- Joined
- Jun 8, 2014
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I am new to the forum, but needed a place to share our very sad new. Yesterday, our cat Maydela, lost her very short battle with cancer.
She started acting odd just about 2 weeks ago. She was always a little love bug, and always wanted to be around us and loved spending the evenings in my lap. Then she started spending more time by herself. I thought that it was odd, but sometimes cats do odd things. Besides, it wasn't like she wasn't around at all. She still would hang out next to me if I was on the computer. Then, earlier in the week, she didn't jump into bed with us to sleep, as she had always done. I was thinking of taking her to the vet, but since she wasn't showing any signs of illness, I didn't know what the vet would do. I hindsight, I realize that she probably wasn't eating, but we have other cats, and the food was disappearing. She was still arriving for meals, and she wasn't losing weight. (Her weight at the end was exactly as it had always been.)
Things didn't get bad though until Wed., only 3 days ago. When I came home from work, she came down the stairs, but appeared like she was drunk. She was wobbly. Before I could say anything, my husband walked out to get to our backyard, and she just followed him out. She lay down on the cement driveway, with her head on the ground. She looked ill, but when we went to pick her up, she ran under the car. There she stayed. We could do nothing to get her out. We ended up leaving her out overnight, which we had never done before. She didn't move until sometime the next day, and she hid in the bushes. At this point, she was very lethargic. We tried to get her to drink, which she did, and eat, which she didn't, and took her to the vet. He said that her abdomen felt "doughy" but otherwise fine. As such, he said that she was a healthy cat, who had some sort of "raging infection." He gave us some antibiotics, and said that she should be back to herself in a few days.
She didn't seem any better the following day. In fact, she seemed worse, and Sat. morning, I took her to a different vet for a 2nd opinion. That vet immediately felt a mass, and took an x-ray. It showed a massive tumor that took over her entire abdomen. There was also a large spot on her lungs. The vet sent us to the critical care vet. There Maydela's condition rapidly deteriorated. Her blood pressure rapidly dropped. Her red blood cell count showed that there was internal bleeding. And, she was unable to breath and needed oxygen. That vet wanted to do another chest x-ray to determine if she had lung cancer, but her condition was too unstable. She needed a blood transfusion just to do the x-ray. We asked for a prognosis, and he said that even if an x-ray showed that she only had pneumonia and not cancer, it would be impossible to remove the tumor given how large it was, and that she couldn't live with it given that it was strangling all of her organs. We made the decision to put her to sleep. They brought her out, and I held her for sometime. She started gasping for breath, so I knew it was time to let her go. As I handed her to the technician, Maydela reached back and grabbed my shirt and let out the loudest meow. I held her again, and let them take her away. She was only 8.
The critical care vet was convinced that we hadn't kept up with her Feline Leukemia Virus vaccine, which was incorrect. Of course I didn't have her immunization records with us, but I did have the reminder card saying that Maydela was due for the booster in July. I was like, "how could you think that she didn't get her shots, if she was due for a booster? You can't boost something that wasn't given in the first place, and why would they say she was due for it in July if she never had it in the first place." He had no answers, but said that he rarely sees aggressive cancers like this in cats who were vaccinated. We did have her tested before she died to see if she was positive for the virus, because we have 2 other cats, including her brother, at home. She was negative, but the critical care vet then said that the negative test still didn't mean that she didn't have the virus. Can't cats just get cancer w/o FLV?
We are just so sad. Our last cat lived to 17, and we are shocked that she could die so young. The other cats seem to be dealing with this just fine. I think that they knew that Maydela was dying.
She started acting odd just about 2 weeks ago. She was always a little love bug, and always wanted to be around us and loved spending the evenings in my lap. Then she started spending more time by herself. I thought that it was odd, but sometimes cats do odd things. Besides, it wasn't like she wasn't around at all. She still would hang out next to me if I was on the computer. Then, earlier in the week, she didn't jump into bed with us to sleep, as she had always done. I was thinking of taking her to the vet, but since she wasn't showing any signs of illness, I didn't know what the vet would do. I hindsight, I realize that she probably wasn't eating, but we have other cats, and the food was disappearing. She was still arriving for meals, and she wasn't losing weight. (Her weight at the end was exactly as it had always been.)
Things didn't get bad though until Wed., only 3 days ago. When I came home from work, she came down the stairs, but appeared like she was drunk. She was wobbly. Before I could say anything, my husband walked out to get to our backyard, and she just followed him out. She lay down on the cement driveway, with her head on the ground. She looked ill, but when we went to pick her up, she ran under the car. There she stayed. We could do nothing to get her out. We ended up leaving her out overnight, which we had never done before. She didn't move until sometime the next day, and she hid in the bushes. At this point, she was very lethargic. We tried to get her to drink, which she did, and eat, which she didn't, and took her to the vet. He said that her abdomen felt "doughy" but otherwise fine. As such, he said that she was a healthy cat, who had some sort of "raging infection." He gave us some antibiotics, and said that she should be back to herself in a few days.
She didn't seem any better the following day. In fact, she seemed worse, and Sat. morning, I took her to a different vet for a 2nd opinion. That vet immediately felt a mass, and took an x-ray. It showed a massive tumor that took over her entire abdomen. There was also a large spot on her lungs. The vet sent us to the critical care vet. There Maydela's condition rapidly deteriorated. Her blood pressure rapidly dropped. Her red blood cell count showed that there was internal bleeding. And, she was unable to breath and needed oxygen. That vet wanted to do another chest x-ray to determine if she had lung cancer, but her condition was too unstable. She needed a blood transfusion just to do the x-ray. We asked for a prognosis, and he said that even if an x-ray showed that she only had pneumonia and not cancer, it would be impossible to remove the tumor given how large it was, and that she couldn't live with it given that it was strangling all of her organs. We made the decision to put her to sleep. They brought her out, and I held her for sometime. She started gasping for breath, so I knew it was time to let her go. As I handed her to the technician, Maydela reached back and grabbed my shirt and let out the loudest meow. I held her again, and let them take her away. She was only 8.
The critical care vet was convinced that we hadn't kept up with her Feline Leukemia Virus vaccine, which was incorrect. Of course I didn't have her immunization records with us, but I did have the reminder card saying that Maydela was due for the booster in July. I was like, "how could you think that she didn't get her shots, if she was due for a booster? You can't boost something that wasn't given in the first place, and why would they say she was due for it in July if she never had it in the first place." He had no answers, but said that he rarely sees aggressive cancers like this in cats who were vaccinated. We did have her tested before she died to see if she was positive for the virus, because we have 2 other cats, including her brother, at home. She was negative, but the critical care vet then said that the negative test still didn't mean that she didn't have the virus. Can't cats just get cancer w/o FLV?
We are just so sad. Our last cat lived to 17, and we are shocked that she could die so young. The other cats seem to be dealing with this just fine. I think that they knew that Maydela was dying.
It sounds like she was a wonderful companion, and it's so sad that she had to leave you so early.
