Pinto at peace

As I posted on Friday, we were taking Pinto to the vet for an upper respiratory infection and general malaise.  He’d been off both food and water since Thursday, and I didn’t want to leave it too long because he was a bit skinny.  At the vet’s office he was surprisingly attentive and energetic in exploring the office and sitting with us, and during the car ride he sat up and looked out the windows.  The checkup itself was inconclusive—normal temp, normal heartrate—so we just came home with the antibiotics in the hopes that when he could smell properly, he’d start to eat again.

When we brought him home, he immediately turned into “exhausted Pinto”, flopping out on the carpet and not moving.  I gave him his pill and some nose drops, and then came back to gently force feed him about a tablespoon of A/D.  He liked the food and was licking his lips, but needed me to put it on the roof of his mouth before he’d make the effort to swallow it.  I also decided to give him some subq saline, in light of the fact he hadn’t been drinking, and that seemed to perk him up substantially.  I felt a lot better about his condition when I left the room, but he was still weak enough that I lifted him up and placed him in a nice puffy bed and put him in a quiet spot under my desk so he could get some rest.  My plan was to return in 4 to 6 hours to give him some more food and fluids.

Shockingly (and sadly), when I opened the door to the room six hours later I could see Pinto was in the exact place I had left him.  I called him a couple of times but received no response, and I just couldn’t see any movement.  So, I went over to touch him, and he was in rigor mortis and long gone.  I cried, of course… cried that he died alone, cried that I perhaps should have insisted on blood work at the vet, and just cried because his former owners sucked and left him in lousy condition which led to a relatively short life.  I like to think that he was happy during the nine months he spent with us, but I know he was frightened and confused for a few of them, and he only seemed to enjoy my company and to look forward to seeing me as of a few months ago.  The atheist in me hopes there is a special place in hell for people who dump their senior cats at animal control because they’re an inconvenience.

I took Pinto’s body to the vet’s office early this morning so they could arrange to have him cremated.  I doubt there will be a necropsy because the vet who treated him won’t be back in the office until Tuesday, but I would like to know what went wrong.  The one very visible symptom Pinto had, other than the runny nose, was a terrible case of dental disease which caused his canine teeth to ooze pus.  However, they didn’t seem to cause him pain, didn’t impede his eating of hard or soft food, and he didn’t have any infections causing a raised temperature, so no septicemia.  I wanted to have his teeth pulled (this was the first time we’d been told he had more than just standard “dirty teeth"), but felt it was best to clear up his URI before attempting surgery.  I wondered about a urinary blockage, but the vet didn’t mention him having a full bladder, and he didn’t act like he was in pain (nor did he act oddly around the litterbox).  I’d have to think that sudden and complete renal failure could be a suspect, although I don’t know why a vet wouldn’t catch that.  He didn’t vomit, didn’t have diarrhea, didn’t pant, was active up until a week and a half ago, and always had great litterbox habits.  He was “old” (probably around 14 or 15), but he was in great condition until our air conditioning failed and then it was all downhill.

I feel increasingly sick about our lack of money.  When we started to do rescue we had plenty of money and price was no object.  Now that our finances are non-existent, our vet lets us run a big tab, but also tends to suggest the most conservative treatments and in this case, Pinto might have been saved by aggressive blood work and at least one or two overnight clinic stays.  I know we could have done better by him at the very end, but I also hope that was counterbalanced by the excellent diet he ate during his time with us, and the affection he received from us.  He had to have known that we loved him, and I know he trusted us.  The one thing I feel I can guarantee is that he had a better death here than he would have had at animal control, 9 months ago.  Goodbye, Beanie Boy #1… we’ll take good care of your brother!

Pinto

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 09/14 at 05:05 AM

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  1. I’m so sorry! Poor kitty.

    Posted by Helly  on  09/14  at  09:24 AM

  2. I am so sorry.  You guys did right by him and should have no regrets.  He lived to a good old age and I bet it was one of those situations where it was simply his time to go.  He passed away with a full tummy snuggled up in a comfy bed-you guys did good and I know he appreciated it. I’m just glad it seemed like he wasn’t in any pain at the end and he slipped away in his sleep.

    Hugs to you.

