These past few weeks have been hell. Is he doing better? Is he doing worse? Why does he need so many fluids, why does he keep getting dehydrated? Why isn't his breathing slowing down?
It was awful. One hour he'd look horrible, the next he'd be eating and purring. But always, the labored breathing. In all honesty, I was never very optimistic, not since his initial diagnoses of allergic bronchitis.
Yesterday I called the vet clinic to make an appointment with the owner. That appointment was at 10:15 this morning. Richie cried at me as we waited. Around 10:30 the vet came in and checked him out. A lot had changed since last month. Instead of having a good heart rate, Richie's was all over the place. And while I described what Richie had been doing at home, laying on the sofa and hanging his head over the edge, laying on a chair and hanging his head over the edge, laying on the big pillow on the patio and hanging his head over the edge, the vet shook his head. "That's bad."
We talked about options, but the balance between Richie's thyroid problem and heart problem is a very difficult thing to maintain. He's not had much luck at all in the past with this. I asked what were the chances Richie could get better. He replied "ten percent". Yeah, no, I'm not putting Richie through that.
I said goodbye to my sweet Richie. He was one of the best cats ever.
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