On Thursday, September 26, Charlie took Brandy to the vet to have his sutures removed. His incision had healed well. He had taken all of his antibiotics and his temperature was normal. He was eating normally and playing with the other cats. We were happy to see that he seemed to be well again.
For the weekend, we had planned to take the RV over to the local KOA campground. We haven’t done that in awhile, but when we do, we take care of the cats as usual in the morning, go over to the RV for the day, come home in the afternoon to feed the cats and then go back to spend the night. It just gives us some time during the day that we don’t have to constantly feel like we need to be doing something around the house. But, with the recent kittens joining the clan, we decided to cancel the weekend RV stay. It was a good thing we did.
On Saturday, September 28, I fed the cats on the catio as I normally did. Brandy seemed fine. He ate his breakfast. Later, I was on the catio cleaning and I noticed that someone had vomited. I didn’t know who did it.
Later, I was out shopping when I received a message from my friend. She had someone who was interested in giving Brandy a home! Although it was good news, I knew it would be hard to say goodbye to Brandy. But, it was the best thing for him.
I was happy when I got home. But, when I went to the catio to check on the kittens, I noticed that someone had vomited in a couple of places. It looked just like the spot that morning. While I was cleaning, I saw Brandy vomit. He did not look well.
It was after 4:00 p.m., so our regular vet was closed. We called a vet who we used to use. They were open until 6:00 p.m. They told us to bring Brandy in immediately.
Brandy was examined. When his tummy was pressed, he seemed to have pain. Then he threw up again. The same greenish liquid. The vet said it was bile. There was no food in it. An X-ray was taken to see if there was an obstruction. Nothing showed, but the intestines had many gas pockets. We had not noticed any diarrhea though. Blood was drawn for a full panel test. The results wouldn’t be back until the next day or Monday. Brandy was a little dehydrated, but didn’t have a temperature. He was rehydrated and given an anti-nausea injection. He was released to us. The vet said we should keep an eye on him and if he got worse, take him to emergency.
We brought him home, hoping he would feel better. I fed the cats, but of course Brandy was not hungry. I checked on him several times and he just seemed to feel worse. He was also vomiting still. We decided to take him to the emergency hospital. He was such a sweet little kitten and he was so sick. What happened to him? There were no plants on the patio. As soon as we got home from the vet earlier, we removed all toys from the patio, just in case. We didn’t find anything that was chewed. We were puzzled.
Brandy was checked into the emergency hospital at 8:30 p.m The X-rays had been downloaded on a CD, which we brought with us. The technician took Brandy back for the initial exam and we waited in an examination room. Brandy was brought back to us. We were waiting for the doctor to come in. I was holding Brandy and he just seemed to be getting worse every minute. He seemed cold to me. I had him wrapped in a blanket. He stirred a little and I had a feeling that he was just going to die while I held him. Where was the doctor? I told Charlie I was afraid that Brandy was dying. He got up to find the doctor. Brandy seemed to settle down again.
The doctor came in and started the examination. She had looked at the X-rays and agreed there seemed to be no blockage. The vet who took the X-rays earlier in the afternoon thought he noticed an enlarged liver, but the emergency vet did not. She said there was a severe gastrointestinal problem. I guess they use that term for a tummy ache. They wanted to put Brandy on fluids and anti-nausea meds. This little fellow was really sick. Even after the anti-nausea meds earlier, he had vomited a couple of times again.
Three hours later, the vet wanted to keep Brandy overnight. He was not any better. We asked to see him before we left. They took us back to where he was. We petted him. He really did not seem to be aware of us. He was worse than when we had last seen him. We really hoped something could be done, but without blood work, we really didn’t have any idea what was happening to him.
At 1:30 a.m. the vet called. Brandy’s temperature was dropping. They wanted to do more X-rays. We approved. At 2:46 a.m. the vet called again. Brandy’s blood pressure was dropping. We approved meds to help. We questioned whether anything done so far was helping. The vet could not say for sure if it would. At 3:09 a.m. the vet called. They needed approval to keep Brandy in ICU. We approved it. We were really agonizing over how much more we could do. We had signed the paper saying that if resuscitation was needed, call us first for approval.
At 4:22 a.m. the vet called. Brandy had stopped breathing and was in cardiac arrest. We told them not to resuscitate at this point. He had been through enough.
On Monday morning we went up to the hospital and got Brandy. We took him to the pet memorial park for cremation. It was a trip we had made three years before with Taz. It is always a very sad time. Even though we had only had Brandy for a little over two weeks, we were devastated.
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| Brandy Lopez Bell 3/1/13 - 9/29/13 |
More later.....
My middle name is Devil,
Tazzy D _^..^_