    Posted by von Krankipantzen  on  09/14  at  09:29 AM

  3. I’m so sorry, Leigh-Ann. It may have just been his time...but at least he went comfortably in his sleep, at home where he was loved, rather than scared at animal control. Just remember that you saved him from that. *hugs*

    Posted by Helena  on  09/14  at  06:21 PM

  4. Oh man - I’m SO sorry, Muddy :( We’ve been offline for 2 weeks now (a weekend renovation of the study that will never end) and I just hopped on from work to see what’s happening in the cyberhood. 

    Pinto was warm, fed, made comfortable by saline, cozy in a soft bed, and likely happy in his private corner.  Death is a singular act, ultimately, and I’ve noticed that when animals die on their own they do so after seeking a quiet and private place.  You didn’t leave him to die alone, you honored his life by giving him natural comfort for his death. 

    I’m so very sorry at the news; I do know from Ziggy that a seemingly small change in routine initiated system interruption and finally failure.  That intolerance for changing circumstances just seems part of the life cycle in elderly cats.  The heat wave quite possibly set off a system shutdown that would have occurred a day later if something else had changed.

    I hope you can take comfort in the fact that Pinto left on his terms in his time.  And he left knowing that for at least a brief while he was cherished.

    Posted by Print  on  09/15  at  01:24 PM

  5. Thank you for all the kind thoughts about Pinto (and me).  Whenever we’ve lost a pet it’s been a learning experience, and that somehow makes it easier (yet harder).  In Pinto’s case, I’m sure he died of kidney failure, even though he didn’t exhibit all the classic signs.  The vet didn’t do blood work, but she quizzed us about things which would be symptoms of kidney failure, like vomiting, and it seemed like we could rule that out.  Over the last two days of his life, though, he stopped drinking, stopped urinating (but I don’t think he had a blockage), and seemed almost “drunk” along with his weakness.  Given that kidney failure causes a slow poisoning of the body and can be a fairly gentle death, I do think that’s what might have been going on.

    Now that I’ve got Skylar on his own, I’ve been able to clearly see that Pinto was the cat who filled the litterbox with half a dozen urine clumps a day.  With Pinto gone, the box contains one, perhaps two pee clumps every 24 hours instead of the six or seven+ I’d often find.  Pinto was also the one drinking all the water—the water bowl would be empty or nearly empty every afternoon.  These weren’t new occurrences, and had been the status quo since both cats arrived, but it now clearly points to Pinto as being unhealthy.  He’d been to the vet at least three times over the past nine months, though, and nothing obvious was ever wrong except his upper respiratory problems, but if he’d been an only-cat I would have been able to see that he wasn’t exactly normal.

    So, I’m sad we lost him, and I miss his demanding meows to me while I filled up his food dish at dinner time.  He loved to eat, and towards the end, I know he’d even grown to like me.  However, I don’t think there was much we could have done short of prolonging his life a bit, and daily pilling and fluids and such would have been stressful for him.  It’s one thing to pill and poke your own cat (as Print knows), but another to do it to a cat who is wary of you and still feeling unsettled.  I’m sure if we’d had bloodwork done at the vet last Friday we would have been put in the position of choosing whether to euthanize him, and I would have really wrestled with the decision because it was so unexpected.  Skylar has been perfectly fine and happy since Pinto’s death, and maybe it was good for him that Pinto died at home—I know animals often handle these things better than we “higher beings” do.

    On a related note, the entire scenario underlines the fact that we’ve had to move to doing “the bare minimum” at the vet.  No more gratuitous dental cleanings, even though I’m such an advocate of preventative medicine - we just don’t have the funds anymore.  Other than the sheer uncertainty of our future living arrangements, feeling like the pets are being short-changed is my greatest motivator towards trying to get back on our financial feet.  At least the animals all still eat like kings and queens, thanks to some ingenuity on our part, and the occasional donation from frozen/raw food companies.  That is probably the best form of preventative medicine I can think of.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/17  at  02:47 PM

  6. Dear Leigh-Ann, I’m glad to see you’re blogging again, as I was pretty worried about you and Flippy and, of course, the animals. I’m so sorry about sweet Pinto. As others said, I’m sure he wasn’t in any pain and didn’t suffer, he just went in his sleep when he was ready. Look at his smile in your picture - you did everything you could for him. Pinto died at home with dignity instead of suffering through painful, scary treatments at the vet.
    Catching up,
    Tabbymom Jen, Victor & Nina

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat's Mom  on  09/26  at  12:46 PM
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