Sassy cats — Miss Cha-Ching update or the angst of it all

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Gracie feeling much better!

Gracie feeling much better rolling on her stuffed mouse!

New cat Gracie was sick. She went from running 60 miles an hour to “down for the count” in a nano second. It was longer except that I didn’t initially notice it.

Cats are not whiners. When they are sick, they go somewhere private to sleep it off, like a considerate drunk. Some cats go out of sight and you don’t know they are sick unless they leave you “gifts.” (I’m sure you don’t want specifics here.)

One of my cats will retreat to under the bed where she can’t be disturbed. She doesn’t like fussing and she sure doesn’t like a trip to the vet.

My first clue was that Gracie slept all day on a chair upstairs. She never sleeps that long. She is awake all day except for a short nap around noon. When she naps it’s somewhere in the way so she doesn’t miss anything. Often on the chair I want to sit on or in a hallway where people routinely walk.

She also didn’t eat or drink. She is the messiest eater I have. In this case it was good. Without kibble scattered all over the floor it was obvious she hadn’t eaten.

By the time all this sank in, it was too late to do much but hope it was a bellyache and she’d be better by the morning.

She wasn’t. I wasn’t either. Nor was the beloved husband. There wasn’t anyone in the house who slept well that night. Mollie (the elder cat) felt compelled to distract me at 3 a.m. by sleeping on my pillow and purring in my ear. It had a calming effect…until she fell asleep.

Gracie didn’t get sick on a weekend (so unusual for my tribe) but she did it on a day that had wall-to-wall appointments and plans. All scrapped. We got into the vet early and found that she had a temperature which is a sign of infection.

Gracie is not a cat that you can pill or medicate by mouth. Fortunately there is a long-acting antibiotic shot available which is better than losing fingers. Especially my fingers. She has a notorious reputation at the vet clinic after their last attempt to medicate her. Techs mysteriously disappear when she rolls in the door. (Remember that she is 7 lbs.)

Some illnesses have a time line and even with medications take a while to correct themselves.

Gracie chilling with her peep.

Gracie chilling with her peep.

I forgot about how unsettling it is to have a sick pet. They can’t tell you what hurts. You can’t tell them that you are doing something for their good. They just look at you with sad eyes that break your heart. You pray that they will pull through.

Time is also different. A minute is an hour and an hour is a week. She was very sick for 48 hours. By my calendar that’s close to a year.

When they recover, you forgot everything (mostly) and hug them tight. Then they start sitting in your chair again and you’re good with that.

NOTE: This happened earlier this week. Gracie is back to her normal self. It was a fever of undetermined origin which is common in cats. I hope it doesn’t come back. Cha-ching!

 

70 thoughts on “Sassy cats — Miss Cha-Ching update or the angst of it all”

  1. Pingback: Sassy cats –The refugee cat with the dumpster diving habit | Views and Mews by Coffee Kat

  4. Our Grenny becomes a drama queen when she’s not feeling well. She climbs the stairway to the third step (where she can be heard by everyone in the house) and screams at the top of her lungs then leaves a puddle of barf at the foot of the stairs. If you don’t rise from your bed and stumble to the kitchen for the Mylanta swiftly enough she rushes into your room and throws up on your blankets. (Did I mention that Grenny only get’s sick at about three in the morning.) By the time you wipe the cat barf from your feet and toss your blankets in the basket by the washer, her squalling has Gent a nervous mess, and the other residents of the house yelling, “Mom, I think the cat’s sick again.” With my eyes now wide open, I pour Mylanta down her throat, and because it tastes yucky she demands a drink of fresh water. After two or three laps from the water dish, she slaps the side of the dish with her paw and dumps the water all over the floor. When I stoop to wipe up the water, she demands fresh wet food. I stop wiping up the water for long enough to replace her wet food (that was fresh when I went to bed). As I take the old food to the outside cats and finish with the water, Grenny licks the gravy from the top of the fresh wet food, then demands milk. While I’m getting the milk from the fridge, she runs to the litter box, puts her fanny right against the edge and goes over the side. Shortly after that I collapse onto a chair in the kitchen, she climbs onto my lap, then up to my shoulder, and with a loud purr, she announces: “Mom, you make me feel so much better.” Such is life with a cat with tummy problems…

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    • She went to the same cat school that my old cat Jake did. He was a diva! I didn’t know that you could give cats Mylanta. I have a cat that gets explosive diarrhea (yes that’s worse). I finally found something I could keep on hand to give her because she only gets it when the vet is closed. When they are well and happy, you wonder what you were worrying about or maybe they do.

