May 6, 2011

So my little Zoe girl is very sick right now. She recently turned 13 years old, although I am told that indoor-only cats often live much longer than that. She started acting sick on Wednesday evening, although not enough for me to be positive that she was sick.

Thursday morning I was positive and I took her to the vet. He checked her out and took some blood to run some tests. He really thought she was diabetic because that is quite common with older cats (although this was new information to me). He quickly determined this was not the problem.

The other things that he rattled off that could be the problem were all big things, such as renal failure or liver problems. The tests would come back the next morning. He also gave her an antibiotic shot that would act for two weeks, just in case she might have some sort of infection. I was concerned she might have a UTI, as she had had one once before, albeit a very long time ago. She was not running a fever though.

I took her home yesterday morning and she spent the next 24 hours sleeping, hanging out in her bed and sometimes wanting me to hold her. I never saw her eat or drink anything though and I could tell she was becoming dehydrated and growing weaker.

When she was not better by yesterday evening, I really thought she was dying. I prepared myself for bad news from the vet on the blood work and that I would likely have to have her put down this morning. I spent a good deal of time crying. She is such a dear, loyal little friend. She has been my little shadow for so many years now. She sits on the counter, watching me put on make up. She follows me everywhere, including into the bathroom. If I shut her out, she sits outside and meows at me quite loudly or she tries to get in. She just loves being with me or near me. If I am relaxing in bed, watching tv or reading, she is either on the bed with me or on me, or she is sitting in a nearby chair.

I woke up at 2:00am this morning and could not go back to sleep. She was curled up on a soft blanket next to my bed. I felt physically sick thinking about taking her to the vet to be put down. I really had to pray about it to make the switch from selfishly thinking of how much I would miss her to thinking about her and how she was feeling or what she might be experiencing in the way of pain or miserable-ness. The husband had to work today so I would also have to take the boys with me to the vet. I was not looking forward to it.

The vet called me soon after opening and gave me the great news that all of blood work came back really good. Nothing to be concerned about at all. After I told him that I thought she had probably gone 36 hours now without food or drink, he said to bring her back as we were clearly missing something. So the boys and I took her back and the boys behaved quite nicely. The vet examined her again and still found nothing. He decided to keep her for a while, take an xray of her abdomen and give her a B12 shot and some fluids. He called later and said the xray looked good. There was one thing they wanted to watch and do another xray tomorrow morning. I think they are concerned there might be an obstruction in her bowel. We agreed the best thing to do would probably be to let her stay there for the night so they could observe her. It is hard for me to see exactly how much she might be eating or drinking or using the bathroom, since I have another cat here too. Plus my attention is also on the boys much of the day.

I am hopeful that tomorrow morning will bring good news and my little buddy will be feeling better. I will be praying for her and hoping for the best. Hopefully I will also sleep a bit better tonight, knowing she is in good hands.

I hope she will get to come home tomorrow. I really miss my sweet little shadow.