At the beginning of the week Barney started picking at his food, leaving half his meal to be polished off by Tinker. This was most unusual. I thought he just needed a change but even special treats didn't seem to interest him. On Wednesday he refused all attempts to eat anything and became very subdued, spending the day just sitting dozing rather than chasing mice or helping me outside. On Thursday he was just the same and I became vigilant. He was still drinking water but not as much as usual. On Friday he still wasn't eating and was very quiet so I took him to the Vet. She listened to his heart and lungs but couldn't find anything obviously wrong so gave him a vitamin injection and suggested I try mushing his food with water and syringe it into the corner of this mouth. This worked OK so I felt a bit better, even though he didn't enjoy the experience much.
Yesterday evening however he wouldn't take any food and started choking violently when he attempted to swallow. We took him to the Vet straight away and he gave him a steroid and antibiotics and took blood samples which he later confirmed were all OK. He suggested we see how he went over the next 24 hours and if he was no better then he'd move onto xrays etc to try and find the problem. By this time both Mike and I knew in our hearts that there probably wasn't going to be a happy ending even though he was only 8 years old and should still have had many happy years ahead of him.
This morning he refused food and water and was visibly fading away so we took him the Vet who did Xrays which confirmed our worst fears. He had a large tumour in his chest. An operation to remove it would most likely kill him and no medication could make it go away. With heavy hearts we had to make the decision to put him to sleep.
So we have said goodbye to a very special cat. He has been my constant companion for the past 8 years, who came to live with us when I was feeling very sad and helped me realise that life is precious and must be treasured. We will miss him terribly.
4 comments:
he was a beautiful cat
RIP
xxxxxxxxx
Hugs, Susie. 8 years is too short - but i'd like to bet Barney had a wonderful time with you all, in those few years.
My thoughts and prayers are with you,
Oh my...I'm sorry I didn't read this sooner. We've gone through this with a pet/member of our family also. It's so sad and so untimely. But you know you gave Barney the best home and lots of love for all of his happy life.
Linda
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