Tiger is hospitalised

Tiger had been biting himself whenever he threw a fit and sometimes, these wounds looked pretty bad. But so far, all the wounds had recovered. But there was this rather large one on the side of his abdomen. I had been monitoring it and although it was big, the wound did heal externally, like the rest of them. Tiger was active and his appetite had always been good.

7th July 2018 – Tiger didn’t want his normal cooked food. So I gave him raw food, which he ate. He was still active.

8th July 2018 – Tiger didn’t want raw food.  So I gave him liquid food (used to be his favourite) and he ate this in the morning. By evening, he didn’t want even the liquid food anymore. And suddenly, he seemed very drained out, almost like a very sudden loss of condition. I called Tiger’s vet, but the clinic was already closed. We would take him to the veterinarian hospital the next morning. Tiger didn’t feel warm (no fever). But the abscess burst and greenish pus flowed out. We cleaned him up and pressed the pus out. The lump had completely flattened. I updated the vet through text messages.

9th July 2018 – In the morning, Tiger could no longer support himself on his hind legs. I force-fed him liquid food, but he refused to swallow. His mouth felt very stiff. He was also whining. Something was definitely wrong.

Tiger this morning.

As I had to go to work in the morning, my husband brought Tiger to the clinic when it opened and the vet said Tiger was severely dehydrated and had to be on drips. The prognosis was very poor. Tiger will be hospitalised.

I visited Tiger after work and the vet gave me a full account. It was likely to be septicaemia caused by that abscess. Though it had healed externally, maybe pus leaked out internally (we have no way of knowing, so this is just conjecture).  When my husband brought Tiger in the morning, he had urinated in the carrier, and the urine seemed clear. From the severe level of dehydration, the urine ought to be yellow and concentrated but it wasn’t. This was worrying as it could mean Tiger’s kidneys were not doing the job anymore.

The vet thought Tiger could have also thrown a seizure while he was on drips as he was semi conscious and his pupils were dilated when I visited. Earlier on, the vet said he was purring.

I called Tiger, stroked him and talked to him, but he did not respond. When I touched near his eye, it did blink and that was about all.

On drips at the clinic this afternoon. The wound on the abdomen is shaven.

The vet explained that even though the level of dehydration was severe, he didn’t want to push in too much fluids as it may enter the lungs and cause edema there.

At this point, all we could do was to wait and hope rehydration would happen. Tiger was also given strong antibiotics to help combat whatever bacterial infection there might be.

I was puzzled as to how Tiger could be this severely dehydrated when he only stopped eating for one day. The vet said he suspects that Tiger might not have been drinking enough water for many days. This is strange, because we always see Tiger drinking a lot of water every day after breakfast and if he hadn’t been drinking, I would have noticed. Every morning, Tiger would wait at that specific bowl in the kitchen for me to change to fresh water, then he would drink.

The vet also explained that toxic shock syndrome can happen in a matter of half an hour, sometimes. It can be very quick and sudden. I guess this is the case with Tiger. He just went down so drastically in about one day.

There are too many unanswered “why” questions and we will not be able to get any answers right now. All we can do is the necessary to address the present condition – to rehydrate Tiger. The fluids has two important functions – to rehydrate as well as to flush out the toxins from his system.

I stayed for one-and-a-half hours with Tiger, stroking him and talking to him. He might be semi conscious, but maybe he could still hear me.

I suppose a consolation would be that being semi conscious, Tiger would not be in pain.

Tiger has had these epileptic seizures since June 2016 and that’s slightly more than 2 years now. He has endured so much, so resiliently. He was throwing up to 4 fits per day at times, and yet, he was still active and his appetite had been very good (always asking us for food and more food). And he has had so many self-inflicted wounds too (during the seizures), some more serious than others, and all these wounds healed quickly.

As the vet said today, “This time, Tiger isn’t so lucky.”

I know. No one can be lucky all the time.

We know Tiger has already survived so much and indeed, we are grateful for that. Despite his seizures, he had been active, even mischievous and his appetite had always been very good.

Tiger is also FIV+. But the vet was more concerned about Tiger’s age, being 12. Once above 10 years of age, cats may have some problems with their organs already.

When I left the clinic this evening, the prognosis was still very poor.

Tiger, rest well. We will come see you tomorrow.

You’re a very brave boy.

Update at 8.15pm: The vet texted a photo and says there has been no change in Tiger’s condition. We hope for better news tomorrow.