She had been sick for about a week and a half. When Stacie originally took her in they diagnosed her with a UTI. No big deal, cats get them sometime.
By Friday she wasn’t eating (a little canned tuna, but not much, and this was a cat who would wake me up when Stacie was out of town by screaming for her breakfast) and was just lying around all day, sometimes swaying in place from the pain. Stacie took her back to the vet and they said she had pancreatitis. I’ve had pancreatitis, it’s horrific. I was seriously considering shooting myself after the second day I had it. So it made sense she was so run down and not interested in food. They gave her some meds and sent her home.
Saturday she was outright refusing to eat. At this point she was visibly shrinking — by Baby’s standards she was becoming emaciated. That night we had to dropper-feed her. It was an adventure, but we got some bone broth and cat food mixture into her. Stacie said if she wasn’t feeling better in the morning, we were going to the emergency vet.
This morning she was still lying in her bed, wide awake, breathing heavily and swaying like she’d been doing. We dropper-fed her some more and Stacie made the call. We took her in around 9AM, and they checked her out. She was horrifically dehydrated (she had been drinking water, just not nearly enough of it), and they recommended IV fluids and electrolytes, pain meds, etc., and for her to stay overnight to take care of her and do more testing.
Stacie got the call back within an hour of us leaving. Her UTI had turned into a kidney infection so bad she was essentially in renal failure. The vet said they could try treating it, but at best it would be a 50-50 chance she’d make it through the treatment, and then have to deal with the effects of severe kidney damage.
So we made the decision to euthanize her.
That wasn’t easy. This cat was always right behind the dog every time I got home from the hostibule. After Finn was done celebrating that his buddy was back home, she would come over to check me out and make sure I was OK in true Mama Cat fashion. I loved that cat. But she was already suffering and we couldn’t do anything to make her well again.
So we went in and did it. She went peacefully after we spent some time with her, so there was that. Just like with Finn, she just went to sleep and her heart stopped. We’re having her cremated and the pawprints done (plaster and ink), so those should be here in about a week or so.
I’m going to miss her.