Some of you may remember awhile back I posted about Dusty and her arthritis. We tried Metacam injections, then went on to Tramadol pills. Well I don't know if it's the pills, or just Dusty's age, but last week I thought she seemed 'boated' and took her to work with me. The boss checked her out and did x-rays.
Dusty basically has congestive heart failure and is retaining fluids in her abdomen so much so that it's pushing her spleen away from where it should be. We've been giving her Lasix injections to help get the pressure of the fluid out, but since the medicine that helps keep the fluid from acculmulating only comes in a pill we aren't able to do that also.
For those that don't know, Dusty is a killer to give pills to, causes ALOT of stress and takes forever to pill her, and then if she thinks about it she can make herself vomit just to get the pill out. It's been a battle just to get the Tramadol down her, and now she gets so upset that if you try to give her treats, or a bit of human food she instantly drools thinking everything is a pill now. With the heart problem now we don't want to stress her out any more than absolutely necessary, so she's only getting the Tramadol when she gets really bad with her walking.
Anyways the boss doesn't think she'll be around much longer. Dusty will be 17 in July if she makes it that far. So since it was a long weekend we took her down to my mom's trailer in the campground. Dusty loves to go there, and I asked the boss if the drive (1 hr one way) would be too much for her, he said if she doesn't get bent out of shape on the drive, he didn't think it would hurt her. We took her down on Sat and came back tonight. Dusty did great on the drive there and back, only got slightly upset when we first left until she realized we were going to the trailer not to the vet again lol. She slept alot and we had to leave lights on at night for her but it went fairly well. We have to leave lights on because her vision isn't so good and she gets confused easily about where she is and cries if we don't. Overall I think dusty had a good time. She watched birds, chipmunks and even took a very short walk around the lot (she used to take long walks around the park, but she just can't manage those anymore.) She didn't really want to come back home.
I've been keeping her in the CPU room when I'm not home so the other cats can't pounce on her and cause her more stress. She usually naps in there anyways, it's just now I keep the door shut so the others can't go in. I moved her kitty condo in there and put it next to the window so she can get some fresh air and watch traffic go by and squirrels climb the trees out front.
I know her time is limited, that she's a ripe old age for a cat, but it still doesn't make me feel better knowing she's probably not going to be with me much longer. I somehow feel like the Tramadol made things worse, but then again she could barely walk if we didn't do the Tramadol, and she has had a very mild heart murmer for years. Maybe I'm just thinking of things we could have done different, but I still keep coming up with that we did the best we could for her given the circumstances, I just feel guilty and helpless.
Any and all prayers for Dusty are appreciated!
Some pix of Dusty
July 25, 1995 the day Dusty came into my yard and my life.
3 days later when Dusty became my housecat.
My mom walking Dusty 1996 (Dusty is my best leash walking cat in the bunch)
Dusty 1998 watching birds in the window feeder through the one way foil thing.
Dusty last week
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It sure is hard to watch our furkids age and have health problems.
Originally Posted by Freedom
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