This is Stumpy. He was born without a tail, hence his name. He was from a litter of kittens that were born back in February of 2008 and he and his sister came to me when I married my current wife in 2013. Stumpy wasn't very socialized when I first met him, but I've worked with him over the last 8 years he's become a great companion and cuddly lap cat.
This past Thursday he started to become very lethargic and wasn't eating or drinking. I took him to his regular vet on Friday and his bloodwork results confused them and they were unsure how to treat him. They think that he may have had a serious head trauma but he was such an athletic cat that rarely got on the furniture much less anyplace higher. I don't understand how that could happen but his blood levels could be associated with it. Specifically a high sodium level.
An xray turned up a small, irregular object that's possibly in his stomach but they're not sure. He's not the kind of cat that eats random crap off the floor so we have no idea what it could be.
It's all hard to follow. The vet consulted with a few other doctors at our practice and other practices and a sonogram was suggested along with admitting him to a 24 hour veterinarian office about an hour away from us. Exploratory surgery was also mentioned but he is too weak and frail right now for that.
Not wanting to put him through an endless amount of tests at a strange location, we opted to bring him home, give him subcutaneous fluids and see if there was any improvement. Not surprisingly, he has not improved.
I can't stand seeing him this way. At times he is completely out of it and at other times he seems almost normal. I've been spending nearly all of my time with him and he recognizes me and my wife and occasionally purrs when we pet him. In fact, he's been purring louder than I've ever heard him purr before.
We have another appointment with our vet today to follow up but it looks pretty bad for him. I could really use a miracle right about now.
If you remember, we lost our Bombay cat, Jack, back in March of 2021 to complications from renal failure and the thought of losing another cat so soon afterwards is gut wrenching.
