My poor little Squeekie!

So, I came home from work today and could not find Squeekie. I finally located him in the closet and his eye was filled with tears and blood! I raced him down to the vet to see what was the matter, thinking maybe he had scratched his eye or something. It turns out he has a growth in his mouth/throat that has been pushing up on his eye socket and causing pain and infection. How could this progress so fast? I only noticed a slight weepy eye yesterday and thought nothing of it. The vet said he suspects possibly CANCER! Oh noes! The vet said he would try antibiotics for 2 weeks, then if it does not work, anti-inflammatory drugs for 2 weeks, and finally a biopsy to confirm. Poor Squeekie is only 5 years old - I am not ready for this! :cry:

I am just beside myself. It has been one thing after another with my 2 cats for a couple months now and this just takes the cake. I am trying not to think of the worst-case scenario – tell myself it is something minor - but how could I not be worried?! I would think it is something we are doing, but we give them excellent food, clean cat pan, lots of attention, love & toys. The only stress we have in the house is the psychological & financial stress from all these cat problems. The worst part is that I just brought Squeekie to the vet for a physical no more then 2 months ago with that spastic vet. If he missed a chance to diagnose this problem sooner along with the ringworm he misdiagnosed, I am going to be furious!
:x

 

:cry: OMG poor thing!! poor you!!! Let's hope that the antibiotics help and it is just an irritation. It is never easy when our fur babies get sick or something happens that we cannot fix.

 

let's hope it's only an infection.
I did once have a cat who had bloody discharge from her eye. Ended up being a scratch on her eyeball. Luckily it was healing on its own and didn't need any help but it was scary.
Did the vet do a litmus (probably spelled wrong) strip test on her eye?

 

Yes, he put this dye in his eye that looked like yellow hilighter ink to check for a scratch. No scratch.

We leave food down all the time and I did not notice if he had been eating for the past few days. I don’t think he has been since I tried to give him a treat yesterday and he tried to bite it - and then hissed at it because it hurt him! I added some water to his food and ground it up. I got him to eat a bit last night, and he curled up on my lap for an hour (he has otherwise been hiding out in the closet for the last 2 days). I was hopeful he would have perked up this morning if the antibiotics kicked in, but no luck. He was back in the closet and showed no interest in breakfast or socializing. I know the vet said to wait 2 weeks for the antibiotics and eye drops to kick in, but if he is not eating a normal meal by tonight (water or no), I will have to bring him back asap. Poor little guy, he looks like 3 miles of bad road. I feel so guilty for not seeing something sooner. I just figured he and Aries had gotten into a fight (as they do) & he got a scratch on his eye. I figured he was being reclusive because of that.

My husband and I go back and forth about if I get paranoid about the cat's health. The ONE time I decide to not make a big deal about something minor, and it turns out to be life threatening! Gah! Even my husband seems very concerned this time - checking on Squeekie in the middle of the night last night - and that is not like him at all.

 

I'm so sorry to hear this. Please keep us posted and let us how he's doing. That is so sad.

 

Thanks for listening. It feels better to talk to people who understand.

Last night made me feel slightly optimistic, as I am looking for any signs of recovery. His eye is looking a bit better with the ointment. I tried to give him some ground up kibble last night when I got home, and he backed away from the bowl. I think he has made the association that food hurts him and so he does not want to try without major encouragement. When my husband got home he presented the food again. This time, my husband put some of it on his finger to have Squeekie lick-test it. Realizing he could eat the ground kibble with less pain, Squeekie purred and ate about 1/4-1/2 a cup of it. I spoke to my vet and I am picking up some pain killers for him on the way home today. I guess it is a narcotic that you can rub directly on their gums and it gets absorbed through the skin (so no pills needed, thank God!). I will also be picking up some soft cat food and hopefully that will do it for him. The vet also suggested meat baby food?! Anyone else used this before?

This does not, of course, solve the underlining problem. The vet said the antibiotics should have kicked in by now and if they work, we should see major improvement over the weekend. I will bring him back next week sometime for a follow up. If the “growth” does not go down by next week, the only other treatment to try is an anti-infamatory shot. After that, it is a biopsy to confirm that it is cancer.

