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September 12, 2005

Goodnight, Sweet Asia

On August 6th, 2005, we brought Asia home from the shelter.

On September 12th, 2005, she took herself across the Rainbow Bridge.

It was a good run, little kitten.

We took her to the vet on August 13th. Nothing was wrong with her. It was just a visit. Hi, I'm the new cat. Nice to meet you. But we found out at that visit she was running a fever. 104° and change. She also had some peritonitis. The vet drew some blood to test for Feline Corona Virus. We put her on an antibiotic with instructions to bring her back in a few days.

Which we did. The fever hadn't changed. We put her on a different antibiotic. A pill, rather than liquid, as she wasn't tolerating the liquid real well. For almost 10 days, we'd stuff the pills into treats and give her the treats. Treat and pill were both snarfed. Then she quit eating the treats. The tests for Corona Virus came back negative.

For two weeks, we had Asia at the Vet every Saturday, Tuesday and Thursday. Her fever fluctuated. Her weight fluctuated. Her belly was very distended. She was, for one day, on three different antibiotic regimens. Three pills and a liquid. And a Cortico-steroid.

Once she stopped eating the treats, giving her pills became an adventure. She did not like it one bit. The vet finally gave us some 'pill shooters' - which are rather like a wide-mouthed syringe. You put the pill in, open the cats mouth and push in the syring and plunge out the pill into the back of the throat, where the cat will reflexively swallow it.

Then she started missing the litterbox. Not badly. I found some pools of urine on the corner of the box. At my next 'regularly scheduled visit' (which was so regular, they didn't bother making me an appointment) I brought in a sample. The vet took his own sample directly from Asia. It was very concentrated and had some sedimentation in it. And her abdoment just kept getting more distended, filling up with some kind of fluid.

So he moved to a more aggressive - injectible - antibiotic and I learned how to give subcutaneous injections. Asia tolerated these pretty well, actually. The injections didn't bother her at all. He also gave us a bag of Saline solution and orders to hydrate her as she'd lost nearly half-a-pound in the week. That was the weekend of September 3rd. Over the next few days, her nose started running on top of everything else, and she always had at least one clogged nostril.

Friday, September 9th, we dropped her off at the Vet for a complete diagnostic. X-Rays, Sonograms, Bloodwork, etc. The vet was just as concerned as we that all these antibiotics weren't working, and wanted to make sure there wasn't an abcess or something else. He was also going to drain the fluid out of her belly. We'd been paying closer attention since discovering her dehydration. She was not eating or drinking with any frequency or in any great amounts. Probably always felt full because of all the fluid in her abdomen placing pressure on her stomach.

We stopped in on the way home from work for the results. He showed us the X-Rays, which were totally normal. He showed us the sonograms, which were more or less totally normal. Some of her internal organs were a bit enlarged, probably from fighting against the fluid build-up in her abdomen. And he showed us the (nearly) pint of fluid he drew from her abdomen. It was thick and viscuous. Like motor-oil. Rich in protein. His diagnosis was FIP. Feline Infectious Peritonitis. This is caused by the Feline Corona Virus which he had previously tested for. He was a bit baffled by the false negative. FIP is hard to detect and diagnose, he said. But Corona Virus, not so much.

He was sending the fluid off for analysis by a laboratory. Results are due back today or tomorrow. I guess it doesn't really matter anymore. FIP is not treatable. It is always fatal, unless the disease remisses, but that happens rarely.

The weekend was tough. We were constantly wiping snot off the kittens nose. Either she lost control of her bladder, or just couldn't make it to the litter box anymore. She had labored breathing and just would not eat. She kept going to the food and water bowls like she wanted too, but with her nose clogged up, I guess she couldn't smell it. I saw her at one point actually dip her paw into the water dish to see if there was anything in it.

This morning, about 3:30, Lys woke up for some reason and saw Asia out in the hallway. She called to her, and Asia tried to respond, but was apparently very unsteady on her feet and bumped into the wall rather than walking very far. She woke me up and we forced a little water into her. It didn't work well, for the same reason the initial liquid antibiotic didn't work. Lys took kitten into the living room to hold her and try to get some more water in her. I went back to sleep. Sorta. It was restless sleep filled with dreams and thoughts of kitten death.

At 6:00, she woke me up, sobbing, to tell me it happened. She'd gotten some more water in her, and Asia had actually taken some of the water in on her own. Asia leaned over the bowl to take a drink of water, and fell face-first into the water. It was over before her head splashed in.

Lys tells me she had a long talk with the kitten while they were on the couch. Told her it was okay if she didn't want to fight anymore. We'd help her if she did, but we understood if she didn't.

We held the kitten for a while. We cried (Hell, I'm still crying as I type this). We don't know what we're going to do with her yet. I want to bury her in the back yard, but not sure if we legally can, or if that's really what's best, considering she very likely died of an infectious disease.

For Thirty-Seven days we had kitten joy and happiness in our lives. Now she's moved on to a place beyond the Rainbow Bridge, where she has all the food, water, and milk-rings she wants.

She wasn't alone when she died. She was sitting in Mom's lap. She knows she was loved. She had her own people and her own house and she only had to share them one one other cat.

Sleep well Asia. We miss you. We love you.

Links on FIP
Information from Cats.org.uk
Dr. Addie's Website
Animal Health Channel.com

Posted by Shannon on September 12, 2005 7:12 AM

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Posted by: katie smith at September 14, 2005 1:58 PM

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