Hi everyone,
Umm, sigh, bad news. Not the worst, but 24 hours are not enough for a bad turn! Anyway, when I got home yesterday things had deteriorated. She was having trouble breathing, was running a temp (only getting a partial flow through her nose and needing to open her mouth a little to compensate), and wasn't interested in food. She's alert still and moving around, but only out of necessity, though I could get some interest in the laser pointer.
I don't know if it's a cold that is internal - it's like she needs an expectorant. There was a URI going around the Humane Society (when isn't there), so I feel like that's the most logical cause, but her eyes are still clear and her nose isn't runny - it's not sneezing, but coughing of sorts, but definitely respiratory. I tried running a bath to get some humidity in the air, but that didn't seem to affect the breathing and it just made her stretch out like she was hot.
As it so happened, I was meeting my vet for a drink last night (I'm thinking of going into veterinary medecine as career #2 and she'd agreed to let me "interview" her). She was most concerned with the not eating and recommended that I bring her in today instead of Friday (she agreed to rearrange her schedule to fit us in - very nice of her), and to pick up baby food to syringe-feed on the way home.
She was in the same state when I got home and I tried to put a 1/3 of the baby food in her. Pretty successful. I also got a ear bulb to maybe get some stuff out of her nose, but like I said, nothing is visibly coming out, so I only try this sporadically. A couple of times, I've gotten a tiny bit of yellow mucus.
I stayed up with her until 1 this morning, just petting her, trying to take her mind off of things. This morning, more baby food for 15 minutes, then two more small syringes at 10:30 (when I got home between class and work). We'll go into the vet at 3pm.
Maggie, to answer you, she was spayed, but within the last couple of weeks (I don't remember the spay date, but the stitch removal was 8/1). That trachea thing sounds feasible, purring seemed to trigger a "cough", and she hasn't been purring since yesterday morning, though with eye blinks and the leaning of her body she seems to be enjoying the cheek scratches and body rubbing. Even if she doesn't have a URI, she has some sort of infection, would this jive with what you're talking about? Would it happen a couple of weeks after the spay?
From her mouth breathing, her breath smells...not good. The last time that I smelled that bitter, moist smell, the circumstances were very sad. I hope that she can pull through this. She's a dear little thing and has so much more fun to have here! She seems uncomfortable, but steady. I'm doing okay psychologically, but the force feeding does wear on a person if it's long term, and keeping Satch at bay hurts because I want him to understand that I'm not now spending more time in with the new one for any other reason than she's in trouble. And then when I emerge, I want to wash up before petting him, which he thinks is just, plain mean. :)
I'll let you know how the vet goes.
Leslie
