I’m so sorry Taleya.
melbaboutown
joined 2 years ago
TW Pet death
Melbcat had too many health issues for treatment to give her a good quality of life. She was peacefully put to sleep while I held her. Thank you for all your well wishes and for loving her too.
I’m not sure. They mentioned it being aggressive. I guess I’ll just wait for more information
I’m so sorry Taleya. I have my fingers crossed for Misha 🤞
Melbcat update
Bad news, TW cancer
They’re now saying Melbcat has an abdominal mass. That it’s probably cancer and has likely spread into her lung and lymph nodes.
The three choices were biopsy and chemo, euthanasia, or try her on steroids to see if it responds.
I’ve chosen to have a biopsy just to get more information on whether there’s any point to trying to treat it, or get an idea of how soon we would need to euthanise her.
I’m visiting her this evening and will try to get a cuddle in. I’m not sure if I’ll get any more information tonight but will have to see.
Call from the hospital.
Melbcat medical
To my understanding this has been caused by an infection that spread up to her kidney/s, one of them is enlarged or infected. I think they said the left. (I forget.) Pyelonephritis.
There’s a dark spot on her lung but they don’t know whether it’s from inhaled vomit, if it’s normal, or something else. So she needs an ultrasound and X-rays. Normally they do 5 ultrasounds in a day and she’s sitting on 6 so not sure if it will get done today.
She’s still seeming flat but also giving the vets some attitude which might interfere with the procedures so I’ll bring in her Zylkene to see if that helps and I’ve told them she can handle a lot of gabapentin. They’re bumping up her antinausea meds because she doesn’t really want to eat.
I don’t have a good feeling about this. :( I’m stressing about money but also about losing her.
Melbcat is going back to hospital for iv fluids. But it’s not looking good.
Edit: They’re saying it’s acute kidney injury from a uti on top of the chronic condition so they’ll try to clear it. One vet was pessimistic and the other optimistic so I really don’t know.
I think they’re each talking about short term vs long term outcomes. The hospital is trying to clear up the resistant infection in hopes she can recover from the acute kidney damage (though the chronic damage is permanent). They may stabilise her this time, I really hope so, but as the pessimistic vet said this could become a cycle and then it’s a question of how far to take it.
Thanks Spud. I really should stop patting him… 💔
spoiler
I was aware of the possibility of ringworm due to tiny round patches of hair loss but took measures such as wearing long clothing then removing shoes, washing hands thoroughly like the signs say to, fully showering and changing into fresh clothing afterwards (putting the old stuff in the wash immediately).
He wants affection you see, and will brush up against your arms and legs.
I think this lesion happened because a single time I rushed out in shorts to get him dosed with a flea and worm spot on, he head bunted my knee, and I must have neglected to wash that area thoroughly in the shower afterwards. I slipped up. I forgot and walked in the house a few times with shoes on too.
I’ve been resisting turning him in because 1. the risk of euthanasia is likely high and the vet and pet shop manager I’ve spoken to agree. And 2. there’s a non-zero chance he may belong to a neighbour, maybe even an aggressive mentally ill neighbour who looks for reasons to take revenge.
I would very likely have to trap him myself to turn him in which could be a very complicated process. I can talk to someone who worked in cat rescue about my options but as an adult black cat with suspected ringworm and possible cat flu I’m scared of getting him killed.
But I may have to concentrate on Melbcat because she doesn’t seem in a good way.
Welp… the restless anxiety energy is back even though my body is exhausted. I managed to get stuck into cleaning but after a while Melbcat started crying and howling until I lay down for a cuddle.
spoiler
She’s been settled and had her meds so I’m back to washing and bagging every piece of cloth in the house in case the spores got in and thinking how to make my furniture setup more easily movable for more regular vacuuming. I guess if done right this will also break the flea cycle 😟 ~~and my body~~
I’ve ordered a black UV light but am aware it may be low quality and also not every type of ringworm glows.
I have no idea what to do about the black cat. It would be easy to just stop feeding and patting him, let someone else help him so I’m not constantly undoing my decontamination.
Especially with all the home nursing care on my plate for my own cat. Especially as I can’t exactly see him regularly to apply ointment, and a medicated bath or quarantined fostering in my bathroom is out of the question. But I don’t know if anyone else is helping.
Eh. One thing at a time huh.
Also it’s been determined my own roof is fine - it’s the roof of my neighbour that’s allowing ingress and led to my ceiling cavity being flooded when it rains. Unfortunately these neighbours wouldn’t talk to me and may not speak English so it persisted for years and led to a mould problem. But the managers will deal with it now.
This may lead to works :(
Oh man I wish I had the physical energy of when I was younger. I’m not even that old. But at one point in my life I had everything under control through restless energy alone.
Oh jeez, I’m glad it was nothing serious
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Thank you both. It still hasn't hit me yet but it is going to get so much worse when it does. I'm trying not to vomit all of my feelings here because I don't want to burn you out. This isn't going to be something I get over quickly or cleanly.