My husband has already made the stance that cancer treatment is inhumane - even for a human that understand what is going on. I agree with him and have always thought it was too much to ask a small animal to go through. I once had a dog when I was 5 years old, Russell, who was my best friend. When he got heartworm when I was 12, I was devastated. In the 1980’s, the treatment for heartworm was brutal and my mother pleaded with me to let Russell go, but I refused to give up hope. With a 90% fatality rate, by some miracle - my beloved pooch lived! But seeing him suffer so much through the treatment was gut-wrenching. Even after he recovered - he was never the same dog. I know I can’t be that selfish again. In theory I have learned my lesson from this experience, but I guess you feel conflicted when it is YOUR pet. It is hard to consider saying good bye, especially if it is your choice as a pet owner. You feel cruel if you do, and cruel if you don’t. I simply hope it does not come to that.

 

Big hugs. Hoping that he'll be alright. If the soft cat foods don't work, try the meat baby foods but make sure it doesn't contain onions or salt in it. Thinking of all of you...

 

I'm so sorry to hear about this. Poor Squeekie :cry: I'll keep my fingers crossed, and pray that he will get better soon. big hugs!

 

I'll be crossing my fingers, too. I hope everything works out!

 

WOOT! From "one paw in the grave", to bouncing around the house again! Well, after I gave him some pain meds Thursday evening, he ate 1.5 jars of baby food with a lot of encouragement from my husband and I. He still refused to come out of hiding, but we took comfort in the fact that he at least ate something! At 2:30am that night, he actually came out of hiding and woke me up for food! The next day I had off from work, so I had a lot of time to encourage him to eat. With the pain meds, he ate the rest of that baby food and a whole can of Friskys wet cat food. He also ventured out a bit and slept on his favorite spot in the living room – my lap. He seemed to be eating with less pain, so by Saturday, I tried feeding him with no pain meds. He seemed to be feeling ok without them and ate 2 cans of wet food. Sunday he ate 3 cans – what a hungry little guy!! I was so happy! He even started running around and has the energy now to wake me up for a 2:30am feeding (I have created a monster! Haha!). Today, he ate a couple bites of his normal kibble without a hint of pain. His eye is much better too! I am overjoyed! :y_the_best:

I cannot tell you how happy this makes me, I am just smothering the little guy with attention! I am still going to offer him wet food for the rest of the week, just to make sure he is eating and to help him gain some weight back. My husband has insisted that we bring him back to the vet next week no matter how good he is doing. I know my husband – he talks a big game, but he loves the cats like they were his children. The vet said he was very confused about the growth in his mouth because it was not near the throat, or by his teeth – it was just a random spot. It must have grown very quickly too, because his behavior changed literally overnight. Thankfully, it seems to have been some strange bacterial infection that took a little longer than expected to respond to the antibiotics - but what a Godsend they were. He likely would have died if we had not caught this in time. I can not express enough how sick this cat looked and acted - he seriously did not have the strength to lift his head up just 72 hours ago. Let’s hope this trend continues and Squeekie is on the mend!

 

YEA!!!!! glad to hear the good news!!! that is fantastic to hear how well he is doing!!! :mrgreen: go sqeekers!!! hope he continues to get better and get a clean bill of health. Guys can be softies!!! My BF is quite the animal kind of guy my fur babies all love him.

 

Glad to hear the good news! Go Squeekie

 

Wonderful news. *does the happy dance*

 

That is wonderful news. I'm so happy Squeekie is getting better.

 

So, I woke up this morning to a symphony of squeaks and chirps, as Squeekie pranced at exact tripping pace in front of me to the kitchen (his morning ritual). He is always so happy when I wake up that he makes non-stop happy sounds for about 10 minutes at 6am, much to my husband’s displeasure. We always have food down, so I figure he just wants attention. I shuffled to the coffee pot and mumbled, “ya ya ya - morning to you too.” and pat him on the head. Then I realized something: When was the last time Squeekie had done this little morning ritual? It seemed like weeks. It was heartwarming to see him behaving like his old self again. We have a vet appointment next Monday just to follow up, but I am officially dubbing this cat, “healthy” !

 

That is very good news. Thanks for the update. It's so tough when our fur animals are not doing well.

 

that's such good news glad to hear that the morning ritual has begone again.....

 

Yay!