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  10. We were all so sorry to hear that Gracie was sick. However, we’re all so happy to hear that she’s better!! We kitties don’t like getting sick and we know you humans don’t either. Here’s hoping Gracie has a super abundant filled with love and toys weekend!!
    Sterio purrs……Hemingway and Steinbeck

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  13. What a relief that Gracie is OK. It’s awful when catkids are sick. I had one cat who had chronic pancreatitis. It was terrible when she had a flare. She lived to be 19. I miss her. Prayers and purrs for you and Gracie.

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    • Wow! I didn’t know that cats could get that. (Yet another thing to worry about!) My cats are mostly healthy. Mollie gets hairballs and Hazel gets explosive diarrhea (under control thank God) but Morgan is perfectly healthy (knock on wood or something). I’m hoping this was just a fluke with Gracie and she’ll be another healthy one.

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        • She’s only been here a month. She has some vision issues as she misjudges and walks in the occasional doorway. Then there are the 3 other cats (but that went better than I ever expected). Still a lot of stuff. In the prior two months she was taken to the rescue place, spayed and had an eye removed. I’m lucky she’s not neurotic.

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    • I have had hard to pill cats. Most of the time you can get the pill in the mouth but not back far enough and they spit it out. You cannot get her mouth open. Maybe it’s because she’s so new here and we’re still building trust.

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    • Sometimes they can have a bad day. It’s always the question of whether to react right away or wait a day to see if it gets better on it’s own. This one was easy as by the time I really noticed I knew she had been quiet all day. She couldn’t lift her head so she went to the vet as soon as they opened. As for the wallet…I guess it’s not important when it’s your pet.

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  20. “like a considerate drunk”

    It’s phrases like this one that make me grin from ear to ear … I just love it when your creativity and story-telling skills and humor all get smooshed together in little tidbits of wonderfulness.

    So glad that Gracie is feeling better. I swear they know when we’re sending them strength and love to help them feel better. And you’re right … time stands still when you’re unsure of whether they are going to be okay or not. When you can finally breathe again, it reminds you to appreciate all those little tender moments we exchange with our fur babies. I think I better go give my big old doggie a smooch and a few extra ear rubs. He says thank you. Me too.

    Thanks for sharing such a sweet reminder of how our fur children are so precious to us. Every day we get to share time with them is such a gift. Absolutely love the photo of Gracie, where she is right where she belongs — right next to her Momma in the chair. 🙂

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  21. I will add Gracie to my prayer list, I hope she feels better soon. I love that antibiotic shot, some people are against it because if there is an allergic reaction , there is no way to stop it but I think it is perfect for cats that are impossible to pill.

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    • I’ve used it a few times with various cats. I have one cat that is sensitive to vaccines. She cannot get the FVRCP injections because she gets a temporary (but quite disturbing to her peeps) lameness so she gets the nasal form of the vaccine which she tolerates better. She had the antibiotic without any ill effects. For Gracie, it was wonderful as I would never have been able to pill her. The vet couldn’t get her mouth open to check for anything there. Yes, she’s that bad. It took a full 36 hours before I started to see any improvement though. Scared me silly.

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  24. I usually only notice something’s wrong when my cats’ routines vary. One night I was back from a trip and woke up to realize Bat Cat wasn’t curled up behind my knees. Turns out husband left a door open at midnight “just for a second” and then shut it, stranding her outside.

    She’s resourceful, though. Snuck into a neighbor’s house by way of a pet door, ate their cat food, got into a fight, came straight home when she heard my frantic calls.

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    • Yes I remember your heart worm scare with Ray. I was strategizing what to do next as my vet would not be in on Thursday (by which time she should have been better). I was also thinking blood tests and all that. Fortunately she pulled through and the house is back in normal chaos.

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  27. It kills me that we cannot communicate, at least not in a way that I, as the human, know that my pet has understood and can take some comfort from my words. But as I write this, I know that our concern reaches them on other levels.

    Glad Gracie has mended.

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    • Sometimes I think they know. Jake was hard to medicate but when he was diabetic I think he connected the shots to feeling better and was much more cooperative. Gracie is still so young, she thinks it’s all an intrusion of her fun time.

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