The story of Myrtle
Dec. 15th, 2005 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quietannThanks to everyone who has sent me condolences over Myrtle... If folks have read through the LJ comments, they have probably noticed references to the extra time Myrtle had, all I put into keeping her going, etc.
Myrtle came to me from the MSPCA in March, 2001. A landlord brought her and two other cats in after some tenants left them behind (MSPCA folks say the beginning of the month is always a good time to find nice older pets...) I had many cats to choose from, but the little tabby with the green eyes and crooked grin chose me. I nearly took her pal, too, but her pal was rather undersocialized and tended to bite and scratch without warning.
As one would expect, I took Myrtle to the vet. The first thing that happened is that no one could find a spay scar on her -- but they figured she was spayed, given her age and former place in someone's life as a pet. I had to convince the MSPCA to give me until summer to figure out whether she was spayed. This was especially important because my vet also told me that she had hyperthyroidism and her teeth needed a lot of work, and until the hyperthyroidism was taken care of, she couldn't have any surgery. The vet thought she might be older than the "11-13 years" from her MSPCA cage tag.
I took her home and after a couple of days introduced her to Spook, my other cat. They had some adjusting to do, but luckily Spook had been well-trained in feline submissiveness by Myrtle's predecessor, Midnight. So Myrtle -- all of 6 1/2 pounds at the time -- was able to establish her dominance over Spook, who was over twice her size. We started her on anti-thyroid meds, with the hope that she'd soon be healthy enough to have some teeth extracted. She seemed to do OK for a while, but then she stopped eating and was throwing up whenever she did eat. She was miserable.
The alternative, when a cat cannot tolerate anti-thyroid meds, is to have it treated with radiation. This is expensive, and requires a 2-week boarding at the facility where it is done. So... $1000 and 2 weeks later, Myrtle came home with a very cute radioactive-sign collar, and a care sheet (primarily having to do with disposal of her litterbox contents, which were considered mildly hazardous waste...) A few weeks later, she had her teeth done and her funny grin was even more amusing as she was down to 2 canine teeth, diagonally opposite each other.
(She never came into heat, so we assumed she was spayed...)
For about a year and a half after that, we had a pretty uneventful life together (well, I got married to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
deguspice, but Myrtle wasn't perturbed by the invasion of guests.) She liked to sleep with me, had a great purr, and rapidly turned into a little Butterball of a cat. She had a cheerful disposition, except when hungry.
And then she started limping. Her "elbow" joint on the left side started losing range of motion. The vet gave me PT-like exercises to do with her, but the joint got more and more stiff and swollen. Eventually, she couldn't touch her paw to the floor, and was limping around on 3 legs. After several weeks and many X-rays, it became apparent that she had some sort of bone cancer in the joint. There were little bone spurs everywhere and they were getting worse... so, just before Arisia 2003, her leg was amputated.
She came home (right after Arisia) with a big incision and a missing leg, but a very healthy attitude. When the biopsy results came back, it was not good news. She had some sort of cancer that is common in dogs but almost unheard of in cats, and dogs who had it typically lived no more than 6 months.
And today is December 15, one month short of 3 years since her leg was amputated. Clearly Myrtle did not read the biopsy report!
But... she was still an old cat (one vet, recently, told me he thought that she was at least 19 or 20, but it's very hard to tell.) She lost a few more teeth (including another canine), and while she was quite mobile for a long time, the joints in her remaining front leg were swollen and sore, and she developed a nasty looking sore on one of her back legs, which may have been another tumor. Eventually the "ankle" joint on her front leg collapsed, and her "elbow" was getting suspiciously swollen and bumpy, so the cancer may well have returned.
About 8 or 9 months ago, as often happens with old cats, her kidneys started to go; I started her on sub-Q fluids in June. (jim_p very kindly took her in two times when we went on vacation, since he has experience with "kidney cats.") And she started having heart palpitations, which precluded any more dental work. But... she ate, she slept, she purred (except for a brief period this fall when she lost her purr, for unknown reasons), and she seemed generally happy. I had to block the stairs so she couldn't use them, because her balance was getting worse and it was clearly agony for her to come down the stairs (I'd give her the treat of getting carried upstairs to the couch from time to time.)
