This is more of a vent than anything so I wasn't sure where to post this other than here but the last month has been one of the most exhausting of my life. I apologize in advance for how long this is and don't expect anybody to read through the whole thing but I just need to vent to someone other than my mom, who is just as stressed as I am, or my best friend, who doesn't understand why I'm so stressed.
On October 1st my cat Goose, a stray that wandered up to my parent's house pregnant and malnourished about ten months ago, got spooked while we were letting the dogs into the backyard and darted out of the door. She disappeared over the fence before we even fully realized what happened. We spent about two hours that morning searching the field behind our house and our neighbor's backyards but stopped as the sun came up because we knew that more than likely she had found a place to hide and had no intention of coming out until night. That night while walking the neighborhood with flashlights we saw her but she ran off before we could get close. We saw her multiple times near our neighbor's cars but she was so terrified and skittish that she ran away each time. We actually went so far as to set up a live trap (with their permission) right next to their car hoping she would get hungry enough to go into it. Thankfully, she ended up being outside for three days before she finally walked up to the porch while my dad was sitting outside and letting him grab her after about an hour. We were obviously thrilled to have her home.
We were so excited to have her home in fact that we didn't even think to quarantine her from our other five cats. Until she started sniffling and sneezing that is. Once she started showing symptoms of a URI we moved her up to my bedroom with no interaction with the other cats but it was too late. The first to get sick after Goose was her kitten Duck, who's only eight months old. It started with drooling, so much drooling that she'd end up just laying in a puddle of it. She got lethargic and stopped grooming and we took her to the vet for fluids, a B-12 injection, and antibiotics. Throughout all of this Goose improves remarkably fast despite us being the most concerned about her getting sick due to her FIV+ status. Duck continued to stay the same but always continued to have a fairly good appetite so we weren't overly concerned and knew we just had to wait it out.
Then Nala got sick. Obviously once Duck got sick we separated her from the others as well but knew that there was a good chance we were too late and the other cats just hadn't started showing symptoms yet. Nala too began to drool everywhere and left a little trail of slobber everywhere he went. At this point, it was easier to separate the healthy, asymptomatic cats than to quarantine the sick ones. Nala too went to the vet and received the same treatment that Duck had previously. He, despite continuing to sniffle and sneeze for a while, never became lethargic or pitiful looking like Duck had.
Then Nala's brother Ed got sick. The same day we noticed Ed's symptoms we also noticed his mom Cleo drooling and struggling to breathe through a stuffy nose. At this point, we'd dealt with it three times already, with all of the previous cats to get sick already doing much better, so we figured we'd just take them to the vet for fluids and antibiotics and nurse them through it just like we had done previously. Unfortunately, Ed and Cleo just continued to decline until they both stopped eating about two days after symptoms began. We tried everything we could think of and everything we could find online to entice them to eat but they would just sniff a little and then turn away. After two days with no improvement and both cats beginning to resemble zombies, we began trying to find a vet that both had two appointments available and the ability to place feeding tubes as the vet we had been taking them too was a low-cost clinic and said they couldn't do feeding tubes.
Finally, after about ten tearful conversations with various vets in our area, we found one who was able to help us and both Ed and Cleo had feeding tubes placed on 10/23. Both my mom and I are working from home full time so we were taking breaks every three hours to feed the two of them from 8 am-9 pm. Ed started showing improvement after just a few days of regular feedings and after a week was pretty much back to the cuddly, chirpy cat we were used to. Cleo took a little longer and a second round of antibiotics but eventually she too began to show improvement.
Then, when things are finally starting to look up and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, Cleo vomits up her last meal of the night and her feeding tube comes with it. So now we have this cat with about three inches of rubber tubing coming out of her mouth. Before the shock of the whole situation could wear off Cleo had chewed through the exposed part of the tube so at least there was nothing hanging out. She didn't seem distressed and would only occasionally swallow heavily as if trying to adjust the tube in her throat. We debated taking her to an emergency vet but decided that because it was Sunday night and she didn't seem stressed that we would just wait until the vet's office that had placed the tube opened. That all happened last night. This morning we were able to take her in first thing and instead of replacing the tube, as we had originally thought they would want to, the vet decided to remove it completely and give Cleo an appetite stimulant since her symptoms have pretty much completely resolved and there's no real reason she wouldn't eat on her own. Thankfully about an hour after we gave her the appetite stimulant she ate a little over half a can of her regular wet food and then crunched on a few pieces of dry food.
We're definitely not completely out of the woods yet but with Cleo and Ed both eating small meals on their own and Ed scheduled to have his tube removed Thursday, we're all feeling relief that we're almost to the point of having six healthy cats again. The one good thing is that despite Goose and Duck (my parent's cats) and Nala, Ed, and Cleo (my cats who had to move with me back to my parents after getting laid off earlier this year) getting sick, my sister's cat Kitty was spared. Kitty is an incredibly neurotic and anxious cat and I think she would probably be the one who struggled the most, which is saying a lot seeing as I also fully believe Ed and Cleo would have died if it weren't for their feeding tubes.
