One of my cats is dying.
A couple of days ago, my cat Luna started getting sick. Her eye was swollen and seeping, and she was sneezing a bit. She acted like she didn't feel good.
I took her to the vet yesterday, and they had to bring in an animal eye specialist to look at her.
Long story, short: Luna has cancer. It started in her sinus cavity, and has spread to her eye socket. It is terminal; operations, radiation, or chemotherapy wouldn't really help, and would just make her suffer.
She can't really close her bad eye anymore, so I have to put gel in her eye several times a day to keep it moist. And she is on steroid pills to make her more comfortable and to help with the swelling. The plan is to keep her comfortable until she needs to be euthanized.
So far, the steroids and eye drops seem to be helping her. She's much more alert, and her eye is a lot less swollen. The vet said it would take a few days for the medicine to really make her feel better, so hopefully she will feel more and more like herself as the week goes on. If she doesn't start to feel better, or if she feels better and then gets worse, it means it is time to have her put to sleep.
I keep alternating between being upset and being in shock. Luna is 14, so I know she's had a full life. It's still hard, though. Plus, most of my other pets are old, too, so now I keep worrying everyone is going to die at once (with the exception of my cat Josephine, because she's only a year and a half). Because my cat Diva is 13, my dog Stella is 10, and even my hamster is a year and half (which is old for a hamster). However, my other pets are still pretty healthy; but I can't help but think of their mortality, too, along with Luna's terminal illness.
This is so hard... I love Luna so much. She is a black cat with green eyes. I've always praised her, saying: "Lovely Luna, with those stunning green eyes!" And now one of her eyes is suddenly deformed because of the cancer. I feel like I jinxed her, even though I know that isn't rational.
I adopted Luna when she was 5; she was a rescue kitty. Her name had been Taylor, but I changed it to Luna, from The Smashing Pumpkins song "Luna," off of their album Siamese Dream.