On Monday night our cat Augie suddenly started limping badly. In the past week he'd shown absolutely no sign of ill health, other than an occasional snuffling cough (his coughs sound like sneezes and always have) and a tooth problem he has for quite some time.
So we took him to the vet early Tuesday morning. He'd lost a pound since his last visit, and had peed all over himself and the cat carrier, but he mostly was clearly experiencing a lot of pain in his left hind leg. My opinion was that he had perhaps dislocated his hip. He is often such a klutz.
He ended up staying the night on Tuesday, since neither Debbie nor I could stay home all day Wednesday and keep him from doing any jumping.
The vet called a couple of times to leave Wednesday before I got home. I returned her call around 6pm. Augie had not shown any real improvement. Not only was he refusing to put any weight on his left foot, he was using the entire lower portion of that leg as if it were a foot. That's just not right.
He'd been given pain medication, had Xrays taken which revealed nothing, and given a cortisone shot. The recommendation was that he be taken to see a neurologist. There are cat neurologists? Who knew? We decided he should stay at the vet for another night.
So this morning we picked him up from the vet, bailing him out for $600 and Debbie took me to work and went to Fairview, NJ to Animal Emergency and Referral Associates.
$600 more dollars, anesthesia and more Xrays later, Debbie called me with the news. Mr. Augie's chest was riddled with cancerous nodules, so many of them that they probably metastasized from elsewhere...likely his spine, given his difficulty walking.
We don't have the heart to torture him with chemo. He's a good old Arkansas boy and we've decided to make his last days as comfortable as we can. We were given a lot of pain medication, cortisone, an antibiotic, and an appetite stimulant for him. We've dedicated one of the computer room chairs to him...although he seems to prefer my chair (we have three in the room).
We will treat him with all the dignity he has earned over the 15 years since he came to live with me (the people he lived with before me just moved away and left him to fend for himself. I started putting some food out for him and eventually he just moved in).
If you would, wherever you are, please lift a glass for Augie Doggie.