2/22/2012 5:00pm Reflections, Thoughts, and other Tidbits
Last night (Tuesday), I took ET to the night-time clinic to send him off to “kitty heaven.” He had a drawn-out, painful, near-death suffocation experience this past Sunday night. He survived through the night, and returned to his usual, non-suffocating, labored-breathing by Monday’s Sunrise. We took the opportunity to increase his Furosemide (diuretics) dosage to the maximum recommended amount, in hopes to get a little more time out of him.
Stable at last? Or so we hoped…
He seemed stable, but also looked very tired and “out of it”. He hardly ate, and drank only a little water. By the end of Monday, he had lost 1 lb. (10%) of his normal weight. We hoped that this meant that some of the retained fluid may have been released from his pleural cavity, and that he would be OK for several more days. But last night, he began to suffocate again.
A little background…
After his first suffocation attack last October, radiography and echocardiography performed at the cardiologist’s office confirmed the presence of a congenital heart defect (CHD) that was causing congestive heart failure (CHF): a double-chambered right ventricle. By then, one lung was already fully collapsed from excessive fluid build-up (pleural effusion) within the pleural cavity. To treat the condition, he was put on an aggressive schedule of medication, and given pleural taps (thoracocentesis) on several visits to the cardiologist. Unfortunately, the treatment did not yield favorable results, as the fluid would quickly build up again within days. Due to the terminal nature of this disease, and lack of improvement despite treatment, we decided to stop performing pleural taps, and just leave him on medication only.
Last night’s episode was his fourth episode. His breaths were very short and his breathing rate was at an all-time high of up to 3 breaths/sec. We decided that his time had come.
ET’s final moments – happiness, silence, and sadness…
Just as we arrived at the clinic, his suffocation attack took a break. I slowed my pace. The clinic’s staff had a tough time getting the catheter into a vein, due to his extremely poor condition. I heard him meow a few times in pain, but the sound of those meows paled in comparison to his distressed utterances during his suffocation attacks. He was eventually returned to the room with the catheter placed. He legs were limp, and his body was shivering. Yet, he still happily picked up his head and began to purr as soon as he saw me. This made the ensuing process even more difficult, emotionally. I sat there with him for some time, and spoke to him quietly. The sound of dog barks from the other room filled the air.
During ET’s final seconds of life, I held his head in my hands as he purred continuously with half-sleepy eyes. I watched the pink-colored solution disappear into the catheter. The purring slowed to a halt within seconds. He laid there motionless, lifeless. His body still carried the fleeting warmth from just moments ago. The background noises had ceased, and I noticed only silence in the air. I stayed with him for a bit longer, until I notified the staff one last time. They took him to the back, and that was the last I saw of him.
We were deeply saddened to let him go. At the same time, we were also relieved that his suffering had finally come to an end. He was always a happy cat, who never complained, and never got angry. He didn’t even know how to hiss. Since he was a kitten, he would always purr and act cute at the mere sight of us. He was always friendly with other cats and dogs that visited our home. We would never have imagined that a cat could be so sweet, so loving, and so gentle.
We liked to believe that he held out long enough so he could not only spend extra moments with us, but so he could also meet our newborn baby Justin (who was just born 8 days earlier). Likewise, we believed that that baby Justin was born early (1 day short of 37 weeks) so he could meet ET as well.
ET was 1 year 7 months old.
May he rest in peace.
ET, July 19, 2010 – February 21, 2012 11:37pm