Weddingbee boards

This is going to be a long post, I apologize. But I just have to talk to someone about this. Backstory:

On Sunday Oct 11th, my normally rambunctious 2 year old cat, Toki, started acting a little subdued and lethargic. I know lethargy is indicative of a larger problem in cats, but he was eating, drinking, and using the litterbox normally; he just seemed sort of "quiet."

Monday morning he was still subdued, but he ate and drank in the morning before I left for work. I called my regular vet to discuss it with them, and they had no appointments on Monday, but agreed to see him Tuesday morning.

When I got home Monday evening, Toki seemed to have gone a little more downhill. He didn't come downstairs to greet my fiance and I, which he usually does. He just wanted to sit on our bed, and he looked sicker. We debated bringing him to an emergency vet, but since we had the morning appointment on Tuesday, we decided against it at around 9pm.

Around midnight, he started breathing shallowly and quickly, and I knew I couldn't wait 12 hours for his regular vet. I took him to the e-vet, and right away they found out he had a very high fever of 106. They assumed it was something viral, but would have to do a myriad of tests to find out.

Tuesday morning: he was not any better, still had a fever, etc. They do an ultrasound and some x-rays, and determine by the afternoon that he has pancreatitis. This news is concerning, but I'm glad that it's not necessarily life-threatening. We've spent about $2500 thus far.

Wednesday morning, yesterday, the Dr realizes the pancreatitis is a secondary condition, so they need to look for a cause. More ultrasounds and x-rays, and they determine that 100% he has a blockage in his intestine. The Dr tells me that they definitely have to do surgery, and that it will be $3500. He tells me that if I waited one more day (till today), my regular vet could do it for $1500, but that it would be extremely risky to wait. My fiance and I decide to go ahead with the more expensive immediate surgery.

6:30pm Wednesday night: the surgery is finished, and guess what! THERE WAS NO BLOCKAGE. AT ALL. His pancreas is also not swollen, so he doesn't actually have pancreatitis, either. However, inside his abdomen was very inflamed, so they took some material for biopsy, and I won't have those results until tomorrow at the earliest. They're now back to assuming that it's viral, but don't know what. Maybe it's FIP, maybe it's something less fatal. Maybe it's cancer. Who the fuck knows.

This morning: We've now spent $5300, and by the end of today will have spent another $400 more for his care today. They have no idea what's wrong, and won't until the biopsy results come back. Even then they may be inconclusive. They're discussing sending him home this evening if he improves a little more, so that I can administer the subcutaneous fluids, all the medication, take care of his incision, and monitor his fever.

I am at my wit's end, and my fiance is thoroughly disgusted with spending so much of our Rainy-Day fund without learning anything. I hate being in limbo like this. I wish he would either pass on so that I can face it and grieve, or he would get better so we can move on with this. But this terrible not-knowing is killing me, especially since his condition has not really changed at all since Monday, but now he has to try and heal from major abdominal surgery while fighting this fever and inflammation.

To summarize: I've spent $5300 and counting for the vet to tell me they have no idea why my cat is sick, and he's not getting any better, and I'm going fucking crazy.

The boy in question:

aw! ((hugs!)) I hope he gets better soon.

Also I notice he is knawing on some leaves to the top of a pineapple, do you have any house plants he knaws on. I don't know if you know this, but some plants are toxic to cats, and well if he is eating them, that might be why he is sick, but I don't know.
Hope something gets figured out soon!

My fiance is definitely going to discuss the fees with them, and get them to reduce this heinous bill. I'm usually really good at negotiating, but I've been an emotional wreck since this all started.

We do have another older cat, and he's been fine so far. He is incredibly needy with his "brother" gone, and has been following us around for 3 days begging and begging for attention. His problems are all mental :)

We don't have any houseplants. I actually had a scare with Toki last year when he ate part of a lily that was in a bouquet my fiance had given me. He survived that near-death experience, so I'm hoping he'll pull through this one. 

@redherring: The price is really steep. I assume it's because it's an e-vet, our normal vet is expensive, but not this much. We are really upset because we were told that we needed this immediate $3500 surgery, instead of waiting one day to have it done at my regular vet for $1500, especially since they didn't find anything. 

They have no real idea why a blockage showed up on the multiple ultrasounds and x-rays, and then wasn't there. I wish the biopsies didn't take so long to come back, but I know it's a complicated process. 

I am really sick of all their speculating, and being wrong the whole time. Today I'm going to see about moving him to my regular vet if my regular vet thinks that's a good idea. 

An update: we're most likely moving him to his regular vet regardless of how he's doing. My fiance and I are so angry at how this has been handled and we no longer feel like the emergency vet can offer competent care. 

We'll definitely be fighting all these vet bills. Several people including other vets have confirmed that what we are being charged is too much. 

I think something just snapped between last night and today; I no longer want these clueless people touching my cat. I was just in such shock that I couldn't even see that they weren't doing anything, and that they know nothing. 

I just wanted to post an update, we had Toki stay at the emergency vet since my regular vet agreed that he'd need more overnight care that they can't offer. 

Well, none of that matters now, we got back the biopsy results, and he almost definitely has FIP, an always-fatal viral disease. They're doing a more complicated test to tell us for sure.

The results of that test, when positive, 100% mean that he has the disease. Even when they are negative, there's still a 57% chance that he still has it. 

I'm absolutely devastated right now.

I hope Toki gets better real soon.  Keep us posted!

I'm so sorry, you'll all be in my thoughts, I hope that whatever happens happens smoothly and peacefully. Hugs...