This has been an extremely stressful week for me because Meg has been so sick and I've felt completely helpless. She didn't eat or drink all weekend long and when I took her to the vet on Tuesday, I was told that she has renal failure and her feline leukemia is acting up. She had lost 2 lbs in two months and is now 6 lbs instead of the 9-10 she has been her entire life. Because of the renal failure, her kidneys aren't processing nutrients and they make her feel awful. Because of this, she has become anorexic and refuses any sort of food.
Needless to say, this all hit me pretty hard. We put her on a prescription food diet and gave her some IV fluids which helped her feel a little bit better. Unfortunately, she refused the food so all week, I have had to force feed her and she HATES it. I feel awful shoving a syringe down her throat and making her swallow the food that makes her little tummy hurt but it's the only thing we can do to keep her going. She began drinking water which was great and the last few days, she has spent more time being social (though she is still very lethargic).
The only bad thing, is that the vet said if she wasn't eating on her own by Thursday evening (yesterday), we would have to give her a feeding tube. The closer we got to Thursday evening, the more I researched cat feeding tubes and became very discouraged. Everything I saw was outrageously priced and since her renal failure is progressive, I didn't know how much time we could actually buy her with a feeding tube. Honestly, I couldn't afford upwards of $3,500 if it wasn't even guaranteed to save her! Yesterday, I felt awful. I was so scared to call the vet and hear my poor baby's fate. When we called him, I was distraught. Husband took over the call and then we waited anxiously by the phone to get the quote.
Let's backtrack to Wednesday night...
My lovely little Kanon (you've seen pics before because I call him my little boyfriend but he's really my friend Kim's boy), had decided to include Meg in his bedtime prayers (sorry everyone else who was praying, I really, really appreciate your prayers too but this story is just too sweet!). He asked his mom how I was doing and she told him that my kitty was sick and not doing well and that made me sad. He was worried about her and wanted her to get medicine so when he went to sleep and said his prayers, he made sure to mention us.
Apparently, little Kanon's prayers paid off because our vet gave us a quote that we could not turn down. It was such a relief to know that I could pay for Meg's feeding tube and even if it doesn't work (I REALLY hope it does!), at least this mama knows she has done everything she can to help her little baby!
Husband is on his way to drop Meg off at the vet and she will spend the day there getting prepped. We pick her up at 6:30 and I'm going to be one anxious mommy until I see her. This weekend, my little angel will be pampered and cuddled and hopefully this surgery will really help her feel better! I know she's old but I just can't imagine losing her! Fingers crossed she makes it through this hiccup and begins to gain weight and feel better for a long, long time!!
P.S. I immediately called Kanon to tell him thank you for his prayers and that they really helped Meg!