Things Always Come In Threes

After riding low from our trip to glasgow, Henry and I came home to a poorly kitty cat. They say that things happen for a reason, and something in the Universe was definately telling me I needed to pull the plug on this trip and go home. 

I had asked a friend to pop in on Charlie and feed him some wet food, and the first sign that Charlie wasn't well was the fact that he was cowering in a corner under some furniture in the garage. The second sign was that Charlie was not eating or drinking, as evident by the uneaten wet food Liam had given him and was still there when we got home at 7ish that night. He even refused his favorite treats when I tried to entice him to eat something. He didn't meow, he didn't purr, and he just seemed to stay in one spot and lay down for hours on end. Something was definately not right with him. 

I went through bedtime routine with Henry, then came back downstairs to tend to Charlie. He was nothing like the kitty cat I left on Sunday night when Henry and I left for our trip. I tried to feel around his body to see if he was physically hurt anywhere, and apart from some grumbled squeaking around his underside, I couldn't see him in any distress-no tender limbs, hurt paw, gashing wound, etc. 

I let him settle in his cat bed, but even then he wasn't laying down curled up in a donut shape like he normally would, instead he was more stretched out and his breathing was quite labored. I put his food and water bowl by him in case he wasn't able to jump up on the kitchen counter to eat, gave him a few drops of cat hemp oil to soothe him and then went to bed. 

Tuesday morning, Charlie wasn't any better and he didn't look like he moved at all during the night. I rang the vets and got him in that same day. I still had Henry with me, so we packed kitty cat up in his carrier and headed off to the vets.

When the vet examined Charlie, their main concern was that his breathing was quite rapid. besides his temperature being a little colder than normal and his temperment being docile, there weren't any other clues as to what could be wrong with him without doing a bit more testing --blood samples, and Xrays. So Henry and I said goodbye and left Charlie at the vets for further testing. 

I didn't realize that this would be the last time Henry saw his kitty. 

I got a call from the vets later on and the prognosis was not good. They started explaining to me what could be done, but it was risky, not a permenant solution, and could lead to further complications down the line...or there was the option of putting him to sleep so he wouldn't be in any more distress. 

I went for option B. They would euthinize him at the practice, and I would have to pick up his body later on. I hung up and cried for hours, trying to be proactive in desciding what needed to be done, while being dispondant and dissassociated. 

Thank goodness for my guardian angels, Simon and Lucie who came to my rescue that night. After we ate dinner, Simon played with Henry and did the whole bedtime routine (tidy up, bath, brush teeth, story, bed, etc) while Lucie went with me to the Vets to pick up Charlie. I asked the vets if they could send me an email or summary of some sort to go through what actions were done, what happened to Charlie at the practice so that I could look back on it later and not get the details wrong just because my head was all over the place with grief. 

I'm so grateful they did, because I would've gotten alot of the facts wrong. Just from memory alone, i knew I had made the right descision in putting Charlie down to sleep because I could feel it was a dire situation, but re-reading the email from the Vets confirmed I did right by my beloved kitty cat cause his body was failing him.

This is what the Vets had to say, 

After your consultation with Amber, we made sure Charlie had acess to oxygen, to aid his breathing as he was struggling. We gave an injection of a painkiller to help he feel more comfortable, as we find this helps relax cats who are struggling to breath. Charlie was still very distressed after this injection. We took xrays of Charlie's lungs while he was awake , and found that his lungs were very congested (by that, I mean full of fluid, with very little space for air). One area in particular on the right side was very bad and the lung was shrunken and collapsed.

Common causes of this in cats can be a severe asthma attack, or having a local infection in the lungs due to inhaling something and it festering in there. This can come on suddenly as seen in Charlie and I suspect this is what was happening.

We kept Charlie as relaxed as we could, and gave some more oxygen. We gave Charlie some more pain relief to help relax him (as it also acts as a bit of sedation) in order to help destress him as he was starting to become very agitated. We got ready to place a tube into his windpipe incase he needed it to keep breathing. We gave him some fluids to rehydrate him and an antibiotic injection, The reasoning behind this was that if it was an infection, by keeping him on the oxygen and adding in medication we could help him ride through the worst of the condition until the medication took effect, and so I got my nurses to stay with him and keep monitoring him and keeping him on oxygen.

Within a few minutes, Charlie started to breath with his mouth open, and his breaths became more and more laboured. He was unable to get enough air in , and was very very agitated. It is at this point I called you and let you know. My proffesional opinion is that Charlie's lungs were severly damaged from breathing in something (what it could be I cannot tell you) , causing a lung wide infection and the one area of lung to completely collapse, which is what led to him being so poorly. After speaking with you, we then put Charlie to sleep.

Lucie and i collected Charlie Tuesday night, left his carrier in the garage overnight so Henry wouldnt see him. Wednesday morning Simon came over again to take Henry to Nursery with me, then help me finish off digging the grave for Charlie that I had started in my manicly blind proactive state the day before. 

We said goodbye, then I worked on the third challenge life hit me with this week: Tonsillitis.

I made an appointment to see the doctor that morning as I woke up feeling like I had swallowed razor blades. Turns out all the stress from First time Flying with a Toddler, the strain of train travel back home the next day, finding out my cat was sick and laying him to rest within 24 hours had given my body permission to give up. So now I'm on Antibiotics, NSAIDS, and Benzocaine...and I still am having trouble getting any food down cause the pain is so intense from the Tonsils being engorged and inflammed. 

Worst of all is that, whenever im sick i always crave cuddles with my baby cat. Cats know when their humans arent feeling well and they will sit and use their magical healing powers of purr frequencies to make us feel better. Its a comfort and sometimes a cure, but its always been my go to response to cuddle a kitty when im ill...and for my mind to be loopy and not with it.... every time i get up from sleep, i immediately go downstairs to cuddle Charlie, only to find he's not there. He won't ever be there. He's gone. And the grieving starts all over again.