Kitty woes

Alex is getting old.

Well, she is almost 15 years old. And I have had her as a pet for about that long. My roommate (at the time) and I picked her up through a newspaper ad that was "free to a good home" in 1993.

So Monday night, I got home from work and she looked like she was in a pretty good funk, head hanging, that sort of thing. I was thinking it might be because she needed some food... I think she might be slowing down on the hard food somewhat, because it is getting more difficult to eat... just my thoughts. So she ate some, then laid down in the living room. I went for a run then, and when I came back, she was in the same spot.

She was walking funny, kind of uncoordinated, falling over, and he back all hunched up. We have not gotten a new vet since we moved (I know, bad kitty mom - but they don't really go outside...) so I called a place that is close. They were closing in 1/2 an hour and would not have time, so they told us to go to the emergency vet.

$600 some dollars later (x-rays, blood work, ultrasound, medication...) we went home. She has some small kidney stones, a bladder stone, racing heartbeat, perhaps something odd with her spine (hazy spot on the x-ray) that the vet there thought might be a tumor. And the start of a bladder infection. So we get pain medication and antibiotics.

Yeah. The cat hates the medications.

So I follow up as told with the "regular" vet who does not seem to think that there is anything wrong with her spine. But, she still has a really fast heartrate. Thinks that might be an overactive thyroid, and perhaps it caused her to throw a small clot which is affecting her legs. He did say that if she was a person, the equivalent heart rate would cause a medical provider to call an ambulance, and they would be admitted into the hospital until it was under control

More bloodwork, and she does have a slightly elevated thyroid level. But, there are no indications of cancer.

Yay. MORE medications.

But, she does seem to be moving around better now. She did miss and fall off of the bed on Sunday night, and that might be what is going on, to some extent.

But for now, she has been extra cuddly, even if I am "torturing" her twice a day to squirt medications down her throat, and now to stuff pills down her throat. I just wonder what is going to happen when I have to travel for work, and Eric has to take care of it...

She's my cat though, and when she was limping around on Tuesday, with me thinking she might have a tumor, I cried. I know things happens, but it is just so sad.

It's kind of taken up my whole week...

~a