Aroara's saga continues...update #77(with graphic picture)

[Moesha]

Last night she ate fine, but was sneezing. She slept on me for awhile, and I never heard her sneeze while she was sleeping. I had received some disturbing news before bed, so I was awake alot and she didn't like that so she left. This morning she won't eat and is still sneezing. There is definitely something wrong when she won't eat. That's her routine. Yell for food! LOL
I had some antibiotics that I just gave to my sister last week for her kitty who had a cut on his face.

[Emeraldgreen]

I'm sorry to hear that Aroara is not feeling well. It could be any number of things I suppose but it does sound an awful lot like the Herpes Virus which can lay dormant in a cat forever but can also become active during times of stress. A few of my cats have this and it is contagious to other cats when it is active.

The stress for my cat Stinky can be as little as my cat Paddy bullying her and cornering her and then in a few days, she starts sneezing. That is followed by a wet nose that is often very warm. I have to get on top of it right away because if left untreated, she will be sick for about 2 weeks and she becomes lethargic and congested. As soon as she starts sneezing, I mix Lysine (500mg) from the pharmacy in the vitamin section into her food, two times a day. This usually gets her feeling much better within a few days. I separate her from the others but I also give them Lysine as well to help them fight it off if they happened to come into contact with it from the drinking water etc.. before I separated them.

I'm just wondering if it could be this with Aroara because you mentioned in your post that you had received some terrible news and that you were up late. Since our animals are so intune with us, she may picking up on your feelings and she may have become stressed? Just a thought.
I hope that you can get to the bottom of it and that she will be feeling much better soon!

[jenluckenbach]

ANy news? I hope she feels better soon/

[Moesha]

The vet said that they've been seeing alot of serious URIs in cats lately that aren't responding to the usual antibiotics. He said her chest sounded fine. He gave her ClindaCure antibiotics to try and if she gets worse I'm supposed to let him know.

I asked that she be kept inside until she had at least a few treatments. I got home and can't find her. Which probably means someone let her go outside. No doubt she was howling to go. But with her being outside, it means that I won't see her until she is ready for me to find her. Usually that is for dinner about this time, but she isn't coming. So I'll go out searching for awhile and then wait for night time when is the next time she insists on being inside. Needless to say I'm not the happiest person at the moment. Thanks for the concern about her.

[Medusa]

Oh goodness, I'm so sorry about Aroara and for you, too, because stress can really work on our minds and bodies. Please know that prayers are going up for you both right this very second......

[Moesha]

I've got her and she is eating in the bathroom. That's where she always eats because of Morgan and his diabetic food.

The stress I am having isn't affecting her. Or at least it wasn't before she started sneezing. I got a text message last night saying that the youngest teenage daughter (13 I think) of one of the families that I clean for (and actually had cleaned their house yesterday) had been airlifted due to having been involved in a "farm accident". Then a friend of mine called and said that her sister in law had heard that this girl had been hurt by having a combine had fallen on her and it didn't look good. Then that friend called back a few minutes later saying that it wasn't the daughter but a boy that had been staying with them. They did have the husband's neice and nephew with them yesterday. The little boy couldn't have been more than 3. I'm still not sure what happened. I saw both the dad and mom in their respective vehicles today in town, but I didn't get to talk to either of them. I feel funny calling them about a rumor in town. There wasn't any news on the local website. I kept waking up all night, but Aroara was sneezing before I had heard about the accident.

[Emeraldgreen]

That's horrible! I hope that the child involved in the accident will survive. The family must be so devastated. Prayers going out for them.

I'm glad that you were able to get Aroara back inside last night. I hope that she begins to feel better soon with the antibiotic treatment. Please keep us updated.
p.s. I love the way you spell her name, aROARa. Perfect name for a lioness!

[Moesha]

p.s. I love the way you spell her name, aROARa. Perfect name for a lioness!

That's exactly why I spelled it that way. When she was a kitten she could fall asleep in a second in your lap after going 90 mph the second before. So we decided to name her after the Disney princess, Sleeping Beauty. Her name was Aurora. Since she's a kitty, I had to change the spelling. She now lives up to the ROAR part of it! LOL

She seems to be sniffling more today. Of course the vet closed at noon and won't be open again until Monday. If she doesn't improve tomorrow, I'll be calling them and probably getting a different antibiotic. She HATES having to stay inside. She's digging up the carpet by the door! I had to lock her in the bathroom for awhile. She escaped again today, but I've captured her and she's sleeping now. I took a couple of pictures of her yesterday but haven't gotten to get them transferred over to the computer.

[Moesha]

I mixed up half a tablet of Lysine in some canned food. She turned her nose up at it. She turned her nose up at the food before the lysine was in it too. She probably can't smell it very well. My mom is on her way to get a vaporizer to put in the bathroom with Aroara. Why do they have to get sick during non vet hours? I hope she starts feeling better in the next couple of days. I have to be out of town Friday-Sunday next week and have a friend coming to check on the furkids. Any other suggestions for helping treat her so she feels better? It's been years since I've had a kitty with a URI.

Here are the above mentioned pictures.
Last night. She was here when I went to bed and when I got up.




Here was a few minutes ago. When I called the vet's office yesterday morning and told the tech that she was just sitting around like a meatloaf, she laughed. She'd never heard that description before. She even wrote in on Aroara's chart.


