No - you are not horrible at all. You are thinking of Lucy and how to do what is best and what is right for her. Use your intuition, Michelle - you know her better than anyone.
This is such a terrible disease. I've only started reading about it since your ordeal. My heart and my prayers are still with you. elizabeth On 2/4/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Yesterday at one point Lucy howled and started open mouth breathing and stumbled to the garage door where there is cold air. I assumed (and still think) it was her anemia getting so bad she was not getting enough oxygen. I almost reached for valium to knock her out for euthanasia, but instead gave her a combo dex/depo shot just to see if it would help. She settled down and lay on a pillow by the garage door for hours, and we lay with her petting her, and she purred a lot and eventually ate a little bit. Last night she climbed to th top of the cat tree again at some point, and back down, and is on the couch now. She tried to eat a little baby food, but I don't think she can taste or smell due to congestion that came back with the steroids, so she only ate a little. So I syringed her, thinking once a day is not that much torture. I only pilled her once yesterday. I am just trying to keep her comfortable, and when she is not I won't let her suffer. As I am writing, she got up and went into the kitchen to drink some water. I don't want to give her immuno-regulin, Kerry, because I do think this is FIP and I-R works by jump-starting an immune response, and with FIP it is the immune response that kills them. Plus I would need to take her to the vet for IV shots, as the sub-q shots did not seem to help her at all when I thought this was just a URI weeks ago and gave them to her. There was reason for you not to think Bandy had FIP. He might have had dry FIP, you know. It is not unheard of for a cat to be kept going for a year with dry FIP. But Lucy is like a huge sack of jelly at this point. She can't even absorb sub-q fluids-- they go to her belly or stay in her shoulders. It is like her whole body has turned to jelly. She does not walk well. I have no idea how she got herself to the top of the cat tree last night. A part of me thinks that I should just get her euthanized tomorrow (today is Sunday and I am not driving her to an ER). I hardly ever euthanize, and when I do it is when they are actually dying or in distress. And she purrs when we pet her, and she takes a few licks of food at a time, and she got to the top of a cat tree last night. So I don't want to. she looks awful, though, and I would guess her HCT is incredibly low. Am I being horrible? Michelle In a message dated 2/3/2007 11:15:05 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Hi Michelle, I haven't had a chance to catch up on all of this, but I read that someone said stay on dex...I would have to agree with this..I don't think the fevers are from the dex..That would be almost impossible..I think.. Is she drinking on her own at all? I would stay with the clindamycin, dex, feline interferon and epogen.. Have you recently given her immuno-regulin? Bandy received all those things except the feline interferon at the same time and always with good results...They always mentioned he had FIP, but I would just disagree with them..guess cause his tests didn't really reflect it at the specialist..Commits were always made about it at his local vet.. When Bandy wouldn't eat...I would do as I am sure you are..try everything..Kitten food would work sometimes when all else failed..he was on hills kitten food most of the time anyway.. But I would buy can kitten food..and even offer him other not so good smelly things...Just getting him to eat anything would sometimes make him turn the corner to go back on his regular diet.. The egg yolk, white karo and evap milk..sometimes would work, too..I don't know how Lucy's IBD would handle that though..Have you tried cat-sure? Prayers are coming your way, Kerry, Angel Bandy and Inky
