the saga continues

mr. poo in his "sick room" in the basement. photo taken yesterday.

unfortunately, kyle is still an ailing feline. in the photo above, he's in my mother's sewing room. it had been quite dark in there until i turned on the light to take this photo. he'd been on that little piece of duvet for a while, and he stayed there, like that, for a while after i turned off the light and left. he hasn't been brushed in almost two weeks, and he's got no energy to groom himself, so his velveteen fur has kind of lost its sheen. he looks like such a sad, curled-up clown.

to backtrack a little...

kyle spent friday night at the pet hospital. they called mom around 7pm that night to say that he was doing "very well," eating and responding well to his pain and anti-nausea meds. the vet tech said she saw no reason why he couldn't go home in the morning. it all sounded so positive!

YB, mom and i went to the vet's office on saturday morning to get the full results of all mr. poo's tests and to take him home. the vet told us that kyle had apparently eaten quite well overnight, so that was a relief. and his weekend blood tests revealed that his hyperthyroid condition was now under control after only one week on his meds. we were very pleasantly surprised!

the vet said he'd examined mr. poo again earlier that morning and that, once again, he could feel a mass in his upper abdomen. the plan was for us to take kyle home, monitor his eating (which the vet hoped would continue to be normal) and then touch base today (monday). if all went well over the weekend, the vet would schedule kyle for his biopsy.

as we were checking kyle out of the pet hospital and settling the bill, we noticed him sneezing. a LOT. like, one sneeze after the next. one of the vet techs said he might have inhaled some dust or something in his nose, so we didn't really worry. she also told us about how well kyle had eaten, and that he was "such a sweet cat!"

she added that he takes pills "really well," which was a shock. trying to get a pill in him at home is next to impossible, so we asked her what technique she used (and she showed us). she said she and kyle had played a bit that morning, then added with a laugh, "he does NOT like to have his stomach touched."

we all laughed, because he really really doesn't. "we probably should have mentioned that yesterday," i said. "he also doesn't like other cats." the vet tech said she figured that one out because kyle would hiss whenever one of the resident cats (there are three) would walk past his cage.

the total bill for his previous day's visit and overnight stay and tests and meds and foods was $850. mom gasped (the estimate had been $710 but they'd re-dosed him with extra fluids and meds that morning).

on the way home, kyle meowed in a pitiful way and then lay down in his carrier. when we got home, i opened the carrier door... and he stayed inside. that's unlike him. he wobbled out after a few seconds and then seemed sort of disoriented -- he would wander around the house, then flop down, then get up and wander, then flop down... over and over again, room to room. we figured the pain meds they'd given him just before we'd picked him up were maybe making him totally loopy. he eventually settled down for a nap and i headed home.

given that he was on an appetite stimulant, we figured he'd be ravenous... but he was not. instead, he had a little food and then went back to the basement to lie in his "sick room." and when he's in there, we know he's not feeling well. he spent most of the evening there, didn't eat much dinner and, overnight saturday to sunday, ate only a 1/4 can of food.

long story short: his condition was not improving. it was clear that he'd come down with a nasty cold -- he was sneezing and we could hear the congestion in his sinuses when he'd breathe. it sounded the same way a very snotty child's nasal breathing would be. cats with colds typically don't eat because they can't smell their food. so, because he was fully congested and hadn't eaten much since coming home, mom took him back to the vet this morning and i met them both there.

kyle is being kept at the pet hospital again tonight. his biopsy was scheduled for this afternoon, and the vet is also testing him for FIV/FeLV (the latter of which is the feline leukemia virus). if he has either of those, and the mass turns out to be cancerous, the vet said the outlook is "not good." FIV+/FeLV+ cats do not respond to anti-cancer meds, so there really wouldn't be any treatment options.

tonight, the vet techs will syringe-feed mr. poo if he doesn't eat on his own. he'll get IV fluids again, and more anti-nausea + pain meds. because feline colds are very contagious, he's actually being housed in the dog room. and trixie's going to stop in to check on him on her way home from work. (the vet said this would be okay.)

i asked the vet if it's possible that mr. poo's current state could be entirely due to his cold, and the vet said yes. it's possible that his poor eating and all the stress of the vet visits and new medications and the like just threw his immune system for a loop, and the cold virus will just run its course within the week and everything will be fine. the first step will be the FIV/FeLV results. if those turn out to be negative, the prognosis gets quite a bit rosier.

i'm really hoping that's the case.