Morning everyone. Not a post I wanted to write but I want to keep you guys in the loop.
I have just posted a mini bonus video from a couple of weeks back, for those of you in the Fauna Tier and I do talk about how our Luna is hurt and I'm really upset and worried about her. She developed a limp and has been struggling with walking/putting weight on it etc but as she is exceptionally ✨special✨ it's impossible to have her checked out by the vet. They gave me some pain medication to try and although it has helped, she still has a minor limp and is compensating, so the vet said they would have to give me a crush cage to put her in, take her to the vets in it and they'd try and sedate her to do examinations. The idea of this is just horrific. Luna is terrified of crates, she's terrified of other people, she's terrified of anything she doesn't know and she becomes exceptionally feral, unpredictable and any experience as such makes her not just violent but violently ill from stress and it's just added trauma for her. So the thought of having to potentially put her through all of that JUST for an examination is killing me, let alone the thought of her being in pain and needing help. So we've been dealing with that.
To make matters worse, we attended a not so great event yesterday (it's a 2 day event so all our stuff is still there and it's over an hours drive) to come home to find Cleo had taken not a good turn. She was coughing, wheezing, struggling to breath, heaving and having bouts of these attacks quite frequently. Every once in a while the cats will do this (rarely for the eggies) if they have a fur ball or something caught in their throat. However, this was constant and she wasn't having much of a break in between each attack. We phoned our out of hours emergency vet and they said it'll cost us a few hundred just to get her seen BUT that they were really busy and very overrun with patients already so suggested to monitor her and if she doesn't improve / get's worse / we think it's best to bring her in, we'd have to head over and wait till a vet was free. So we made the decision to keep her comfy at home and just hope that she would be ok. I've not left her side since we got home yesterday and I think I've cried enough tears to fix a drought.
Alex slept on a camp bed in the spare room and I kept Cleo in our bed to monitor her all night. She did get some sleep in but the attacks kept happening. I've been checking that she's still breathing, videoing any attacks for the vets and trying to keep her calm throughout. It's breaking my heart. As per, Alex is incredible and he's headed to the event today. Like I said, all our stuff is there and has been left overnight, so it's not just a case of pulling out of today's event. Alex made the point of, if he has to go all that way to pack away the table set up and all the stock, he may as well try and do some of the event. Considering we're about to be hit with a shit load of vet bills, we could really do with some sales today! (Luckily we just about made our table money back yesterday so a financially loss at a market is not what we need right now!) So I'm still glued to her side in our bed, we have a fan going to keep the room cool so she doesn't overheat wrapped in her blankets and luckily so far, she's not been having as many attacks so far this morning. Any signs of her getting worse, I'll be heading to the emergency vet and Alex will be heading home asap.
The coughing/wheezing she is doing could be many things. Sadly, it is the exact thing that cats do when 1. They have asthma / they're having an asthma attack.
2. They have HCM.
Asthma is obviously treatable but still not something you ever want your cat to have, ESPECIALLY a sphynx cat. The farmers in the field near my house have been burning stuff for weeks now constantly. I think it's crop residue but I'm not sure. So our house is constantly surrounded by smoke. The house is roasting hot because of the weather but we can't air the house out / get some fresh air because of how bad the smoke is. The vet said this could be what's causing Cleo to be so poorly.
HCM on the other hand is a heart condition, and the main killer of Sphynx cats. This is any sphynx parents worst nightmare. There's nothing you can really do. The test for HCM is extremely expensive and it can't always give you a definite answer due to there being so many variations of HCM and a negative result one day could also then be a positive result the next. If they do test positive, they can be medicated to hopefully slow down any issues and side effects but ultimately, the truth is, you can lose your baby at ANY point to this and it's sudden.
So, I'm stressed, I'm scared, I'm heartbroken and I am HOPING to god she pulls through. An ideal scenario (the obvious being she's actually just fine, just got something stuck in her throat or a tickle) would be that she's ok today and tomorrow and I can call our normal vet in the morning and that they have an appointment tomorrow morning to check her over and that she's good. But I honestly don't know what's going to happen. Adopting Cleo was the best decision I ever made. I can't imagine ever losing her, let alone this soon.
Thank you for letting me get this off my chest. Please be thinking of our sweet baby today x