So that was an absolute wall of text that I don't expect anyone to actually read through but if you did thank you. Honestly, it just felt good to type it out and get it off of my chest.
On October 1st my cat Goose, a stray that wandered up to my parent's house pregnant and malnourished about ten months ago, got spooked while we were letting the dogs into the backyard and darted out of the door. She disappeared over the fence before we even fully realized what happened. We spent about two hours that morning searching the field behind our house and our neighbor's backyards but stopped as the sun came up because we knew that more than likely she had found a place to hide and had no intention of coming out until night. That night while walking the neighborhood with flashlights we saw her but she ran off before we could get close. We saw her multiple times near our neighbor's cars but she was so terrified and skittish that she ran away each time. We actually went so far as to set up a live trap (with their permission) right next to their car hoping she would get hungry enough to go into it. Thankfully, she ended up being outside for three days before she finally walked up to the porch while my dad was sitting outside and letting him grab her after about an hour. We were obviously thrilled to have her home.
We were so excited to have her home in fact that we didn't even think to quarantine her from our other five cats. Until she started sniffling and sneezing that is. Once she started showing symptoms of a URI we moved her up to my bedroom with no interaction with the other cats but it was too late. The first to get sick after Goose was her kitten Duck, who's only eight months old. It started with drooling, so much drooling that she'd end up just laying in a puddle of it. She got lethargic and stopped grooming and we took her to the vet for fluids, a B-12 injection, and antibiotics. Throughout all of this Goose improves remarkably fast despite us being the most concerned about her getting sick due to her FIV+ status. Duck continued to stay the same but always continued to have a fairly good appetite so we weren't overly concerned and knew we just had to wait it out.
Then Nala got sick. Obviously once Duck got sick we separated her from the others as well but knew that there was a good chance we were too late and the other cats just hadn't started showing symptoms yet. Nala too began to drool everywhere and left a little trail of slobber everywhere he went. At this point, it was easier to separate the healthy, asymptomatic cats than to quarantine the sick ones. Nala too went to the vet and received the same treatment that Duck had previously. He, despite continuing to sniffle and sneeze for a while, never became lethargic or pitiful looking like Duck had.
Then Nala's brother Ed got sick. The same day we noticed Ed's symptoms we also noticed his mom Cleo drooling and struggling to breathe through a stuffy nose. At this point, we'd dealt with it three times already, with all of the previous cats to get sick already doing much better, so we figured we'd just take them to the vet for fluids and antibiotics and nurse them through it just like we had done previously. Unfortunately, Ed and Cleo just continued to decline until they both stopped eating about two days after symptoms began. We tried everything we could think of and everything we could find online to entice them to eat but they would just sniff a little and then turn away. After two days with no improvement and both cats beginning to resemble zombies, we began trying to find a vet that both had two appointments available and the ability to place feeding tubes as the vet we had been taking them too was a low-cost clinic and said they couldn't do feeding tubes.
Finally, after about ten tearful conversations with various vets in our area, we found one who was able to help us and both Ed and Cleo had feeding tubes placed on 10/23. Both my mom and I are working from home full time so we were taking breaks every three hours to feed the two of them from 8 am-9 pm. Ed started showing improvement after just a few days of regular feedings and after a week was pretty much back to the cuddly, chirpy cat we were used to. Cleo took a little longer and a second round of antibiotics but eventually she too began to show improvement.
Then, when things are finally starting to look up and we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, Cleo vomits up her last meal of the night and her feeding tube comes with it. So now we have this cat with about three inches of rubber tubing coming out of her mouth. Before the shock of the whole situation could wear off Cleo had chewed through the exposed part of the tube so at least there was nothing hanging out. She didn't seem distressed and would only occasionally swallow heavily as if trying to adjust the tube in her throat. We debated taking her to an emergency vet but decided that because it was Sunday night and she didn't seem stressed that we would just wait until the vet's office that had placed the tube opened. That all happened last night. This morning we were able to take her in first thing and instead of replacing the tube, as we had originally thought they would want to, the vet decided to remove it completely and give Cleo an appetite stimulant since her symptoms have pretty much completely resolved and there's no real reason she wouldn't eat on her own. Thankfully about an hour after we gave her the appetite stimulant she ate a little over half a can of her regular wet food and then crunched on a few pieces of dry food.
We're definitely not completely out of the woods yet but with Cleo and Ed both eating small meals on their own and Ed scheduled to have his tube removed Thursday, we're all feeling relief that we're almost to the point of having six healthy cats again. The one good thing is that despite Goose and Duck (my parent's cats) and Nala, Ed, and Cleo (my cats who had to move with me back to my parents after getting laid off earlier this year) getting sick, my sister's cat Kitty was spared. Kitty is an incredibly neurotic and anxious cat and I think she would probably be the one who struggled the most, which is saying a lot seeing as I also fully believe Ed and Cleo would have died if it weren't for their feeding tubes.
So that was an absolute wall of text that I don't expect anyone to actually read through but if you did thank you. Honestly, it just felt good to type it out and get it off of my chest.
