Hi everyone,
Struggling and need a hand hold. My beautiful cat, who is my world, is very poorly.
She started having occasional coughing spells around 8 weeks ago, and my DW & I thought she was trying to bring up a hairball, which she does occasionally.
She went for her annual vet check a month ago & they said she seemed healthy. However, the last few weeks, she began to go off her food (she has always been food-obsessed) and a little quiet. She lost a bit of weight too, so we took her to the vets last Tuesday. They did blood work & an abdomen ultrasound & everything came back clear. Said we could go to a specialist referral centre around an hour's drive away
for further investigation.
Over the last week, she has become more withdrawn & pretty much stopped eating. We took her back to the vets this Tuesday as I thought they should have done X-rays. They did, and they found that her lungs look cloudy. They don't know if it's cancer or could be asthma. They gave her a steroid shot & antibiotics. We brought her home & she is just hiding away in the garden underneath bushes, and looks so spaced out it's heartbreaking.
I cannot stop crying & am devastated. She absolutely hates the vets & travelling, it is always a trauma, so if it is cancer, treatment/chemo is just not an option. We are taking her back tonight for another steroid shot, so we will speak to the vet then. She's still not eating or drinking.
Am so so torn about the possibility of her being PTS. My main feeling is that I just don't want to let her down. I don't want to PTS now and wonder if it was something that could have healed/passed if we had given her more time on the meds. But I don't want to prolong her suffering by waiting & then having to PTS if she doesn't improve.
It is the hardest thing ever. She is our baby (we don't have DC).
Sorry for the long post. I'm not sure what I need. I just feel totally unprepared, it has all happened so quickly & I just can't imagine life without her.