more on charleton

this is charlie and me yesterday morning, just before i had to bring him into the vet to be hospitalised. (you can see where they shaved his legs for his procedure last week). the good news from the biopsy results, which we finally got on monday, was that charlie does have IBD, and not cancer (i.e. the lymphoma). the bad news is that we got that info when he rushed him in on monday morning after nearly a full week of not eating, and a full weekend of him staggering around in pain and meowing piteously because we couldn't help him. it was so horrible.

in the course of about a week he'd lost another full pound of weight -- so he was down to only five pounds total. he finally got a shot of steroids (to treat the inflammation in his bowels) and an anti-nausea shot (to try to help him be able to eat). his disease has progressed pretty quickly, and it seems the endoscopy, while allowing for a diagnosis, also helped to further inflame his intestines. the doctor we met with was the same one who did his ultrasound -- she is so nice, and really caring. she gave him an x-ray to make sure he didn't have pneumonia, and even slipped in a quick ultrasound to check on the progress of the IBD, and didn't charge us for it. then she let us call her several times with things like, "HE JUST FELL ASLEEP REALLY WEIRDLY IS HE DYING?" throughout the day. she is awesome, if anyone is ever in the capital district and needs complex care for their wee animals i would totally recommend her.

anyway charlie had a brief turnaround after the first round of shots, and ate pretty well that night... and then he stopped eating, or meowing, or even really moving. previous to this, even when he couldn't eat, he always seemed to want to eat. but not anymore.

i was pretty afraid we were at the end. my sister and i talked about keeping him home or bringing him into the vet for hospitalisation. i really, really didn't want to do that, because i was convinced if we did that he was going to die all alone in a cage in a scary place surrounded by strangers. but my sister couldn't watch him die at home, so i brought him in.

we visited last night and this morning, and he seems to, cautiously, be doing a bit better. the most important thing is to keep him eating, and it seems they've been able to get him to eat. we've been giving him subcutaneous fluids, but apparently he was still a little dehydrated, so he's on an IV right now. if he's still looking okay later, we'll take him home tonight after my sister gets home from work. we are gonna cuddle the ever-loving fuck out of him. i'm really trying not to get too optimistic about his chances, but i can't seem to help it. :( he is the best kitty of all kitties.