Luckie's Tail
The Fall
September came and it started getting pretty cold at camp. We had a great summer, but we were ready to go home. So, we packed up all of our stuff and all of our cats and moved back to the condo. The change in Luckie after that event was striking. We attributed it in part to her being unhappy about being taken away from her camp. She seemed sluggish and she wasn’t eating as much as she had at camp. We just had blood work done in late August, and her levels had all been good, so we were inclined to think she was depressed. We gave her some extra attention and she seemed to bounce back.
In mid-October, Luckie began showing signs of not feeling well. She wasn’t eating as much, she seemed lethargic and she was losing weight. We called the vet and brought her in. They put her on an IV and did some blood work. Her levels were not dramatically changed—at least not enough to explain this kind of crash. They were unable to get a urine sample due to how dehydrated she was. The recommendation was that she be transferred over to the Emergency Center for the night so that she could continue on the IV and they would be able to get a urine sample. We had the option to go get her in the morning and bring her back to Derry Animal Hospital or leave her at the Emergency Center. Although, I was not thrilled with having her at the ER, it was contraindicated to move her so much.
I communicated closely with the ER doctor the next day. They got the urine sample and it indicated a kidney infection. They started her on antibiotics. They did more blood work and were alarmed at how anemic she was even compared to the previous day. They wanted to keep her on IV fluids for another night and retest in the morning. They also wanted to do another ultrasound. Now, I admit, it is a really cool technology to have available. But they couldn’t tell me what they hoped to gain from it and I’m not going to give them the go-ahead to perform an incredibly expensive procedure that might not provide us with useful information. The next morning, instead of calling the ER, I called Dr. Sanfilippo. I wanted to hear her thoughts on the ultrasound idea and if she felt that it was truly needed, we would likely do it. We had been clear at this point that we had made the decision not to take any extreme measures to extend Luckie’s life. Our focus was on giving her the best quality of life we could. With her heart condition still a factor, we were risking her life by putting her under anesthesia again and she had already been through so much in only one year. It had come down to “Are we keeping her alive for her or for us?”
Dr. Sanfilippo offered to call and talk to the ER doctor about Luckie’s history and come up with a plan of attack. She called me back after talking to the other vet and reported that Luckie’s most recent blood work indicated that the previous reading may have been an anomaly. They would keep her on the IV for the rest of the day, do one more round of blood work and send her home with an oral antibiotic that night with a follow up with Dr. Sanfilippo early the next week. The next round of blood work again showed her as being very anemic. It was unclear what was going on with her red blood cell count varying so much in such a short time span. She had started eating again, so they sent her home anyway. We scheduled with Dr. Sanfilippo for the following Wednesday.