I haven't talked about it on here, I don't know, maybe I was hoping everything would turn out all right, or I'd jinx the situation if I talked about it. Crazy things go through your head when your loved one is sick.
I've mentioned that I just recently lost my 8 year old sweetheart Bubbs to accute (and sudden) kidney failure. That was November 29th. Well about a week ago, right after I got my two younger girls spayed, my 11 year old, Noil, very suddenly lost all control of his hind legs and tail. I'd been down the road with this before, I know the signs of a saddle blood clot. We rushed him into the emergency vet, and by the time we got there Noil was in full cardiac arrest. Our vet worked on him with oxygen and medication via I.V., and Noil somehow made it through. After a couple of days he ended up getting a VERY slight pulse in his legs and tail movement. We became hopeful for a recovery (which is so rare). The problem was his progress stopped there. He wasn't getting worse, but he wasn't getting better either. The vet had been giving him ringers sub-q and he'd been "nibbling" at wet food, but otherwise......he was just exhausted.
After a week of being in the vet hospital, our vet thought we might try bringing him home, but keeping him as still as possible, basically we are his wheelchair. He wanted to see if Noil might eat better at home around his smells and his family. That was 4pm yesterday afternoon.
Since being home, we saw firsthand how miserable he really is. He wants to get up and move around a lot, but every time he does his heart starts racing, and his breathing gets erratic, and for a minute all he can do is gasp for breath. If he wants to roll over, we roll him over. If he wants to be somewhere else (he loves the back of our couch which has a Noil sized dent in the middle), we put him there. But he's refusing everything we've offered for food, including his regular dry food, two kinds of canned food -chunky and patte-, canned tuna, and even Gerber Stage 2 Chicken and Rice baby food. He will lap a little water now and again. Out of real worry, I even tried to syringe him some of the baby food. I got maybe 2 CC's in him before it started really stressing him out.
We were instructed to make sure he was kept in a carrier while we slept, so he wouldn't try to get around by himself, thus causing his heart to throw another clot, or cause a heart attack. So we moved him into the carrier, placed the carrier on a box so he was even with the couch, and my daughter (home from college) tried to sleep on the couch beside him. After about 10 minutes, he began pushing his front up and throwing himself against the carrier, causing him to breathe heavily and his heart to beat like crazy. So we let him back out, and he's laying in my daughters arms, who is staying up all night with him so he doesn't try to drag himself around the living room.
My daughter and I had THE talk. His life, in this position, is wretched. He's miserable and exhausted, this is a poor shadow of the exuberant affectionate cat he was a week ago. He's just listless. As much as I hate this, when I call the vet in the morning, we're going to talk about putting him humanely to sleep. It's such a hard decision to make, and God knows it hurts like hell, but I'm trying not to focus on my sadness and helplessness, and focusing on him and how he feels. This is no way for him to live his life, and if he continues to refuse food, he's only starving himself. I really don't want to give up hope. If he's paralyzed from the waist down, I'll go buy him a kitty wheelchair I've looked into online. But none of that kind of stuff will matter if he doesn't eat.
This is so hard, and hurts so much, I'm questioning myself. Am I doing the right thing? Am I giving up too early, and not giving enough time for him to get better? This is so painful. I just don't know if it's the right thing to do at this point.
I've mentioned that I just recently lost my 8 year old sweetheart Bubbs to accute (and sudden) kidney failure. That was November 29th. Well about a week ago, right after I got my two younger girls spayed, my 11 year old, Noil, very suddenly lost all control of his hind legs and tail. I'd been down the road with this before, I know the signs of a saddle blood clot. We rushed him into the emergency vet, and by the time we got there Noil was in full cardiac arrest. Our vet worked on him with oxygen and medication via I.V., and Noil somehow made it through. After a couple of days he ended up getting a VERY slight pulse in his legs and tail movement. We became hopeful for a recovery (which is so rare). The problem was his progress stopped there. He wasn't getting worse, but he wasn't getting better either. The vet had been giving him ringers sub-q and he'd been "nibbling" at wet food, but otherwise......he was just exhausted.
After a week of being in the vet hospital, our vet thought we might try bringing him home, but keeping him as still as possible, basically we are his wheelchair. He wanted to see if Noil might eat better at home around his smells and his family. That was 4pm yesterday afternoon.
Since being home, we saw firsthand how miserable he really is. He wants to get up and move around a lot, but every time he does his heart starts racing, and his breathing gets erratic, and for a minute all he can do is gasp for breath. If he wants to roll over, we roll him over. If he wants to be somewhere else (he loves the back of our couch which has a Noil sized dent in the middle), we put him there. But he's refusing everything we've offered for food, including his regular dry food, two kinds of canned food -chunky and patte-, canned tuna, and even Gerber Stage 2 Chicken and Rice baby food. He will lap a little water now and again. Out of real worry, I even tried to syringe him some of the baby food. I got maybe 2 CC's in him before it started really stressing him out.
We were instructed to make sure he was kept in a carrier while we slept, so he wouldn't try to get around by himself, thus causing his heart to throw another clot, or cause a heart attack. So we moved him into the carrier, placed the carrier on a box so he was even with the couch, and my daughter (home from college) tried to sleep on the couch beside him. After about 10 minutes, he began pushing his front up and throwing himself against the carrier, causing him to breathe heavily and his heart to beat like crazy. So we let him back out, and he's laying in my daughters arms, who is staying up all night with him so he doesn't try to drag himself around the living room.
My daughter and I had THE talk. His life, in this position, is wretched. He's miserable and exhausted, this is a poor shadow of the exuberant affectionate cat he was a week ago. He's just listless. As much as I hate this, when I call the vet in the morning, we're going to talk about putting him humanely to sleep. It's such a hard decision to make, and God knows it hurts like hell, but I'm trying not to focus on my sadness and helplessness, and focusing on him and how he feels. This is no way for him to live his life, and if he continues to refuse food, he's only starving himself. I really don't want to give up hope. If he's paralyzed from the waist down, I'll go buy him a kitty wheelchair I've looked into online. But none of that kind of stuff will matter if he doesn't eat.
This is so hard, and hurts so much, I'm questioning myself. Am I doing the right thing? Am I giving up too early, and not giving enough time for him to get better? This is so painful. I just don't know if it's the right thing to do at this point.
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