Hi everyone,
Last week, we said goodbye to a beloved ginger community cat who was a fixture in my neighborhood. He lived on a certain street and had a feeder who fed him for over a decade. His estimated age was 12/13. I am posting here today because I provided him vet and foster care as needed. I periodically checked in on him through the feeder(s) but as I learned, they didn’t tell me when he was sick or injured. I had to find out by personally checking on him myself. I am disappointed by how things turned out and want to get your blunt, honest opinion on his condition and whether you think he could’ve been saved. If any of you have experience dealing with these ailments, please share your experience.
On Xmas, I found ginger boy emaciated with an upper respiratory infection and glaucoma/uveitis in one eye. He was taken into foster care and was squeezed into a vet appnt 2 days later. Here were his stats:
From prior experience nursing him back to health from a combination of bad URI, UTI, and multiple bite wounds, he was a fighter. Just that this time, he was 3lbs lighter (went from 11lb to 8lb and was skin and bones to the touch), looked ill as opposed to just suffering from a cold, and sat in the meatball position more often than I wished. Every time I checked on him, I was scared I’d find he had passed. But after a couple of days under my care, eating lots and getting supplements, he started to show little bouts of energy. He would play with toys, walk around the room, go up the stairs, come back down and hop on the window wanting fresh air. Then after 5 minutes of being exposed to the cold air, he’d go back to the heated cat bed and sit in the meatball position like he was freezing.
A big factor for me was his weight. He was emaciated and I didn’t think his body could fight off infections or handle treatments in that condition. And I wondered if he could withstand the pain from his teeth and uveitis for 2 more weeks while working to put on weight and beat the URI.
If any of you have any opinions, have experience putting emaciated cats under treatments and procedures, or know cats who beat the odds, please share your experience. Thank you.
Last week, we said goodbye to a beloved ginger community cat who was a fixture in my neighborhood. He lived on a certain street and had a feeder who fed him for over a decade. His estimated age was 12/13. I am posting here today because I provided him vet and foster care as needed. I periodically checked in on him through the feeder(s) but as I learned, they didn’t tell me when he was sick or injured. I had to find out by personally checking on him myself. I am disappointed by how things turned out and want to get your blunt, honest opinion on his condition and whether you think he could’ve been saved. If any of you have experience dealing with these ailments, please share your experience.
On Xmas, I found ginger boy emaciated with an upper respiratory infection and glaucoma/uveitis in one eye. He was taken into foster care and was squeezed into a vet appnt 2 days later. Here were his stats:
- FIV (he was negative 2 years ago)
- Glaucoma on left eye w/ possible lymphoma behind it (in need of eye removal and biopsy)
- Severe periodontal disease (needs teeth extraction)
- Non-regenerative Anemia and in need of blood transfusion
- No white blood cells
- Upper respiratory infection
- Vet said he was wasting away but I believe his weight loss was due to not being given food that he could eat. He was pigging out in my care. I gave him soft, mousse based, or puréed food, or added water to his wet food and he ate every hour or 2. Poor thing was starving.
From prior experience nursing him back to health from a combination of bad URI, UTI, and multiple bite wounds, he was a fighter. Just that this time, he was 3lbs lighter (went from 11lb to 8lb and was skin and bones to the touch), looked ill as opposed to just suffering from a cold, and sat in the meatball position more often than I wished. Every time I checked on him, I was scared I’d find he had passed. But after a couple of days under my care, eating lots and getting supplements, he started to show little bouts of energy. He would play with toys, walk around the room, go up the stairs, come back down and hop on the window wanting fresh air. Then after 5 minutes of being exposed to the cold air, he’d go back to the heated cat bed and sit in the meatball position like he was freezing.
A big factor for me was his weight. He was emaciated and I didn’t think his body could fight off infections or handle treatments in that condition. And I wondered if he could withstand the pain from his teeth and uveitis for 2 more weeks while working to put on weight and beat the URI.
If any of you have any opinions, have experience putting emaciated cats under treatments and procedures, or know cats who beat the odds, please share your experience. Thank you.
