan about my family. They really are being great about it all- I just mean to say that they don't understand in quite the same way as you lot do. My Grandma can be excused because she has a chronic case of foot-in-mouth. XD

"Love and Cheese Danish", huh? What a wonderful idiom. XD

She's on antibiotics, as well as Anaplex and Fortiker 5 for her kidneys. The vet's also given me some Nutrigel to supplement her diet. She hates ALL of them, so it's very difficult to get her to take them, but I tell her that it'll make her better and hopefully she'll start listening soon. :P

I'm taking her to the vet again on Friday and we'll see how she's doing then. :-)

In the meantime, the thing that we're most worried about is this cough that Mack has. The vet thinks it might be cat flu or a cold or something, because her immune system is so run down. Hopefully the antibiotics will take care of it if it's an URI. :-) She actually seems a bit better today.

Thought I'd share a photo I snapped a few minutes ago with you guys- Mack's strong enough today to get back on her perch at my shoulder.

Thanks Farley. Will do!