Yesterday will hopefully go down as the worst Mother's Day I'll ever have to endure. Libra, our 13 month old kitty, had to be put to sleep due to kidney failure.
We estimate he first got sick last Wednesday, the 6th, when he threw-up the new food that Grandma had purchased for the cats. It seemed like a simple rejection of the food (as it was the first day), so we made sure to pickup a bag of the food he was used to. All seemed pretty okay as he had no trouble eating at the next feeding time. By Friday he appeared almost back to normal until he began to vomit again in the evening.
More vomiting ensued over the next two days. You could tell he was getting weaker as he wasn't moving very much on his own. He seemed very uncomfortable and he would cry a little whenever we picked him up. I started to think back over the past few days, and I realized that not only had he probably not eaten since Thursday morning, but I couldn't remember the last time I saw him in the litter box. We started carrying him to his water bowl, then to the litter box, then back to the bed. It seemed to be the only way to get him around the house.
The crazy thing during all of this was how much he tried to uphold or maintain his regular personality. He was still trying to cuddle with us and he really didn't want to be left alone. By Sunday evening we were very concerned, but being as poor as we are, we were hesitant to take him to an emergency hospital. Upon vomiting one last time, we decided money or no money, Libra needed help.
From the outside, it was obvious to them and everyone else that he was weak, sad, and dehydrated. Other than that, internal tests would need to be run to determine his condition. Their initial estimate for all the test they wanted to do was a minimum of $900, maximum $930. Not much of a difference if you ask me. We said no and asked them to reanalyze what they think needs to be done. We decided to just start chipping away at the list of tests, trying to analyze his symptoms closer in order to determine which test or exam to do next. They decided to start with the leukemia test, and when that came back negative, I asked that they next move on to checking his urinary tract. I had noticed that his urine was a little foamy in the litter box, as well as the stream coming out of him was almost paper thin. He was definitely struggling.
Well, his urinary tract was perfectly fine, but they did notice that his urine was "very deluded" (whatever that meant). They next decided to check his kidneys, and that's when it all fell apart. Libra's kidneys were failing, and they said it was just about the worst case they had ever seen in such a young cat. We were told that the condition of his kidneys were that of a 16+ year old cat. They asked if we had any lilies in the house as they are extremely toxic for cats. We have before, but not for a few weeks and Libra wasn't ever the one to eat flowers. The bottom-line was that something toxic got into his system within the last five to six days and there really wasn't anything that could be done to save him. Rather than let him suffer, we made the decision to put him to sleep. What we thought was going to be a good 15+ years of joy turned into a mere 13 months. Wife held him as they injected the overdose of anesthesia, and we watched him slowly drift off. We were both in tears.
This morning we could tell that Taurus, his brother from the same litter, was starting to realize something wasn't right. He was meowing slightly different as though asking where Libra was. No matter where he looked, his search always came up short. There's one more older cat in the house, but we'll definitely get another kitten for Taurus once Wife and I find a place of our own. He's never been without another cat, so we'll try to always keep it that way.
For anyone unfamiliar with animal emergency costs, I'll break down for you what it cost us. And please believe me when I say that we would have spent more if it would have made a difference.
ER Visit: $110
Leukemia Check: $75
Urinary Tract Exam: $50
Kidney Exam: $55
Euthanize: $80
Cremation: $90
Yes, you read that right. It costs more to cremate an animal than it does to put them to sleep. What's even worse is that it's just a mass cremation where they do a bunch of animals all at once. We knew we didn't want to take him home and bury him ourselves, so cremation was ideal for us. We also didn't want the ashes, so that's why we went with the "less expensive" mass cremation. We should have gotten the estimate before agreeing to it, but at that point we were feeling so distraught that we just wanted to get out of there.
Was there a lesson learned? I'd say so. Whether or not it would have made a difference this time around, I'll never hesitate to take an animal to the vet ever again.
I'm sorry, Libra. Sleep well.
