Styxxie
Poor little Styx! She has been super sick for a very long time now, and if you’ve been reading here, you know she’s terminal. She has kidney failure, she’s on IVs, and she has a tumor in her face. However, she does not appear to be in any actual pain. She’s sniffly, and she’s got a very drippy nose, but she still has quite a bit of spirit and she still wants to play and be in her Mama’s lap. So, while many people ask us why we don’t just put her down:
BECAUSE there are still treatments for her and because that would be cruel and absolutely ludicrous at this stage. If she stopped eating, wasn’t enjoying life, didn’t greet us when we came home – we’d know. But you don’t live with our kitty so trust us when we say that we know what is best for our little kitty. Also: you can piss the fuck off. I’ve never been the type to put down a cat because it was sick and old. If there were no treatments or if she was in a ton of pain or not eating things would be different, but we are not in that position. Even the vet noted that Styx seemed to still be herself, just slightly less. Besides, she is family. You do everything you can for family, or you’re not responsible enough to get a pet. That’s the way I will always feel. Don’t have pets if you cannot or will not take proper care of them. And putting down an animal just because they are old would be irresponsible. Plus, we love Styx. We would never ever fucking do that.
So, aside from my grumpy above paragraph.. Why did we go to the vet? Well, we noticed some little patches on her legs that were going a bit bald, and we weren’t sure if she was developing a mild skin infection, if she was having a reaction to her Prednisone, or what. She wasn’t scratching it or licking it but we didn’t want to wait until it got so bad that it was really bothering her.
The vet was not completely sure what was the cause, but she said that it could be from the steroids. She told us she wanted to give her an antibiotic injection, and try changing Styxxie’s pill steroid to an injectable one. We decided to give it a go.
The next day, Styxxie is breathing so much better! It sounds like her injectable steroid is clearing up her nose so much better than her liquid drops! So awesome. She said we could try putting some socks over Styx’s legs (like, baby socks) to see if they help until her fur grows back, but Styx might hate them. So we’re going to pick some up on Friday to see if they help. I have a feeling they will drive Styxxie nuts, but I’m thrilled that Styx can breathe better! It makes me happy that my little kitty is getting some relief. The poor girl is so sneezy and we’re always wiping her nose.
One thing that was not good though is that styx had lost almost three pounds. She’s down to a little over eight. The vet said that until she gets her weight up to just feed her anything she will eat, so we’re skipping her kidney diet and just feeding her normal wet food for now and hoping that helps get her weight up. The vet said “It’s like my grandma says, sometimes you just gotta get them to eat anything, and it doesn’t matter what!” Ha ha. We’re working on it. Poor little baby kitty.
A story from the cute files, though? I caught her snuggling up to Stephen the other day. I tried to get a picture, but she walked away the second I got my tablet out! Ha ha. >.<