Friday, March 16, 2012
Koko is recovering fine from thelatest surgery on her right eye socket. She had her stitches out (turned into a 16 legged, 900 tooth killer tiger during the process) and spent over 10 hours traveling in the car with me that day. The vet is almost 2 hours drive away and there was a mix up in my appointment so the Doctor who did the surgery was at the opening of a new office over 45 minutes further away. Naturally I had made my appointment with him, as he is the one I know and did the surgery. All kinds of apologies, another, very nice and competent vet took a look at Koko the snaggle tooth and agreed it looked as tho the stitches were definitely pulling. They asked if I was willing to drive to the new office to see Dr. Dan. I went. He removed stitches and said all looked fine. Things might relax and let the lip drop down a little with time. During it all, for the most part, Koko rode well, preferred being in my lap or standing with her feet on the window acting as though she was viewing the scenery. Did better than some of the dogs I have had in my car!
Since then her lip seems to be lowering, teeth on the right less exposed and she is no longer sneezing and having other issues when trying to drink so I think she is fine. I guess her human, (that would be me,) is just not thrilled with the way the poor girl looks but then she doesn’t spend her time gazing in a mirror so it doesn’t seem to bother her as much as it bothers me… Duh.
In the meantime, a week ago Monday I got a call from a woman whom I met while volunteering at the Animal Health Day last fall. She had two very young cats dumped on her and one of them had just died that day. She brought the sister, Petals in and found she tested positive for Feline Leukemia (FeLV+). She was distraught, weighing her options and considering having Petals put down. Dr. Dan had her talk to me. I explained to her that many FeLV+ cats can live a while and be reasonably healthy and happy. That some turn into what I call “Typhoid Mary” cats and may carry the disease but show no symptoms and live quite a long time. I asked her to consider taking her home and loving her for the time she would have (she had no other cats,) and told her if there were issues, to give me a call. She decided to take Petals home and give her whatever life was in the cards.
Petals did fine all fall and winter, climbed drapes, made friends with the dog, became a love bug. If there was a lap, it was hers to sit in. If there was a warm human body in the bed it was specifically for Petals to snuggle against, knead some bread, purr and sleep with. Whenever her human sat down Petals appeared like magic demanding space on her lap. So the day the human sat down on the couch and Petals didn’t show she was worried. When she saw that Petals was hunkered on the rug in front of the window facing away from her and was not responding when called she was really worried. Within a matter of 3 days Petals stopped eating, became extremely lethargic and declined rapidly. Her human called me and I went to pick her up last Thursday.
I immediately took her to my vet who re-tested her for FeLV and she tested negative. What the……..! I had heard that could happen but could mean a number of things including that she had fought off the virus OR that it had made it’s way to her bone marrow and was doing it’s dirty work out of sight. My vet gave me antibiotic to try and address the symptoms of infection and build up her strength.
She was a fighter who wanted to live. Kept purring, turning into a squiggle worm when petted. She would turn herself inside out to ensure you didn’t miss a spot during her petting sessions, but she wasn’t getting better. My vet wasn’t available so I took her to Colonial Animal Hospital and Dr. Bohls. He examined her and determined her kidneys were enlarged, she had jaundice, her liver was affected, her throat was so swollen she couldn’t eat or drink, she was dehydrated and basically starving to death. All within 3 – 5 days. He suggested several options including steroids to try and reduce the swelling in throat and kidneys. She was very interested in eating and drinking, just couldn’t swallow. She had to be force fed because of her swollen and sore throat and receive subcutaneous ringers lactate to keep her hydrated. Me, Petals, some needles and a bag of Ringers Lactate went home to see what was to be.
Koko and all my other cats are old enough and have been vaccinated for FeLV so I allowed them to meet Petals altho I kept her isolated for most of the time she was here in the master bathroom. She and Koko (Koko the bully and instigator of fights!) sniffed noses, sniffed other orifices and then laid down together for a nap! I was amazed. So Petals had some company for a little while. I took her outside and she loved being in the yard but was so weak she could only walk a few steps and then had to rest. All the other cats that go outside came up several times to sniff and say hello and followed her around the yard. During all of it she was the happiest little kitty I have had in a long time. As long as she wanted to fight the fight and didn’t seem to be in pain I was going to do what I could for her. It was possible she could fight her way out of it and have some quality time left. It was not to be.
Wednesday night she fought terribly when I tried to give her the subcutaneous fluid and I only got about 50 units in her before I gave up. As soon as I let her go you could watch her shut down. I held her most of the night and she still purred when petted but she had given up. She began displaying symptoms of pain at about 0700 Thursday morning and Dr. Bohls again told me to bring her in and he would look at her in between his scheduled spay surgeries-for the third time in 3 days. Her jaundice had gotten much worse and her kidneys seemed to have been too far-gone. It was time to let her rest. At 0930 yesterday morning, 1 week after she came to stay with me, she got her two injections and went to sleep in my arms. I called her human and took her home to be buried next to her sister who had died last fall.
Feline Leukemia is a vile and nasty disease, in a way like AIDS in humans. It makes the body susceptible to whatever nasty diseases are in the mood to invade and all you can do is fight the symptoms as long as you can. As long as the animal seems to want to fight to live and doesn’t seem to be in pain it is one day at a time. I hope we can find a cure some day. Another sweet fur baby went over the rainbow bridge to join her sister. RIP Petals.
-me
Koko, Scruffy, Shaggy, Lucky, Newbie, Lil Red, Taz, Sid Vicious and Buddy
Slim, Polar Bear and Chica
