The Good and the Bad

Today Mops and Tugs got needed dental care.  Mops had most of his remaining teeth removed.  He has one lone premolar up top now.  Tugs did not fare much better and had multiple extractions.  Both cats also were micro chipped and had their nails trimmed and ears cleaned.

That's the good.  Here's the bad.

I got home from taking the cats over by 8:30 a.m.  I got out of my car and entered the garage and heard a cat crying out, over and over.  I went into the garage room and there was Rosy on the floor, in a prone sitting position, crying out, not moving.

My first thought was that she'd fallen from the cat run.  I'd not been out in the garage room this morning until I got back from Corvallis, at 8:30, but I had been out there late last night, as late 11:30 p.m.   Two days ago, I noticed Rosy's behavior changed.  She was in a ground level carrier Vision usually sleeps in and didn't run away, as she usually does, being a full out feral, when I cleaned the litterbox nearby.  I noted this in my mind and meant to check her out today.  Too late.

I moved her quickly into the bathroom.  She could not walk and was cold as ice to the touch and dehydrated.  Dehydrated?  A young cat like her?  It is hard to assess the health of a feral as they flash by, but guilt flushed through me.  She'd been struggling.  But with what?

Her brother died suddenly of a saddle clot a year ago.  He'd been fine one minute and the next he was laid out on the floor screaming and unable to move.  I only figured out what he'd had later on.   He lived for exactly nine minutes after that happened.  Nine minutes in which I frantically tried to get ahold of an emergency vet,  or Heartland, for euthanasia, and warm him, as I did not understand why his rear half was ice cold and his rectum white as a sheet, or what would cause him so much pain he was crying out.   Rosy behaved in much the same way this morning.  Almost exactly the same.  She was in pain, cold, but over her entire body and could not move.

I moved her into the bathroom and got a heating pad on her.  I warmed some fluids and gave her some, not much, but enough to give her some warmth.  I texted Heartland I would be over with a dire case in need of euthanasia and spent the next hours beside her, as Heartland told me to bring her at 2:00.  However, she did not die, she improved.  She perked up, even started acting feral towards me again, but is very weak.  She regained use of her rear legs.  

So she's in the bathroom, but very weak.   I don't know if she had a heart issue or fell off the cat run and ruptured a blood vessel or broke her pelvis.  I strongly suspect heart issues.  But there's no need to euthanize her without giving her a chance, so we shall see.  She's not in pain anymore and very alert.

Feline distemper crossed my mind.  She's fully vaccinated, but that doesn't mean a cat cannot get it.  She has not had any vomiting or diarrhea, however.  I watch for that when I clean litter boxes.  Distemper usually causes a high fever, but the cats' temp drops right before death.  Seems like she would have died by now.   Nonetheless, I feel a slight panic over a cat with an unknown lethal problem and think of distemper, FIP and the health of the rest of the cats.

They're all vaccinated, and yet, you just don't know.  That provides protection, but the cat can still get it.  I think about vaccines and if they had not been made right to begin with or stored at the proper temp somewhere before they were given.  I will be watching the other cats with suspicion for awhile.

Taking her to an emergency vet would cost hundreds of dollars that I do not have, nor will I ever have.  So in a case as extreme as this, my only option is euthanasia.  If she broke her pelvis, it will heal, on its own, with confinement.  If she has a heart problem, she likely will not recover.  I should have a much better idea in the morning, if she survives the night.

Rosy, from the 60 Cat Lebanon Olson Lane colony.

There are times I think back on that colony and that woman, who was selling her house and just walked off and left 60 cats and kittens, she had fed, but not fixed, on their own.  How cruel can a person be? Rosy is one of those lost souls.