Then I put took her to the bathroom with the stinky food. She always eats in the bathroom to prevent Morgan from getting non diabetic food. I had her bed and litter box in there from earlier because she'd been digging the carpet up trying to open the door to go outside.

[Emeraldgreen]

I'm pretty sure Lysine won't hurt her if you are able to find a way to get it into her and hopefully, it will help. I know that she may not have the Herpes virus at all but if she does, the Lysine works wonders in just a few days.
Do you think she would entertain the idea of tuna juice (the human variety) with half a capsule of Lysine mixed in. Does she ever eat the hairball malt paste that comes in the toothpaste like tube? You could mix some in there.
It sounds like she doesn't have much interest in food though but if you could even get a little bit into her at a time, it might help.
She is so lovely in those pics even though she is not feeling that well.
I hope you are able to find a way to help her over the weekend. Do you have a thermometer to take her temp?

[Moesha]

I don't think I've ever tried to give her hairball stuff. She's never had a hairball. Morgan loves it. Morgan loves anything that goes in his mouth though. I gave him half a Lysine pill in some canned food. He'll do anything to eat wet food. LOL I'll try the tuna juice in the morning. I could dissolve it in the tuna juice and shoot it in her mouth with a syringe. She's in the tropical rain forrest bathroom at the moment and just looks at me with a "leave me alone" look whenever I check in on her.

[Emeraldgreen]

I don't think I've ever tried to give her hairball stuff. She's never had a hairball. Morgan loves it. Morgan loves anything that goes in his mouth though. I gave him half a Lysine pill in some canned food. He'll do anything to eat wet food. LOL I'll try the tuna juice in the morning. I could dissolve it in the tuna juice and shoot it in her mouth with a syringe. She's in the tropical rain forrest bathroom at the moment and just looks at me with a "leave me alone" look whenever I check in on her.

Sounds like that might work but you might want to squirt it into her mouth in super small squirts. I had the WORST experience with my cat George when I tried to give him some meds that I mixed with some tuna juice and then drew it up into a syringe and then squirted it into his mouth, I think it was a ml's worth. He freaked out. He began frothing at the mouth and alot of it. It went on for about 5 minutes. It scared me half to death. I don't know if this was just a weird reaction with George but I wanted to tell you just in case there is something to the tuna juice being syringed into the mouth. I've mixed meds with water and done this without incident but the tuna juice syringe episode was awful. But, if you've done it before without any problems, then it's just my George. That is very possible.

Hopefully she will have enough of an appetite to want the tuna juice as a treat by tomorrow. Prayers going out for miss Aroara.

[Moesha]

So I had her in the bathroom with the vaporizer last night. I didn't let it run all night though. Just for a few hours. I was afraid the air would get too heavy for her to breathe. It is a small bathroom. The bottom of the bathroom door must have swelled a little because it sure didn't want to close. She didn't eat last night, and I can't get her to eat anything at all today. I've tried all kinds of tempting things. She won't have any of it. I can hear her breathing sometimes now when I am in there with her. I did mix up a dehydration mixture, and I'm going to syringe some into her when my mother gets here to help me hold her. Last night I just had the steam going, today I just turned it back on with a little of the medication stuff in the dish. Is that ok for cats? I'm at my wits end. I hate seeing her feeling so poorly! This was already going to be a horrific week. Now it just got busier. My SIL called earlier this afternoon asking if I was doing anything tomorrow that I absolutely couldn't change. So now I have to go with her to Nashville tomorrow. She has to take her two girls to the dentist. The 8 year old has to have 2 teeth pulled and the 6 year old is getting 3 cavities filled. They don't know it yet though. I am going to have to call the vet right at 8 in the morning and see if they want me to bring Aroara in or if they just want to try a different antibiotic. I hope they want to see her. She'll probably need some fluids if I can't get much into her tonight. I'll have to drop her off and let my mom take care of picking her up and getting her back home. Because after the all day trip to Nashville I have a house and a doctor's office to clean. Can I switch places with someone?

[Emeraldgreen]

Oh no, it sounds like she is only getting worse. If I were you, I'd just show up at the vet clinic as soon as you can and I'm sure they will take her in and get her started on fluids and stuff. The longer she goes without eating or drinking, the harder her recovery is going to be.
Is the clinic open today? If not, the 8:00 in the morning time sounds like the next best thing, unless you know of another vet that is open today.
Once she is in your vet's care, they will be able to take her temp and get her fluids and try different drugs etc.. and you won't have to worry as much if she was at home in your bathroom while you are helping your SIL. You have been trying so hard to help her but she may need some more serious attention that the vet and staff can administer.
Sounds like this is your plan anyway but I think you would be better off just showing up because that way they won't schedule you a time that won't work with your time to meet up with your SIL. It shouldn't be a problem for them to take her in and work on her (exam, tests etc..) when they have an opening later in the day. If she is in really rough shape by then, they'll treat asap!
Please keep us updated. I hope she will take a turn for the better very soon.

[Moesha]

They aren't open today. The only other option is an ER vet about an hour away. I live in a very small town and everyone at the vet knows me. I just have to call and say, "Hi, this is Moe...blah blah" and they know who I am. I have thought about getting there at 8. They'll let me leave her there all day. On Friday when I called they said I could bring her up and leave her and that they'd look at her when they could get to her. As it turned out, the vet was in at 9 and he was able to check her out then. But I couldn't bring her back home at that time, so they let me leave her there until I was able to get her home. My mom has gotten here now, so I'm going to try the rehydration mixture now.