Scully

I debated about whether or not I should bother doing this here, and then I obviously decided I would. Seems something the average person might find silly, I'm not sure and I really don't care. My cat, Scully, has fallen rather ill. And by "rather" I mean "seriously".

I guess to explain why I would bother documenting this event, or whatever you want to call it. I'm not a people person, not exactly a huge surprise there. There are very few people who I can stand for prolonged periods, because there's an aspect of their company I enjoy. So in the case of Scully, it goes beyond just being a pet, there's something about the presence of her company I enjoy - and we'll leave it that.

Onto the point, about a week ago is when I first noticed she might be sick. She was losing weight, but I was working 16 hours a day to meet a deadline so I didn't notice whether or not she was eating properly, mainly because there was no change in her otherwise.

Then I noticed one morning I hadn't seen her grooming herself in some time. That's a bad sign when it comes to cats. Luckily I was able to get her a vet appointment the following day. The visit eventually reveal her to have a condition called Fatty Liver. It has something to do with the way cats process fat and there was a buildup of it in her liver and it will eventually lead to liver failure if not treated or caught in time.

She spent the weekend at the vets where they began treating her. Monday afternoon the bloodtest came back showing some minor improvement. That was a massive relief, I was expecting the exact opposite and worse. I was told that she would be better off at home since she seemed rather stressed to be there.

She's been home now since Tuesday morning and whether or not there's been any improvement is hard to tell. On her visit today I was told I might not see any improvement for a week or 2 - that's good I guess. But because Fatty Liver is usually a secondary condition caused by something else, that's not good.

See, if it was a simple infection that might've put her off eating, then it should clear up and she should respond pretty quick to the treatment. Since she is not responding quickly, it's possible she has a very serious condition that they've yet to be able to see.

She's 13 and a few months, yeah that's old but it's not ancient. Indoor cats can live a lot longer then 13.

As far as signs of physical improvement, I'm not sure if there's any real one's or I'm just wanting to see them. She seems to wander about a lot more now and was pretty insistent on trying to get into bed last night. I take those as good signs, but they might be just moments that mean nothing.

While I'm trying to be hopeful she'll get better, I'm not very confident she will. I'm reasonably sure that eventually I'll make to make a choice to continue trying to treat her or not. Not something I'm looking forward to.

For right now, she's a little wobbly and unstable when she walks. She seems to slowly get more steady, very slowly and very little more with each day.

I have to force feed her through a tube that's been surgically implanted in her neck. And it's a lot of food over the course of the day, way more then she'd normally eat at that. She's keeping most of it down, she does still get sick and throw up, but I think she's keeping enough down to get something out of it.

She's quiet, sometimes wandering to find another place to lay down and has a series of places about the apartment she wanders to and from. She's taking it pretty easy for the moment.

We'll see what the weekend brings and how her next visit on Tuesday morning goes, they'll be doing more blood work and while she seems at best stable for the moment, hopefully there will be improvement by then.