Tinkerbell has lost her struggle. RIP Tinkerbell.
Last edited Fri Jan 5, 2024, 12:15 AM - Edit history (1)
She has been on felimazole for months to treat her hyperthyroidism, but kept losing weight until she was just skin and bones. Then she quit eating her pill pockets, and I kept finding loose pills where she had eaten around them. Then her prescription ran out while a new order took 10 days to arrive. The vet saw her on the 27th and , surprisingly, said her thyroid hormones were at perfectly normal levels. Her kidneys were starting to show signs of trouble, but she was a long way from where her sister Zoey's were a few days before she died. He said she might have a few months, but it couldn't be predicted accurately (of course I understood that already). But she had really stopped eating very suddenly just a few days before -- over the holidays, when the vet's office was closed. The vet gave me a prescription drug to stimulate her appetite and it seemed to be working -- she wasn't eating a whole lot, but she would eat small amounts every few hours, and I had hoped that might be enough for her to recover. But now she is too weak to climb, even into our laps, and can't drink out of the sink, which she has always done. She just will not drink out of a dish. The last time I lifted her into my lap she jumped back down and fell over on her side after landing and just laid there for several minutes. We have moved her bed and her food to the bathroom floor (she used to spend most of her time on the bathroom counter, don't ask why -- she's a cat), but she has yet to show the slightest interest in eating or drinking, even when I've tried to provide her with water by hand. I'm afraid she will die from dehydration if we can't get her on an IV before the 2nd. Possibly tonight, possibly tomorrow night; if she survives I can get her to the vet early and hope for a minor miracle but we know that she is in her end stage -- it is only a question of how soon. We just didn't expect it to happen so fast, with her thyroid apparently being stabilized, and her kidneys only beginning to show problems.
She has been our sweet furbaby for more than 17 years -- don't know the exact date Mother got her, and she was several months old at least then -- but no matter how long we have had her, it is hard to accept losing her. Her life was mostly trouble-free until I moved back in with my own two cats, but she has clearly been the boss of them, so she hasn't been denied much. She lived almost her entire life indoors, in this house, and now she will end her life here. Even with two other cats in the house, we will feel her loss deeply.
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17 years is a long time. There will be big hole in your family when you lose her. 
She had a good long life with you, and that's something to comfort you.
Our pets are our babies too,,,,
I hope she crosses gently.
Holidays are an especially hard time to have a sick pet. I had a worrisome situation on Christmas Eve when my 15-year-old cat was yowling and seemed to be in pain. I would've taken her to a vet if one had been open. I comforted her as best I could. After a few hours she seemed to be fine and there hasn't been a repeat of the episode.
It's always too soon. I'm not sure what comfort it might bring, but you and Tinker Bell are in my thoughts tonight.
And hugs for you as this is a terrible time for you. Fervently hoping you both make it through this.
You can also mix some warm water with the nutritional supplement others mentioned, or even some tuna juice. Just a tiny bit at a time, so it doesn't shoot into her lungs. She needs hydration and calories.
It is incredibly hard to lose our fur kids. Please keep us posted.
The best news is, she is doing a little drinking out of a bowl, at last, but she is mostly splashing her paws in the water, and not licking her paws afterwards, as far as I can tell. 
It's rough when your kitty is crashing, been there and it’s terrifying. If you have an oral medication syringe, could try mixing some wet cat food with water and squirting it in her mouth periodically (avoid mixing in tasty human food that contains salt). Any calories and water could help get through the night. Also, 5 mg of omeprazole (1/4 coated tablet dissolved in a tad of water and given by oral syringe) to reduce the acid stomach that tanks their appetite. We had to do that for a couple weeks. I dumped all knowledge about pulling my 15 year old kitteh back from the brink of stage 4 kidney disease here:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1161&pid =82563
Hope this helps, but really, it’s the loving the good years and opening our homes that matter.
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You may have tried this already but if you can get some Churros (a liquidy treat in a squeezable tube) and see if it will get her started eating it could help. At the kitten rescue I volunteer with, we have a cat that came in last weekend and he hadn't eaten a thing. He didn't seem ill other than a snotty nose. After trying many kinds of food, including baby food, we took a tube of churro and squeezed some into his mouth a little at a time. At first he resisted but as he kept swallowing it he started licking it from the tube. Then we offered human baby food meat and he went for that finally and now he's eating a more normal cat food.
It does sound like your kitty is shutting down, but hopefully you'll find something to help her hang on for a little longer.
