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- Feb 12, 2014
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We have two 15 year old cats, both with health issues increasing as they age.
Liz has gradually escalating kidney dysfunction as is common in older cats, but she has also gotten progressively blind over the past year, due to detached retinas. The theory is this is connected to the high blood pressure she has and we medicate with amlodipine.
For months, she retained some slight sight. Enough to navigate our home. Lately, she's been moving around less. I though she was feeling sick, but she was still eating.
In the last two weeks, I've noticed her missing the trunk as the foot of our bed (what she hopes down from before reaching the floor). Then I noticed her bonking into walls a little more. Okay, I thought, she's losing more vision, but we'll cope.
Yesterday I found her just lying in the middle of our rug, which is not at all common for her. She has her spots and her routines, and this isn't one of them. I tried nudging her to see if she'd get up to walk around, but she wouldn't. I wasn't sure if it was fear of her world getting darker (if indeed it is) or weakness/pain.
I pulled her onto the bed. We cuddled. She purred. I gave her some baby food. She ate it. She was fine-ish most of the evening and through the night, just snuggled on the bed on the heating pad we keep on low for her.
An hour or so ago, I was in the living vroom and heard her cry out urgently (MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!), which is not like her. My husband, who was back in the bedroom where she was said he heard a thunk like she'd missed the trunk climbing down.
I picked her up to check and she seemed disoriented. I sat her down on the floor and asked if she wanted "turkey" (what we call the baby food we hide her pills in). It's actually chicken flavored right now because the stores are out, but whatever. She ate about 1/2 jar and went in her litter box. When she came out, she was walking weird. Like her whole back end was out of whack. Not like a sore leg, but a weak hind-end. I worried that she'd had a stroke. Maybe her blood pressure caused a stroke and that's what's caused her to walk into things and fall down.
I know we need to see a vet. Money is not the question. Covid is. I'm very afraid to take her in and have the staff handling her transfer the virus and come back to me (my lungs are already in bad shape). I'm sending a video of her walk to the vet right now to get her thoughts, but in the meantime, can someone just give me some reason to relax and not assume this is it for her and we'll need to say goodbye? I'm just so nervous about the changes in the past week and now this weird gait. If I have to take her in to the vet, we will go. I'm just so incredibly anxious. Between the quarantine, my status of maybe having already had covid but the chance that my recent lung infection was something else making me still vulnerable, to loving this cat so much for 15 years... I'm just emotionally whalloped...
Liz has gradually escalating kidney dysfunction as is common in older cats, but she has also gotten progressively blind over the past year, due to detached retinas. The theory is this is connected to the high blood pressure she has and we medicate with amlodipine.
For months, she retained some slight sight. Enough to navigate our home. Lately, she's been moving around less. I though she was feeling sick, but she was still eating.
In the last two weeks, I've noticed her missing the trunk as the foot of our bed (what she hopes down from before reaching the floor). Then I noticed her bonking into walls a little more. Okay, I thought, she's losing more vision, but we'll cope.
Yesterday I found her just lying in the middle of our rug, which is not at all common for her. She has her spots and her routines, and this isn't one of them. I tried nudging her to see if she'd get up to walk around, but she wouldn't. I wasn't sure if it was fear of her world getting darker (if indeed it is) or weakness/pain.
I pulled her onto the bed. We cuddled. She purred. I gave her some baby food. She ate it. She was fine-ish most of the evening and through the night, just snuggled on the bed on the heating pad we keep on low for her.
An hour or so ago, I was in the living vroom and heard her cry out urgently (MEOW! MEOW! MEOW!), which is not like her. My husband, who was back in the bedroom where she was said he heard a thunk like she'd missed the trunk climbing down.
I picked her up to check and she seemed disoriented. I sat her down on the floor and asked if she wanted "turkey" (what we call the baby food we hide her pills in). It's actually chicken flavored right now because the stores are out, but whatever. She ate about 1/2 jar and went in her litter box. When she came out, she was walking weird. Like her whole back end was out of whack. Not like a sore leg, but a weak hind-end. I worried that she'd had a stroke. Maybe her blood pressure caused a stroke and that's what's caused her to walk into things and fall down.
I know we need to see a vet. Money is not the question. Covid is. I'm very afraid to take her in and have the staff handling her transfer the virus and come back to me (my lungs are already in bad shape). I'm sending a video of her walk to the vet right now to get her thoughts, but in the meantime, can someone just give me some reason to relax and not assume this is it for her and we'll need to say goodbye? I'm just so nervous about the changes in the past week and now this weird gait. If I have to take her in to the vet, we will go. I'm just so incredibly anxious. Between the quarantine, my status of maybe having already had covid but the chance that my recent lung infection was something else making me still vulnerable, to loving this cat so much for 15 years... I'm just emotionally whalloped...