Bailey update - December 14
Some people have asked how Bailey is doing. I stopped posting about her because it made me uncomfortable and self-conscious to ask for contributions and I didn’t want to feel like I was nagging people when it was obvious everyone who was going to donate had done so. But those who did contribute might like to know how things are going, so...
We had hoped she’d start eating again after her sore teeth were removed, but that hasn’t been the case. She’s still not eating or grooming herself. Her energy is a little low, though not, like, deathly low, and she’s clearly INTERESTED in food, but she’s just not eating. She’ll lick it a couple times, maybe, and if I give her the stew rather than the pate, she might lick up the gravy but leave the chunks. When I’m in the kitchen preparing her food, she’s interested, but...that interest isn’t translating to actually eating the damn food. She won’t touch her dry food, and if I open a can of moist food, at least 95% of it goes to waste.
At first we thought it might be the antibiotics she was on until last Friday causing problems, but it’s been a week now since her last dose, and she still hasn’t resumed eating. The places where her teeth were extracted have healed up just fine. It could be she just doesn’t like the feeling of trying to eat with them being gone, but so much so that she lets herself starve?
In the last few days, we’ve taken to watering down the pate so we can force-feed her using a syringe. It’s not a long-term solution, and highly unpleasant for everyone involved (me, mixing the food and feeding it to her; my husband, holding her head still and getting her mouth open so we don’t end up with cat-food sludge everywhere; and of course Bailey herself) but at least we’re getting some calories and hydration into her, because she’s not drinking much water either.
So I took her back to the vet today (very glad we purchased that Pet Health Club membership, which has already paid for itself and then some, just by making her last exam and today’s appointment free, not to mention the discount on the dental services.)
She is down to 9.7 pounds from 10 a couple weeks ago when they weighed her prior to her dental work a few weeks ago, and down from 12 lbs in 2017. Not good, but not deathly. Still, I don’t like how well I can feel her spine when I pet her. She’s a little dehydrated, and the vet thought her gums looked a little pale. She wants me to examine Bailey’s stool so see if it’s black (which would indicate bleeding in her GI tract) but yeah, the cat would have to be eating enough to poop for me to be able to do that.
So, Bailey is not a vicious cat when you take her to the vet; she doesn’t hiss or yowl or struggle at all. She’s not passive, per se, because she’s quite tense and not at all chill, but she just goes very still and quiet. She tries to hide in her carrier so we have to take the top off it because she won’t come out of it willingly.
I took advantage of this to groom her while we were there, while I had her on the table and was talking to the vet. I pulled out a huge handful of mats that were stuck in her fur. Her fur is so matted (and the mats tend to sort of shear off everything around it) that if you look underneath the fluff, she has some fairly large bald patches where I managed to work the mats free. The vet said her skin doesn’t appear irritated, so it’s likely just the mats. If we can get rid of those and get her grooming herself again, this will be fine. Unfortunately, if she’s feeling too punk to eat, she’s obviously not going to feel like cleaning herself.
At this point, with Bailey’s history (since we got her) of only being able to tolerate certain foods that are formulated to be easy on the digestive system, the vet is suspecting some sort of irritable bowel disorder. Ideally she would like to do an ultrasound to see what is happening, but we simply can’t afford to go any deeper into debt on this.
They gave her some subcutaneous fluids to help with the dehydration. But at this point, we can’t do any more tests or procedures, so only option is to guess and hope for the best. We’ve got anti-nausea medication, an appetite stimulant that may make things worse depending on if the problem really is irritable bowel disease, and the drug sold as Pepcid at the pharmacy--which I actually did pick up at the pharmacy because it’s the exact same thing I could get at the vets, for 1/3 the price.
Also, the super-special sensitive stomach food, which is $3 a can, as opposed to the $2.25 a can for the merely sorta-special sensitive stomach food.
Today’s bill was $200, which (along with the $100 last week on a more comprehensive kidney function test they did when they found protein in her urine during the dental cleaning) brings the total we’ve spent up to $1300. I raised $450 a few weeks, so we’re $850 in debt on this now.
If the new food and the meds don’t work, then this is it for Bailey. We can go no further. Force-feeding is not a tenable, long-term solution. It just isn’t. So if we can’t convince her to eat, she is going to have to be put down, because it would be cruel to let her slowly starve to death.
I know some people aren’t sure about using Ko-Fi, but I don’t really have anything else to offer for people who want to contribute. If anyone has any suggestions, I’m all ears. Because we spent over $200, we have 6 months of no interest to pay off the CareCredit plan we got for this.
So. I’m just gonna offer my Ko-Fi link again, but I’m not going to keep posting about this. I hate having to post about it at all. If you do contribute or have contributed, know that I’m incredibly grateful. Thank you.
