Smokey

My poor little kitty isn't doing so well... he is curled up on my lap as I write this, but I'm not sure how much longer he will be with us.



Last fall we noticed that he was losing a bit of weight, actually we didn't notice it at all but I took him to the vet for an allergy shot and she said that he'd lost weight in the last month or two. Since he is an older kitty, she wanted to do some bloodwork before giving him the allergy shot. Bloodwork came back fine, we gave him the shot, but over the next few months I started to notice him losing weight. Back to the vet, and she felt that his intestines were 'ropey' when she did her physical exam. So in January he went to a specialist and had an ultrasound. Results: visibly enlarged lymph nodes, but nothing else noticeable. The specialist said it could be intestinal cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease. The only way to tell for sure if it was cancer is with a $2,000 procedure, which we can't afford, and the specialist didn't want to do that anyway, given his age and the fact that he has a heart murmur (the anesthesia might cause complications). So we put him on steroids and a special diet to see if he might get better. Instead, he has continued to lose weight, even while the steroids make him ravenously hungry (he is eating all the time). This past Friday, I noticed that he isn't able to jump up on things - the side of the tub (his perch while I take baths), or the bed. Today he seems to sway or lose balance when he walks, or he looks like he is walking with his back legs crouched really low to the ground. Took him to the vet this afternoon and he is only 4.05 pounds. He's never been a big cat but now he is practically skeletal. The vet is going to conference with the specialist tomorrow morning, but we fear the worst... I love this cat, he is the most awesome, cuddly, talkative, sweet cat ever. He's been with me for 10 years, through everything. He might not even make it until we move into our new house, and I know he would have liked having a yard to play in again. I'm so sad. Even though I've realized for a while that he is getting older and that one day he would no longer be here, now that the time seems near, I'm still not ready. Please everyone keep your fingers crossed for my kitty, that the vet will have a last-minute insight for something we can do to get him healthy and keep him around with us.