hey all

sorry for making so many threads about mikki, but this looks like the end, and im looking for ANY informaition:

we took him to the vet today, she was going to xray him, but as he layed on the table she saw how bloated his tummy was. put a syringe in there and came out with yellow-y fluid.

he has a LOT of fluid in there, compressing his organs, causeing him to not eat, or poo, and get extremely dehydrated.

i forget the name of the fluid as she called it, but he is dying and we will put him to sleep tommorow. still, we are looking for answers and help as to if this fluid is treatable? and what could be the cause of it? cancer/tumor??

he is a 14 y/o male exotic.

if there is a way to get him more comfortable and pain-free for a time, that is what we are looking for. but otherwise, we dont want to prolong his suffering and will go thru with the euthanasia tommorow.

So sorry to hear your news
I hope everything goes as well as it can.
Sorry I can't help with information- the fluid was probably called ascites. Its a general term for free fluid in the abdomen.
Thinking of you and yours.

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yes! that was the name, thank you.

i appreciate your kind words and thoughts!

Hi Kello

It does sound as though your boy is very, very poorly. It could be caused by many things. One of them is FIP but that is not common in a cat of your boys age.

The vet may be able to give you a better idea of the cause.

I will keep you both in my thoughts tomorrow,

Margaretx

So sorry to here what you are going through.
You could put the name of the fluid into google and see if any info comes up about it.
At the end of the day it comes down to the quality of life for Mikki.
Being a pet owner it's one of those decisions that we all dread.
My thoughts will be with you.

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That's so sad. If the vet has recommended euthanasia I would think it is the kindest thing to do, I don't think they suggest it lightly in my own experience at any rate. It is very hard though, and my best wishes go to you this evening.

magisragis--yes we stumbled across FIP in our research too, and it did sound very similar, but vet has concluded that he doesnt have it.

jill-- yep i spent a lot of time googling this afternoon and did find some enlightening things, thanks for the suggestion.

lulu-- thanks for the warm thoughts


we just returned home from a 2nd vet, mikki is still there as we decided to go thru with a belly tap.
they will insert a small needle and drain some of the fluid thats crowding his abdomen. it WILL come back of course, and it could take just days, but we are just trying to make him comfortable and happy for a while.

we are having a very hard time with the decision. none of us feel that it is our place to choose when anothers time to die is, yet it IS our responsibility to make sure he is a happy kitty. i know we all go thru this battle as pet owners, it is such a difficult one.

this is the frst time we as a family have been thru this, one of our past kitties died peacefully of natural causes and the other died suddenly in the night, later learned it was kidney failure.

so this decision to end mikki's life is a new one to us.

we feel the responsibility to make sure that he is truly at the end of happy days before we take them from him, and if he has any left, we feel obligated to let him have them. thus the reason we chose to do the belly tap, and not to try to diagnose the underlying problem. we are not going to put him thru treatments and surgery for cancer or w/e he has, he will suffer too much.

we will see if hes got some good days left in him, or if he chooses to go of his own accord, i will be happy knowing that he was ready.

ok so mikki did well thru the belly tap this afternoon, they removed 750 mL of fluid from his abdomen, holy crap!!! there is still mpre in there, but it is an art knowing how much to take and how much to leave. taking all of it can kill the animal, but the vet was very kind and skilled and did a wonderful job with him.

he seems SOO much more comfortable tonight. he has slept (yay!!) a few times, he has an easier time laying down, he even can rest his poor little head on the ground.
HA in fact as i type this he just move from a sitting postition to a long comfy stretched out kitty
he is responding to us talking to him, he will look and make eye contact, where before he would even pick up his little head.
he is walking around, not much but is mopre than before, and has even made it downstairs to his fave spot by the windows!

so, all that said, he is a very sick kitty, as you all know. he has an odd gait that we are noticing, its almost as if he walks with his back feet turned in, you know? i suppose it could be from complete lack of movement, nutrition and water, and his muscles are understandably atrophied.
still, thats someting were a bit worried about, as he was not walking like that this morning. but then, he had an extra liter of water in his belly then!

also, something completely startling has happened and im hoping someone may have some info.

we were giving him some food as we have been the few days, with a small dropper and just do a few squirts of liquid food into his mouth. we gave him his anti-b (liquid) and laxatone. he began to walk away from us, but as we petted him to comfort him, he suddenly lay on his side, head on the ground, mouth open, breathing very fast, and then his legs went stiff for a moment, then he collapsed essnetially. hinestly, i thought he had died, but he is still here and was EXTREMELY exhauseted for hours after this. after some sleep and love, he seems almost back to how he was before he had this episode.

so what was it?!? we wonder if maybe he panicked because of being held to get meds?? could he have had a stroke or heart attack??

after this attack he seemed to pass out for only a moment, and then after revival hardly had any control of his body, he couldnt stand or coordinate his feet or anything.

it was so strange. and scary


but now hes laying on the floor with his head between his paws and eyes half closed. you wouldnt even know what happened.
??

I would ring the vet straight away. I don't want to worry you because I don't have any knowledge whatsoever, I have only been googling because my own cat is terribly ill and I have been trying to find out more, but back leg problems can be a sign of a blood clot. I am probably completely mistaken here of course but it's best to ring the vet.

I would phone vet asap back legs going & panting is not a good sign at all so very sorry for you & Mikki x