I have some bad news:
I had to take my cat, Bones, into the vet this morning because she's been feeling bad, not eating or pooping, and hiding in her safety spot. It turns out she can't breathe well because she has fluid on the lungs, like COPD. They're starting diagnostics and will let me know what the blood work shows at which point i decide what comes next.
The vet said the two most common causes are both really really bad.
I heard back earlier today and things don't seem quite so dire. They are still waiting on some diagnostics, but the vet said she was responding well to some Lasix (just like I take!) and if things go well, she may be able to come home later, but it's now late in the day and I have yet to hear.
The vet's working theory is Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.
I decided to make a photo collage to print out and have by me in her place.
Tuesday, I was really worried about Bonesie. She hadn't eaten during the day, and she wouldn't take any Churu with the furosemide crushed up in it (or from the tube either). She was panting, so I took her back in. The vet gave her a couple shots, one to relax her and one of furosemide to help her start peeing. She actually did pee finally in the space capsule on the way to the vet. We scheduled more diagnostics, an echocardiogram and an ultrasound of the lungs.
Wednesday I dropped her off at 9, and then finally heard back around 3. The vet found that most of her left lung has collapsed, but the right lung is just fine. He didn't find anything to extract from the lungs, which turns out to be a good sign. But of course only having one lung working is not. But it does seem like what she has is a feline form of asthma, which is exacerbated by the high air quality index we've been having, lots of smoke from fires west of us and Canada. He gave her a long acting steroid, and she responded well to that, and ate a bunch of kibble and a quarter of a large can of cat food. So it all sounded good.
I have a followup with them on Monday afternoon.
Thursday, she's again not doing so well. Eating, peeing, but no poop. She did take about a quarter of a Churu while I held it for her. I tried to give her some of the furosemide, now in liquid form which I was supposed to squirt into her mouth. I only got about a third of it in, with her strenuously rejecting the operation. But, she didn't jump down and walk away. She exhausted herself and let me hold her on my lap with both arms around her, and resting her head in my elbow.
She's lethargic tonight. I may take her back tomorrow, though she's being wary when I walk over to her without the walker. She knows something is up.
My gods this is hard to take; she's struggling so hard just to breathe sometimes, she can't even purr regularly.
Friday I set up a couple of room HEPA filters. Within a few hours, she was doing better, able to come out into the hallway as I was walking out to the kitchen and she gave me a great big "MROW" 🤩
Later in the afternoon, she had moved to the hallway to wait for me to be done with art studio. She still gets out of breath when she does something strenuous for her, which seems to include hard purring.
I made another collage in my art journal
