Micia RIP

She was such a good girl. She even managed to get upstairs this morning, though I don't know how--she was back downstairs by the time I was abluted & dressed. I gave her a little food mixed with pain medicine, but that just made her miserable--she didn't want to throw up--and could not, in fact, stand up to do it--she tried to sit, but just collapsed. She mewed a little when I put her in the carrier, and when we went into the vet's office, but did not protest when I took her out, or when the vet gave her the first shot. Then I just held her until the sedation took effect, and it took only a minute or two after the second shot.

I wish there had been something we could do, but it seemed all the alternatives would have been traumatic for her and for us. As Jim said, "For a few months we expanded her world by three." And she did seem  happy with that--and certainly we were with her. When we got home, there was no one to greet us.

Yesterday, Micia spent the whole day under the chair in the downstairs bedroom. At noon I was looking for her, and she'd jammed her little self so far back between the wall, the fountain & the chair that she was very hard to see, being the same color as the rug, and all. Jim found her, as I was scouring the house. Her left eye is mattering a lot, but she's no longer sneezing, and she does appear when she wants to eat, though she didn't take much milk. We'll see if she'll take some tuna juice today.

This morning, I woke up coughing, so went down to get some OJ & Tylenol, then went back up to bed. I got up & took my shower, and when I came back to the bedroom, she had come upstairs & was ensconced next to the bed on an old wrap. She doesn't seem to want to get onto the bed. I brought her breakfast up to her, and actually got a purr for snuggling & scratching her ears & neck.

Amazing

Micia is almost back to normal. When we got home from the LCW meeting, she was in Jim's dining room chair, just like always. She's able to get up on our bed and down, and she's asking for food when she's hungry, and will drink water & milk, but the solid food still needs the syringe.I still haven't measured her, but she's quite content for me to pick her up like a baby to feed her, and her tummy isn't nearly as big. I cannot believe it. Oh, and she actually made a little poop in the litter box last night! And she doesn't make that gurgling sound when I pick her up.

Well, she's not dead yet. Last night when we got home from Evening Prayer she was gone from the spot she'd spent the day: she'd gone down into the basement for whatever reason, and I found her on the futon, shaking her paws as if they were wet, though they weren't--no vomiting, no diarrhea--they were just cold. She had used the downstairs litter box. She had also drunk quite a bit of water through the day, though she hadn't taken any of the slurry I'd put down for her.

This morning, I was still in bed & she came up the stairs to get me. She took all three syringes without a problem, and her tummy appears to be shrinking, though I haven't measured her waist. I've brought her upstairs, and she's on our bed now (fingers crossed: I don't want her to hurt herself if she needs to get down, but I put her on the floor in the sunny spot & she just looked up at the bed, so I put her back up). I do think the pain meds make her a little loopy, so I've decreased the amount by half, although last night she wouldn't even take that much. She starts licking her chops whenever I pet her, so I guess that means she approves the regimen, and if whatever that is/was in her tummy is shrinking, I'm going to try to get more calories in her. The ampicillin & pain med are q.12h, so I can give her slurry every hour if she'll tolerate it. Now that she's hydrating herself, we might make some progress.

Micia is sick. She has stopped eating, unless I squirt food into her mouth with a syringe. The vet we took her to last Saturday (our vet is out of town until Wednesday) says the x-ray shows a "solid mass" compressing her internal organs up towards her spine. The doctor took her off the Prednisone & gave me liquid medicine (praise be) for pain, an antibiotic and a higher calorie food that I am mixing out with milk.

So yesterday she hardly moved from her chair at all. This morning she hopped down & presented herself in the kitchen as though she wanted breakfast. However, she sniffed it & decided not, but opted for water, which she hadn't been doing. Now she's moved down the hall to the chair in Jim's office. So, after discussion with Christine, we will keep on keeping on, though it may mean I won't be traveling to Minneapolis for a while: we'll just take one day at a time.