Cat Emergency

Remember how I said I'd be going home to visit my parents and then celebrate Teddy's birthday (which is tomorrow, BTW)? Well, fate had other plans for me.

Last Sunday we went to the emergency vet with one of the cats, who had become weak randomly. Since he is only 4 years old and hadn't pooped in a while we assumed it was a some kind of constipation which would be easily solved by the vet - no biggie, right?

Well, instead, he only felt worse and worse, all while the vet had no clue what was happening.

After two days and a ~500 USD bill JUST for travelling between our home and the vet, sometimes multiple times per day (we actually haven't received the actual vet bill yet, so that's gonna be fun), we were actually sent to the capital, to what is likely the best animal hospital in the country. From our island that's a 5 hour trip, 3 of which are on a ferry, with a possibly dying cat. Fun, fun times.

Turns out, at the hospital @ Stockholm, they couldn't tell what was wrong either. They ran more and more tests with the cat in their critical care unit for several days, and apparently he only turned worse and worse. Luckily, Teddy's mother lives in Stockholm so he came with me and we stayed there, waiting for a single phonecall every day where they'd let us know how he was doing.

After x tests, they figured out not only is he severely anemic, which is likely the cause of his miserable state (though they couldn't tell us what caused the anaemia..) he also has early signs of a heart disease (but if all goes well that's not something that will bother him for many years yet). They gave him medicine, but to our dismay nothing seemed to help, again for multiple days.

Yesterday the vet reached a breaking point: either he gets better today from the medicine he's been given, or there's nothing that can be done, and he has to be put down. Well, today we received news he was sliiightly better and could come out of the critical care unit and receive treatment at home for the next two days, with another checkup on Tuesday. Since there's no way we're gonna travel back and forth 5 hours each way between now and Tuesday, we're currently staying at Teddy's mothers place, hoping everything will be fine.

Link (the cat) has only shown slight improvements that need to be much bigger on Tuesday, or we'll still have to put him down since it's incredibly unlikely he'll ever get better if he isn't by then. If it comes to that, at least he got 2 days with people who know and love him, rather than spending his whole last week in the hands of strangers.

So yeah. Currently I'm sitting in Teddy's mother's bed, while she sleeps in the living room, with a terribly sick cat next to me who barely eats. I haven't been near a computer since last Sunday when we first went to the vet with Link, and I honestly don't know when I'll be back to a regular work schedule. It could be anything between a few days to one or two more weeks depending on how things go.

I know that some of you might not understand why I'm doing all this "just" for a cat, but to me the cats are like family members. They're always there for me and it's my responsibility to make sure they feel good and are properly taken care of. Before this is done, I expect the vet bill will be more than 2-3 months worth of salaries. It's a ton of money and a ton of time, but I really love this cat and I seriously pray he will be OK even though I'm not even religious. He's only 4 years old, this is just way too soon :(

So anyway, as you might understand, the blog will be resting for a little while. I'll try to start working again after Tuesday when he's either well enough to come home with us to the island, or he's so bad we had to put him down. BUT, even if I start working then the blog might be down for another week or two. I just want all my non-work attention to be on Link and helping him get well again.

I hope you guys understand, and I'll be back as soon as I can! Without you guys I wouldn't be able to keep a cat at all, much less pay these hefty vet bills. So thank you all for supporting us and know the game is ALWAYS on my mind, I just need to do my best to try and save my best friend right now.