We're about to take Candy to the vet. She's worse today. She still won't eat, now she won't even drink, and her famous loud purring is all but gone. She's listless and doesn't fight being moved or picked up; doesn't scramble to get away as she normally does when she turns her nose up at where you've positioned her. She seems to just want to curl up into a ball and sleep. And when she's not sleeping she just looks at me, one eye normal and the other half obscured by her third eyelid, which is swollen so much that she cannot close that eye.
My dad just came out and said to me, "You know, we might have a hard decision to make."
I don't want to think about it. I've had this cat for fifteen years.
Update: It's an abcess. Poor thing, I thought it was her eye, turns out that was just a symptom. Apparently the roots of cats' teeth go up pretty far, almost to the eye socket. What happened was that she'd had a few decaying teeth in the back of her mouth which we hadn't noticed, and they'd decayed so badly that it caused an abcess to form. That was what was causing the swelling below her eye, and what was basically pushing her eye out of the socket a little and causing all the discharge. It was also why she wouldn't eat (obviously).
Unfortunately, she's not fully out of the woods yet. Because of what happened five years ago, when her liver was turning to fat, she might not be able to undergo an operation to fix the problem because she might not be strong enough to survive anesthesia. Basically, if we get a call tonight, it's bad news. They're doing a pre-op blood test on her to check her levels, and if they find she's not strong enough, then... well. We can give her antibiotics, but that won't solve the problem long-term. If they can't put her under to take the teeth out, they will keep abcessing every once in awhile, and she'll have to go on antibiotics again. And basically, that would be cruel, to let her continue the cycle. Soooo... if they can't operate on her, then I guess she'll be put to sleep. I'm going to be jumping everytime the phone rings.
On another sad note, while we were sitting out there waiting to be called into the exam room, a man came walking up with his young daughter in his arms. He had sunglasses on, very Young Hip Daddy. He murmured something to the woman up front, then disappeared into an exam room. A few minutes later, the door opened again, and out came his wife -- openly crying. He trailed along behind her, his own eyes bloodshot behind the glasses, while his little girl clung to his neck. I almost lost it right there, seeing as it became obvious to me what had happened: Husband had been called down to bring Daughter in to say goodbye to her first pet. I looked at Candy and hoped that tomorrow wouldn't bring a similar situation in our family.
Update: Gonna kill the doctor. I was on the phone with Katie, telling her about what was happening, when the line beeped. I switched over, and immediately burst into tears when I heard the guy say that he was calling from the pet hospital. It was... well, almost comedic. I heard the word "doctor" and had to cover my mouth to keep from crying into the phone, it was just that immediate. He went on to explain, though, that her levels were actually looking pretty good, and he just wanted to call to tell me that they were going to be putting her on an IV, to get some fluids back into her system since she was dehydrated, and to start her on the antibiotics. I shakily told him that he'd scared the hell out of me, and he apologized and explained that he had just wanted to let us know about the extra charges, and to tell us to call back at 11:30 tomorrow morning, and he'd update us on how her surgery went.
So. If all goes well, we'll be picking up my kitty at around 4:00 tomorrow afternoon. There is still a chance that no matter what the test results say, she still could not survive the operation, but at least some of the knot in my stomach has untied for the time being. And, hell, if we make it to 11:30 without
them calling
us to give us bad news, then I'll feel even better.
( Kitty. )