Bad news...
Well, guys, Kim and I just got back from the vet a couple of hours ago. We took her cat Nala in to have her looked at because she wasn't doing too well. Turns out she was in kinda rough shape. She was hypertensive (super high blood pressure) and looks like she had been for a while, which explained why she had recently gone totally blind. That coupled with her other symptoms (steadily losing weight while still eating, increasing weakness in her muscles, loss of balance, deterioration of other senses, etc.) led the vet (who, ironically enough, I went to high school with) to suspect hyperthyroidism, which is treatable. Bad news is that the treatment for it would have caused Nala's kidneys, which they tested and found to be already failing, to completely shut down. In fact, if it hadn't been for the super high blood pressure literally forcing blood into the kidneys, they would've been gone already. So, catch-22, here we are...don't treat the thyroid and wait for the blood pressure to cause another stroke or treat it and watch her kidneys fail even faster.
Now, the vet assured us that Nala wasn't in pain or suffering a great deal at this precise moment but also warned us that the time is quickly coming when that would change. So, we had to make a decision...yeah, THAT decision. Do we wait until she starts hurting and keep her around for a few more weeks or months, at most, or do we go ahead and let her go now before the pain begins? Well, as difficult as it is, it's really not a choice...She may not have been suffering right now...but it was coming and coming fast. And, she's been too good a cat and too good a friend to wait until she is suffering. Seventeen is a good span for a cat...My little buddy Boo was just past eighteen. And, I know the vet said she didn't seem to be in pain, but I've seen her...everyday...she didn't look like she was comfortable. She was literally skin and bones, cold all the time...bumping into things, looking anxious. It was painful to watch...nowhere near as painful as watching my sister say good-bye to her baby, but I am absolutely convinced letting Nala go now, before she got so debilitated and worn down that she began to hurt, was the right decision. As much as we are going to miss her and much as it hurts not to have her around after seventeen years, I still have no doubts she's better off now than she was...now, she isn't scared or hurting or hungry or cold anymore. Now, she can finally be at peace. And, she deserves that...
Nala
(1994-2012)
Our little girl
Now, the vet assured us that Nala wasn't in pain or suffering a great deal at this precise moment but also warned us that the time is quickly coming when that would change. So, we had to make a decision...yeah, THAT decision. Do we wait until she starts hurting and keep her around for a few more weeks or months, at most, or do we go ahead and let her go now before the pain begins? Well, as difficult as it is, it's really not a choice...She may not have been suffering right now...but it was coming and coming fast. And, she's been too good a cat and too good a friend to wait until she is suffering. Seventeen is a good span for a cat...My little buddy Boo was just past eighteen. And, I know the vet said she didn't seem to be in pain, but I've seen her...everyday...she didn't look like she was comfortable. She was literally skin and bones, cold all the time...bumping into things, looking anxious. It was painful to watch...nowhere near as painful as watching my sister say good-bye to her baby, but I am absolutely convinced letting Nala go now, before she got so debilitated and worn down that she began to hurt, was the right decision. As much as we are going to miss her and much as it hurts not to have her around after seventeen years, I still have no doubts she's better off now than she was...now, she isn't scared or hurting or hungry or cold anymore. Now, she can finally be at peace. And, she deserves that...
Nala
(1994-2012)
Our little girl