I freely admit I have been a wreck the past couple of days.  That is why I didn’t do the usual Follow Friday Fill In hop from Hilary and have just basically stayed away from my blog for a few days.  You see, one of my fur babies, Buddy, is sick.  I took him to the vet because his breathing was really fast in comparison to Holly’s.  I kept watching them sleeping side by side and it was obvious.  He was still eating and drinking and acting normal other than the breathing thing.  He was racing around chasing her.  But the breathing bothered me.

So after leaving him with the vet for xrays and further exams we discovered that Buddy has a rare thing called Feline Chylothorax .  Apparently for some reason (there are several possibilities but in Buddy’s case they are not sure why) the cavity around his lungs is filled up with a milky white very thick fluid.  They pulled a lot off.  I mean more than a lot.  He spent the night at the vets and last night we took him to the emergency vet service clinic so they could keep an eye on him over the weekend.  So far he has seen 5 different vets.  He is somewhat of a rock star.  He is cooperative and doing fine but still a very sick kitty.

One thing that the limited research has indicated is that a plant supplement called Rutin  which in humans is often used for blood vessel protection along with many other things.  Somehow the connection with giving a cat with chylothorax Rutin came up and it seems to help with the build up of triglycerides  in their system. Buddy is now destined to be on a low fat diet if he pulls through all of this.

The emergency clinic just called as I am writing this and asked if they could do bloodwork.  The other place had not done much of that yet as they were trying to limit the stress on Buddy and I think they are pretty confident that this is what it is.  I guess this vet wants to make sure it is not an intestinal thing so more tests for poor Buddy.  He is such a sweet kitty and they have all loved on him and commented on how sweet he is.  Of course he is!

But yesterday things were looking pretty grim and I was thinking we were going to have to make a pretty hard decision.  We still may.  I feel the same for my pets as I do for my loved ones.  Quality of life is important.  If life is going to be a series of invasive procedures that really do not “fix” the problem and the quality of life is jeopardized I don’t think it is fair to Buddy.  I could barely function yesterday during the day.   I think it is the accumulation of everything that we have gone through in the past year catching up.  It hit me and it hit me hard.  Our time here in Lima is winding down and the reality that we are moving on and dealing with the death of my father in law is a fact now.  And Buddy and Holly have been what has kept me sane at times.   So when one of them is faced with a life threatening disease it rocked my world.

So if you are so inclined, please say a prayer for my Buddy and for Holly who misses her litter mate.  Hard decisions may still be ahead of us and I want to do the right thing.  For all the pet lovers out there you know what I mean.  They are part of our lives.  I don’t think I am a crazy cat lady but I do love my animals.  They have brought much love and joy to our lives and I can’t think of how sad I will be if one of them is not there.

Buddy and Holly