Monday, December 27, 2010

Cat Anexoria, Oh It's Real (Updated)

"I'm one hairball away from my ideal weight!"



We've been living in Cat Hell for the last week since Latke had to be rushed to the vet and was diagnosed with a blocked urethra. Then, the vet called me at 6:00 pm on Wednesday night and said "We think Latke needs another catheter and we don't do that overnight so you need to come get him and take him to the emergency vet."

WTF?

My daughter and I spent four hours at the emergency vet Wednesday; mostly sobbing because we thought we were going to have to have Latke put to sleep because his kidney levels were four times normal and the bill to admit him was estimated at $2,000 (INCLUDING a $148 "referral fee" to the vet who made me come pick up at the last minute.)

When we had his levels tested again and they came back normal we were made to feel like White Trash for taking him home and treating him ourselves (Even though the Vet On Call kept calling him Lot-Key). But really, it's four days before Christmas and the kids are off school and if I'm weighing a little extra work required by monitoring the cat while he's locked in the laundry room vs. $2,000, the laundry room is going to win.

(Even though I really haven't slept since Wednesday)

The cat is doing all the things he should except he's really not eating, which I didn't mind until I let him out of the laundry room today and he could barely move and his paw was shivering and I Googled "cat won't eat shivering" and up popped:

Cat Anorexia

Apparently it's not like People Anexoria. After a cat has been ill, or if he is on medication (and yes, my cat has two checks in the plus column here) a cat will lose it's appetite and "forget" that it should eat and could develop hypoglycemia and die.

Great.

I already snatched this cat from the paws of the Kitty Grim Reaper once and I am NOT letting him starve himself to death. I immediately rubbed honey all over his teeth (to bring his blood sugar back up) and then opened up a can of non-prescription canned food and he dug into it like nobody's business.

(So. Very. Thankful. that I read the release papers from the vet and that I recognized Cat Anorexia as a side effect of recovering from a Blocked Urethra even if I did laugh it off at the time. Really, who would think "Oh, my cat had a blocked urethra and now it thinks it's too fat."??)

So now he's eating and his tail is twitching again and he looks a LOT more lively. In fact, he just scampered out of the kitchen! Of course, I'm still on the lookout for him forcing his paw down his throat.

P.S. At the Emergency Vet we were placed in a room - with a box of tissues placed conveniently nearby - that had a wall paper border of dogs wearing halos and angel wings. THIS is supposed to instill confidence? Also, there were several framed photographs of dogs including one in a total Glamour Shot wearing a red boa. It was creepy. Four. Solid. Hours. of sad and creepy.

So we get home on Thursday to find the cat not moving and whining and we all rush him to the emergency vet only to hear that his temperature doesn't even register and his kidneys are failing and we make the most difficult decision of 2010 and put him out of his misery. Though, it wasn't really difficult. I just can't make an innocent animal go through all that medical trauma. They don't understand it. I don't understand how he got better when his kidneys must have been failing but I like to think we gave him one last good week where he was loved and petted and appreciated.

RIP Latke.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

wow, never heard of cat anorexia..r.i.p. little kitty....