Dear Group,
It is with great sadness that I tell you that Digby
crossed over on Tues. evening (Mar. 24th). I had taken him to the vet
clinic that morning, to obtain some repeat blood work to check his numbers from
the previous week. Our intent was to then take him the next morning to see
his regular vet for a follow-up assessment and results from the blood tests, and
then more than likely make our "decision".
We had been syringe feeding him this past weekend, since
Sat. evening when he just couldn't/wouldn't take anything we had been hand
feeding him. Thankfully, this kept his strength and weight up. In
between feedings, he was comfortable in his various "safe places"
sleeping. Late Tues. afternoon, after he used the litter box he
immediately became winded - laid down on the floor, panting and softly moaning
when he exhaled. I knew that was his "sign" to me. I called my
husband to come home from work and when he arrived we called the vet
clinic. They had run their own PCV (Hematocrit), and it was down to 10% (N
= 24 - 45%). Two of the vets came to the house after we had some time to
spend with Digby. One of the vets had requested to come with the other
one, as she had come here last summer to help our CRF baby "Casper" cross, and
said she wanted to be with us this time as well. We were very touched by
her compassion and concern for us.
Digby passed very peacefully in his favourite spot - in
our bay window on a pillow looking outside at the birds. He gently laid
his head down and closed his eyes. We were so relieved at the peacefulness
and tranquility of it.
That morning, I had discussed our wishes with the vet
clinic. Digby will be separately cremated and his ashes returned to us in
an urn. We made it known to them that if they wished to autopsy him for
tissue samples, etc. to gain perhaps some more insight into Feline Leukemia,
that was O.K. with us. Our thought is that perhaps Digby's passing can
serve some greater good for others suffering with this. They felt that the
Animal Health Lab at the Veterinary College in our province would be interested
in samples, to add the information to their database. This lab is the one
that had done most of Digby's blood tests.
I will continue to read the posts on this forum, as our
other furbaby Pekoe is also FelV+. He's doing fine healthwise - as far as
we know. I believe he realizes that Digby isn't here anymore, but I know
he'll be fine. Many thanks to all of you for sharing your trials and
tribulations. I would like to share a phrase with you that I came across
just yesterday. I find it very consoling at this time -
"A gentle sleep is sometimes the kindest answer to the most impossible
question of all ..."
Marlene
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- Re: Digby has passed .... Marlene Chornie
- Re: Digby has passed .... carlas
- RE: Digby has passed .... sandy kuplis
- Re: Digby has passed .... Nina
- Re: Digby has passed .... felv
- Re: Digby has passed .... stany petrov
- Re: Digby has passed .... Belinda Sauro
- Re: Digby has passed .... Barbara Lowe
- RE: Digby has passed .... Sue Feldbusch
- Re: Digby has passed .... Terri Brown
- Re: Digby has passed .... Mia Nicer