I've been concerned about Lewis lately. The past couple of months, his appetite has decreased significantly. He stopped finishing his breakfast and dinner. He cries desperately for his food, but doesn't seem to be interested. I tried switching foods, but that didn't seem to help. I tried supplementing wet (canned) food to his dinnertime meal to help encourage him to eat more, but he doesn't even finish that! (I gave him only 1/8 of a can!)
I noticed that he's getting thin, which is unusual. For being such a fat cat, he is all skin and bones now. It's hard to see exactly how much weight he's lost because he still has a lot of loose skin, but I can easily feel his ribs and that seemed to be a little too thin. Combined with his unusual habit of not eating, I decided to take him to the vet.
We're going out of town at the end of this week, so I wanted to get him in before we left. I was glad they had a last-minute cancellation and so I was able to get an appointment for Lewis today.
He's lost 4 lbs since we last had him at the vet, last September. The vet agreed that he did seem thin. She took a blood sample and a urine sample. Then Lewis and I waited while she ran an in-house profile on them.
The results showed abnormalities with the calcium, glucose, and creatinine. I don't understand exactly what all that means... but the vet basically said that it could be the beginnings of a kidney disease, and/or the beginnings of cancer. :-( She took another blood sample to send to an external lab for more analysis, and she's going to get back to me tomorrow or the next day. We'll figure out what to do from there.
I've been kinda in a stupor all day. Poor Lewis... He's very mad at me for being at the vet for 2 hours today. Now's he been a little on the lethargic side, sleeping most of the afternoon. I have alternated between wanting to cry and not wanting to think about it. And then of course I go to an extreme of thinking of all the worst possible scenarios, having only Ebony left, lighting a candle in Lewis' memory... No, I won't let myself go there.
One thing I know is, we definitely need to increase the cat category in our budget! I know both things can be so expensive. :-( I just want my baby to feel better.
5 comments:
Ashley-
I'm so sorry! This has to be so scary. And such a stressful time- with adding a person to your family, potentially moving- having a sick pet is yet another stressor. Hopefully Lewis will pull through this and be as good as new!
As an aside, how to you get a urine sample from a cat? "Pee in the cup, please, Lewis"
Haha it's much easier for boys. ;-)
No, just kidding. The vet said his bladder was full, and she stuck a needle in his side and the next thing I knew it was filled with yellow liquid!
Oh wow! I had no idea they could do that. Eww.
I'm so sorry. You know that I know exactly how worrisome all of this is. It's so hard to see your furbaby sick and not be able to make it all better. My hope, of course, is that whatever is wrong with Lewis is cureable. But if he's given the possibilities of kidney disease or cancer, I'd happily take kidney disease, as it's somewhat manageable.
As for being mad about being at the vet's, he'll get over it. Calvin, who used to love getting into his carrier, now tries to bolt when I get it out. But even he seems to realize that he feels better after vet visits, although he still despises them. (He had another one this morning.) I hope that this will be the case for Lewis, too.
My prayers are with you both.
So sorry to hear this! I hope he is feeling better.
Post a Comment