:)

180 degrees, folks. That’s the direction this whole situation seems to have turned.

This morning, again, he was still looking rough. He did jump up into bed with me at one point, so that made me feel a bit more hopeful. All of that went down the tubes, however, when I gave him his meds, he did the phlemy thing again all over the place (he just hacked and hacked), and then wouldn’t eat any of the food that I gave him. He wouldn’t drink. I tried hand feeding him and nothing worked. 

I bawled.

I had to go to work today- it was going to be an insanely busy day and I had to go. So, I went. I felt ill the entire day. I ate nothing and I still felt like I needed to vomit. Around noon I became panicked – I had a feeling that something horrible was happening at home again. I expected that I was going to come home and find him right back where he was on Tuesday – or worse – dead. I did a lot of crying at my desk today.

Around 1 my mom called. She asked about him, brought up that it might be time to consider euthanizing him (she did it in a very gentle way- she wasn’t being harsh), encouraged me to bring him to his normal veterinarian so that I could make an educated decision.

I knew that she was right and that I had to do it. Plus, at the rate that he appeared to be going – what if he didn’t make it through the weekend? So, I made an appointment for today at 5:20. I talked to my manager and she totally understood; she said that I could leave a bit early to ensure that I’d make it there in time.

At 4:45 I left work. I cried almost the whole way home – I was honestly terrified. I had worked myself up so much… it was just awful.

I didn’t walk up to my apartment door – I ran. I needed to face whatever I was going to find, and I needed to face it head on. 

I opened my apartment door. He was on his bed, upright, looking in my direction.

I hugged him, grabbed his medication, pushed him into his carrier, and quickly got him to the veterinarian.

She agreed that he didn’t look quite right. He looked dull, she said, and dehydrated. He was moving very, very slowly. She said that she was concerned and thought that we really needed to do some blood tests to double check his organ function, complete blood count, hydration levels, etc.

I sat in the waiting room for 20 minutes, preparing for the worst. The last time that we were at the veterinarian, the vet came out into the waiting room to tell me kitty’s results. It was for this reason that I concluded that one of two things would happen: if the news wasn’t bad, she’d enter the waiting room to tell me about it. If the results were bad, she’d pull me into a patient room.

She came into the waiting room.

She said he definitely has some kidney disease, but apparently that is common in cats his age. She said that cats with kidney disease can live for years with the right diet. He was a bit dehydrated again, but it wasn’t horrible. Everything else – everything – came back normal.

She explained that the phleminess was extremely common with the type of antibiotics that were prescribed. Apparently it happens to pretty much any pet when they’re put on them- the meds are extremely bitter (I think that’d have been nice to know from the vet who prescribed them. The whole time I’d been thinking it was because of the illness that he had). She felt that it would be a good idea to try taking him off of the meds for a couple of days to see how he reacted because – this is something that I hadn’t thought of – it very well could be the meds causing him to still feel nauseous!  He hadn’t vomited since Tuesday and he had had one normal bowel movement since then – it made sense to try. She gave him a shot of anti-nausea medicine, gave him some fluids, and sent him home with a couple of anti-nausea pills. She also sent him home with some special kidney problem cat food. She concluded that I should take him home. She felt that he was probably going to pull through alright – however, she warned, if he didn’t start eating at all over the weekend, I might want to consider bringing him in somewhere to either have more tests done or consider having him put down. "Of course, there could be something that we’re missing here entirely- there could be a blockage or some other internal issue that we could get to the bottom of with x-rays or something. That’s your decision to make. I really do feel, though, that taking him off of the antibiotics is going to solve the whole problem right now."

Did I mention that I didn’t give him his antibiotic today after work? I was in too much of a hurry.

When I got him home from the vet, I opened up a can of the kidney problem cat food and poured it into a dish.

HE ATE. Straight up, he ate. No weird licky thing, no weird phlemy thing… he ate.

Only time will tell at this point, but I feel about a billion times better. I am so relieved right now, and so thankful. So, so thankful.