This is my child, Jeremiah Lee. I adopted him in August of 2003. He was born June 24, 2003. AMAZING cat!!! Really seriously great friend to me throughout the years. He knows how to read me very well! He has this sense that he knows my moods, you know happy and sad.
July 19, 2012 I came home from work to find him laying on the floor in the hall, infront of the bathroom. I called out his name. Jeremiah looked up at me and started to attempt to get up and come to me (like he normally does), but he couldn't. I went to him and stood him up on all fours and he fell to the left side. Not able to stand at all.
I immediately called Banfield (with only a matter of minutes left till they closed). They referred me to call Grady 24hr Emergency Vet. I took him there right away. The woman behind the counter took Jeremiah from my arms and straight to the back. About 45 minutes later the Vet came into the little room that they put us in to talk about him. She had many theories of what could have happened. The main thing that she highly suspected is that he threw a clot in his spine. For another word he suffered from a stroke in his back. She assured me that this wasn't a progression of symptoms, and that he suffered from this while I was at work that day. They wanted to keep him for a total of 48 hours, but they only kept him for 24 hours. They kept him on IV's and started steroids and baby aspirin.
When I picked him up he was just looking amazing!! Stinky, but amazing!!!
He did SOOOOO good after that frightful Thursday!!! When he got home Friday night he walked around the house to make sure everything looked the same.
That's how he was up until I left to house sit for my cousin, at least as far as I know up till yesterday/this morning.
I was on my way to the Cincinnati Vineyard Community Church to do the Good Sam Run Outreach when I get a phone call from my dad, about Jeremiah. Having an episode like he had last month. I was on 747, headed into Springdale when I got dad's call. I immediately turned down Port Union Road to shoot up By Pass 4 then home.
The vet was looking at him for a few minutes in the back (I watched while he did this with a door between us). He came in and suggested that he "may have a Hyperthyroid" I stopped him mid-sentence and said that the blood results came back and said he didn't have that. He looked at me and pretty much said "How do you know" kind of expression on his face. I then got my cell phone out and played him the message that Dr Hardig left me regarding his results.
He excused himself so that he can throughly review Jeremiah's medical records to know a better approach to treating his condition. When he came back in his said that his blood work up was really good. And just in looking at that one wouldn't think anything is wrong with him.
He asked me if anyone has taken pictures of his chest, I told him no. Then he started talking about the possibility of Jeremiah having something wrong with his heart. I internally started to freak out. When he sent his vet tech in to talk about the cost of the x-ray, and told me that they would cost me $140's. I knew/know I didn't have the money for it. So I called my dad.
Dad and I had a talk... that I needed to be prepared to make an important decision for Jeremiah here, maybe, soon. By then I was nothing but tears. I need to think about his quality of life from here on out. Thinking and praying hard. I stick my head out the door that went back to where they kept the pets and did all their work with them, to ask the doctor to come in and talk to him more about Jeremiah's quality of life. I'm still crying, and trying to hold it together to have a, some what, civilized conversation with this vet. He told me that he couldn't give me a defiant answer with out the x-rays.
About a hour later they called me and told me that the x-rays were in and that the vet would like to speak to me. When I got back to Banfield the vet asked me to step back in the back to see both slides next to each other. He told me that it was just as he suspected with his heart. He has cardiomyopathy with saddle thrombus. He wants to keep him on his aspirin and Prednisone schedule. But he also wanted to add in there another drug; Enalapril. So he's on those three now, plus Amoxicillin and eye drops.
But that wasn't all. His G.I. system is backed up, as well it showed his bladder was full. The vet said that when the tech put the litter box in the cage with him he went to the bathroom. What concerned him was that his BM was so dark (like dark chocolate- dark). He said that it could mean that he's digesting blood, meaning he may have tumor in his large intestine. So he put Jeremiah on a laxatone gel that you can put on a cat's foot, on their nose, or in their food. I'm going to put it in his food. To help get things moving easier for him.
While we were in the little clinic room, Jeremiah was walking around the room. Stiff legged, but walking around. He wasn't doing that when I picked him up from my dad's. Before Jeremiah and I left the vet went ahead and gave him his med's (the one that I had there with me, and the Enalapril). When I got him home he received the rest of his drugs (but they aren't the "happy kind"). The vet wanted to call me tomorrow (or today since now it's the 11th) and see how he's doing. But I won't be hom until later on. So I told them that I would call them on Monday about how Jeremiah is doing.
Needless to say that I didn't make it to the Good Sam Run today. But that's okay. I did however drive over 140 miles in all from 9 AM to about 7 PM. That would be going from my cousin's house (or in the vicinity of their house) to my dad's house, to get Jeremiah, then back to the Bridgewater Falls area, to the vet. Then from the vet's back to my dad's, because he helped me out with the cost of the x-rays. Then back to the Vet to get Jeremiah, and take him back to dad's house. Then I went to Wal-mart in Oxford to get a kitty litter box that had a top to it, then back to dad's house. To drive back to my cousin's place to feed her babies. Then I went to the Cincinnati Vineyard's celebration service tonight, then back to the house. I didn't want to go, but I did.
I called Stephanie to see how he was doing. She called me back. He's pretty much acting like he did this morning. I wish I was there with him!! I'll be home tomorrow.... I just hope he's doing better!!!
