The winter of sick cats

Living with two geriatric cats is starting to get challenging.

Alex (15 years old), blind in one eye since kittenhood, developed chronic nasal congestion. Nothing seemed to help for very long...we tried a variety antibiotics, saline nose drops, nasal flushes, and nothing seemed to work for very long. He went on steriods to try to reduce inflamation, but he remained stuffed up and sometimes unable to breathe through his nose. He got his own humidifier (Minnesota winters mean dry indoor air). He was losing weight and clearly feeling miserable.

Then last Friday morning, we woke up to find that his cornea had ruptured overnight. A visit to the emergency vet, followed by emergency surgery at his regular vet, and he is now sporting a bald (shaved) patch where the bad eye used to be. I'll spare you the picture of the eyelid stitched closed until he grows his hair and whiskers back. He's home, but we are feeding him with a syringe, and giving him three different drugs every day. We are still waiting for a biopsy, but there is a chance that the deteriation of the bad eye was an underlying cause of the congestion. Removing the eye won't cure it, because, as a Persian, he apparently has had sub-optimum nasal passages from day one, and now they have some permanent damage. But we're hopeful there will be some relief. He looks pretty pitiful, but is improving every day.

Then there's Rusty (16 years old). The big robust orange cat. He got his teeth cleaned about month ago, and had to have a couple pulled. So he went on antibiotics. And then developed diarrhea. We weren't too concerned, as he has had this reaction to antibiotics once before. But this time it didn't clear up. So he got more tests and more drugs and special food and food additivies, and none of it has helped. Now the vet is talking about possible dire-sounding causes and radical sounding diagnostic options like exploratory surgery. We're not sure we've exhausted all the non-invasive options yet, but he's got us worried. He's been losing some weight, but otherwise not showing any signs of distress. More treatment and more decisions await us.

Mike's wondering when the vet will put our name on a new addition to the clinic, since it feels like we're now a major funder.

Detour is not allowed to get sick.