Wow. We almost lost Sophie to a fever yesterday.
We got ready to head to the shelter's weekly adoption at PetsMart early Saturday morning. I went into the "office" to feed Sophie and check on her kittens and found her laying under a table on the other side of the room. That wasn't completely unexpected, as Sophie has to start weaning the kittens this week.
But, she didn't come to me like she normally does. I left the food by her and brushed my teeth. When I came back a few minutes later, she still had not touched her food. She felt warm to the touch and her breathing seemed rough compared to a few minutes ago. I got worried.
Cathy & I decided to take her to the vet in PetsMart, Banfield. We have an arrangement with a couple of Banfield locations; they give us a 15% discount for shelter cats. Anyway, by the time we got there, Sophie was panting. They promised to call.
Half way to the adoption we got another call - Sophie has a 105° fever (a cat's normal temperature ranges from 100.5° to 102.5° Fahrenheit). A sustained temperature of 105° causes serious complications, such as delirium, seizures, immune failure or brain damage. They were working on bringing her temperature down -- we OKed the estimate, although it was a steep price.
About 1 P.M. the doctor had not seen any decreases yet. The tests all came out negative. Sophie had an infection driving the fever, but the cause was unknown. In fact, if they couldn't break the fever before 5 P.M., we'd have to pick her up and take her to the emergency room. The local Banfield suggested that, given the available information, we should have Sophie euthanized; we left the adoption to pick Sophie up, hoping and praying for a change. I was terribly distressed.
After we arrived at Banfield, we were told that her fever finally peaked and her temperature was down to 102.8° (still high, but better). We were told that Sophie's temperature dropped about 2:30 P.M., and with antibiotics and fluids she may yet recover with no permanent damage. We picked up Sophie, an I.V. bag of fluids, and some antibiotics. We took her temperature hourly last night, and it remained the same, but she took some food.
Today, she's looking better. Her last temperature was 101.5, and she's drinking and seeking attention again. Thank God.
Whew! What a relief! I'm glad she is OK. And we were so happy to be able to meet her babies! Kaitlyn still talks about it. (Before bed last night, she said, "Remember we held the baby kitties??") :)
ReplyDeleteIt was great to see you two also. Micah was disappointed he missed it. But hopefully we can all get together the next time you guys are at the PetsMart!
That would be great!
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