Long-ass Cosa update... →[More:]

Thanks for asking, deborah.

So the little Cosa cat is still with us, which is good. She's in an awful lot of pain, though, which is bad.

Turns out she's "throwing" blood clots. That's what caused the initial gimpiness in her front leg. It's rare for clots to go to the front leg, though, and even rarer for cats with a normal left atrium to throw clots.

She came home from the hospital weaker in her rear legs than she had been before. I suspect she had another clot while she was there. She threw another yesterday afternoon, so I took her back. The doctor who was on last night said that they could be originating from her kidneys (she has mild chronic kidney disease, but her kidneys are at least still working), or they could be cause by a bacterial infection (she had a rotten tooth that just sort of popped out when the vet tried to clean it last night).

Right now she has very little function in her rear legs. Her front leg though, the one that was initially the problem, seems to be getting better. I'm not sure if this is because blood is beginning to flow back to it (clots can clear, or blood vessels can sort of figure out ways to bypass them, apparently), or if her back legs are so painful that she has no choice but to use the ouchy front one.

She's on painkillers, but they seem to be working less well the longer she's on them. (Can't for the life of me remember the word for that.) This morning she was in a lot of pain and I'd given her the last dose of her pain meds, so I took her in and they gave her a morphine patch. It won't kick in for another few hours. I sure hope it helps her. When she snaps out of her painkiller fog, she has a really hard time getting comfortable. Some of this is pain, and some of it is because she can't maneuver her body the way she wants to. Then she gets frustrated and slaps her tail repeatedly against the nearest object -- which would be cute, if it weren't so heartwrenching.

I'm giving her subcutaneous fluids twice a day, along with antibiotics in case the problem was an infection in her mouth. We also started her on Plavix^TM to hopefully help prevent future clots. I'm reading up on that and it sounds like they've had some pretty good success with it.

Right now, we're mostly just trying to get through the next few days and see what happens. It's horrible, because I know she's in pain and is frustrated and doesn't understand why she can't move around, but there's also a chance that she could come out of this okay. It's not a given by any means, but most cats apparently don't survive to their discharge, so she's at least made it this far. There's also the possibility that she won't regain the use of her back legs, which would be a horrible way to live, obviously.

So we're just watching and waiting and trying to be as good to her as we can. Poor thing really, really wants to curl up in one of her favorite spots -- which are all too high up. She keeps looking up at the cat tree and meowing. Or she'll stare up at the back of the couch and meow. And then she'll drag herself pitifully across the couch and sort of fall over, and I'll say, "Sweetie, THAT'S why you can't get up there. I'm sorry." And then she swats me with her tail and scowls.

Eekacat, you're right. The people at the hospital have been awesome. They didn't charge me for my visit last night or this morning -- only for the drugs -- which was incredibly generous. She's also seen lots of specialists, because her case is kind of rare. And the folks there have formed a neat little Cosa fan club, which makes them even more endearing to me.

That's where we are. It's hard. I haven't slept or eaten much and my back is in knots.

And honestly, I'm feeling really superstitious, like if I type the wrong words, or express too much hope or something, something really bad will happen. I know she might not make it. But I am, of course, hoping that she will. And that makes me feel like I'm jinxing her somehow.

Anyhow, thanks for all the good thoughts sent to my poor little monkey.