Bad cat news...
Nov. 4th, 2022 06:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhialtoOur cat Lotta is in a bad way. We got her from the animal shelter in 2016, and her age was unknown but estimated 6-8 years or so. So she isn't the youngest any more.
Since about a week she suddenly lost her appetite. It had happened before that she just needed to vomit something out and before that would not eat so much for a day. So that's what we thought at first. But now she eats hardly anything at all, and on top of that we are tying to offer her things that she won't vomit out again a few hours later.
But she still seems mostly in good spirits, demanding cuddles and all; but she gets thinner and less energetic every day. She is also hiding a lot in the dark corner behind the open door.
Of course people always ask "why don't you bring her to the vet?" And of course it isn't that simple. It was very traumatic for her when we did that back when we first got her. For her companion Niko it was even extremely traumatic. She's still hiding when the doorbell rings and still sometimes even if we sneeze. And a vet can't force a cat to eat, nor do much in case it is kidney failure (like Niko had), or possibly pain in her joints. Cats hide illnesses until it is too late.
So now we're oscillating between hoping that she gets better tomorrow (but the same thing might happen again in a few months) and hoping that she falls asleep peacefully and just doesn't wake up. If not, this could drag on another week, and I'm not sure I can handle another week of this.
Here is a picture from mid-September, where she was being very brave and climbing up the stairs we built for her to get onto the desks. Something she had never dared. Around that time she even once jumped on my lap to get to the liver sausage from my bread, also two extremely daring firsts. We were so proud of her.
Since about a week she suddenly lost her appetite. It had happened before that she just needed to vomit something out and before that would not eat so much for a day. So that's what we thought at first. But now she eats hardly anything at all, and on top of that we are tying to offer her things that she won't vomit out again a few hours later.
But she still seems mostly in good spirits, demanding cuddles and all; but she gets thinner and less energetic every day. She is also hiding a lot in the dark corner behind the open door.
Of course people always ask "why don't you bring her to the vet?" And of course it isn't that simple. It was very traumatic for her when we did that back when we first got her. For her companion Niko it was even extremely traumatic. She's still hiding when the doorbell rings and still sometimes even if we sneeze. And a vet can't force a cat to eat, nor do much in case it is kidney failure (like Niko had), or possibly pain in her joints. Cats hide illnesses until it is too late.
So now we're oscillating between hoping that she gets better tomorrow (but the same thing might happen again in a few months) and hoping that she falls asleep peacefully and just doesn't wake up. If not, this could drag on another week, and I'm not sure I can handle another week of this.
Here is a picture from mid-September, where she was being very brave and climbing up the stairs we built for her to get onto the desks. Something she had never dared. Around that time she even once jumped on my lap to get to the liver sausage from my bread, also two extremely daring firsts. We were so proud of her.
