Cat Sickness + Update

Our poor cat, Coral, has been struggling with her health for nearly two months now. We got her a year ago in Jan and she is almost two years old.

It started with a cold in mid-Dec which developed into an eye infection. I took her in almost immediately after I noted her droopy wet eye. After an antibiotic shot, she did not get better in a few days, and was put on anti-viral tablets. 

It was my first time giving her meds. Initially, she did well with the pill pockets, and I wondered why people complained about pilling a cat. Well,  after 3-4 days became wise to it and it was a struggle getting it into her. The pill could be cut so I divided it into quarters and hit it in ham, etc, 

After 7 days of anti-virals, her eye still did not improve. On Dec 31, we went back in.  Another vet diagnosed her with an eye ulcer and gave us antibacterial eye drops to put drops in her eye. Not fun at all!! 

All this was over the holidays so it was especially stressful since every other day the vet was closed.

She had a reaction to the eyedrop. Her eye got worse. So, on Jan 2 we went back in for a 3rd visit and new drops were prescribed to be given 4 times a day!!

Things slowly improved and we thought we were out of the woods. We had a recheck a week later, and things were looking good. 

Then on MKL day, Beanie woke up a few minutes before me and was i the hallway playing with the cat. When I woke about 15 minutes late she came in frantically telling me the cat jumped on the banister and lost her balance and fell on the carpeted floor but hit/grazed herself on her scratching post.  The cat seemed fine yo me and we went on with our day.

By lunch time, Coral was not eating and keeping away from us, sleeping. I made an appt with the vet for the next day, in case she did not get better. Glad I did, because by nightfall, Coral was siting in a crouched position with eyes closed. A bit of googling told me she may be in pain.  Took her in the next day, they gave her a pain shot and meds. X-ray showed no injury so they suspected a soft tissue injury.

She was better by evening and in a 1-2 days was back to normal. Her eye had healed as well. We rejoiced that she was on the mend. 

We had one good week of health.

This past Thurs, she threw up and was back to not eating.  On Friday, she did not move when I woke in the AM. She just sat next to the bed for almost 6 hours.   I made an appt for later that day.....I demanded some bloodwork, and they think it may still be the injury bothering her.  Another shot for pain, and oral pain meds, same as before.

Poor cat!

I have had 6 vet visits with full bloodwork + xrays and spent almost $1,000!   But what to do, one cannot ignore it. Also being a  new cat parent (we have only had her a year) I get a bit worried, maybe sooner than I need to.

Thankfully, back in June I had the foresight to buy pet insurance, I should get some of the $ reimbursed. 

Since Fri she is doing better.  I will give her the pain meds for a week at least this time. My gut tells me it was not pain, but she was coming down with another respiratory infection. They think she has feline herpes which keeps popping up, and can cause eye issues, as well.

I hope we get some healthy days.

2/2/2021

The vet called this evening. Poor Coral has tested positive for FeLV - feline leukemia.  Her symptoms now make sense and the vet thinks there never was any injury, it was a neurological event. Also, her lethargy, eye issues, constant URI's now all add up.  She was doing better, but today is again not eating well and has been sleeping.  Her platelet count was low so they will run CBC again for free to make sure. I am so sad. We have only had her one year. 

I am not making any decision right now. She may very well get over this episode and I will give her every fighting chance to recover. She is only 23 months old. My sis' cat was FIV and lived 10 years, but then again the cat was never sick as often as Coral has been. The goal however is to make sure she has a good quality of life. So we will wait and watch and hope. In the meantime she will get lots of love.  Beanie will be devastated if it comes to that :-(