This past couple of weeks, she was losing weight again, and she was having a very, very difficult time moving around. I think that without the latter, I might have been able to keep her going for another 6 months -- but just getting to the food bowl and the litterbox was difficult for her, and she would stop and rest after being on her feet for a minute or two.
And so... we spent today together; she slept in my lap and purred for several hours, and then it was time. And I still keep looking down to the heated kitty bed under the computer desk, expecting her to be there...
Myrtle came to me from the MSPCA in March, 2001. A landlord brought her and two other cats in after some tenants left them behind (MSPCA folks say the beginning of the month is always a good time to find nice older pets...) I had many cats to choose from, but the little tabby with the green eyes and crooked grin chose me. I nearly took her pal, too, but her pal was rather undersocialized and tended to bite and scratch without warning.
As one would expect, I took Myrtle to the vet. The first thing that happened is that no one could find a spay scar on her -- but they figured she was spayed, given her age and former place in someone's life as a pet. I had to convince the MSPCA to give me until summer to figure out whether she was spayed. This was especially important because my vet also told me that she had hyperthyroidism and her teeth needed a lot of work, and until the hyperthyroidism was taken care of, she couldn't have any surgery. The vet thought she might be older than the "11-13 years" from her MSPCA cage tag.
I took her home and after a couple of days introduced her to Spook, my other cat. They had some adjusting to do, but luckily Spook had been well-trained in feline submissiveness by Myrtle's predecessor, Midnight. So Myrtle -- all of 6 1/2 pounds at the time -- was able to establish her dominance over Spook, who was over twice her size. We started her on anti-thyroid meds, with the hope that she'd soon be healthy enough to have some teeth extracted. She seemed to do OK for a while, but then she stopped eating and was throwing up whenever she did eat. She was miserable.
The alternative, when a cat cannot tolerate anti-thyroid meds, is to have it treated with radiation. This is expensive, and requires a 2-week boarding at the facility where it is done. So... $1000 and 2 weeks later, Myrtle came home with a very cute radioactive-sign collar, and a care sheet (primarily having to do with disposal of her litterbox contents, which were considered mildly hazardous waste...) A few weeks later, she had her teeth done and her funny grin was even more amusing as she was down to 2 canine teeth, diagonally opposite each other.
(She never came into heat, so we assumed she was spayed...)
For about a year and a half after that, we had a pretty uneventful life together (well, I got married to
deguspice, but Myrtle wasn't perturbed by the invasion of guests.) She liked to sleep with me, had a great purr, and rapidly turned into a little Butterball of a cat. She had a cheerful disposition, except when hungry. And then she started limping. Her "elbow" joint on the left side started losing range of motion. The vet gave me PT-like exercises to do with her, but the joint got more and more stiff and swollen. Eventually, she couldn't touch her paw to the floor, and was limping around on 3 legs. After several weeks and many X-rays, it became apparent that she had some sort of bone cancer in the joint. There were little bone spurs everywhere and they were getting worse... so, just before Arisia 2003, her leg was amputated.
She came home (right after Arisia) with a big incision and a missing leg, but a very healthy attitude. When the biopsy results came back, it was not good news. She had some sort of cancer that is common in dogs but almost unheard of in cats, and dogs who had it typically lived no more than 6 months.
And today is December 15, one month short of 3 years since her leg was amputated. Clearly Myrtle did not read the biopsy report!
But... she was still an old cat (one vet, recently, told me he thought that she was at least 19 or 20, but it's very hard to tell.) She lost a few more teeth (including another canine), and while she was quite mobile for a long time, the joints in her remaining front leg were swollen and sore, and she developed a nasty looking sore on one of her back legs, which may have been another tumor. Eventually the "ankle" joint on her front leg collapsed, and her "elbow" was getting suspiciously swollen and bumpy, so the cancer may well have returned.
About 8 or 9 months ago, as often happens with old cats, her kidneys started to go; I started her on sub-Q fluids in June. (
jim_p very kindly took her in two times when we went on vacation, since he has experience with "kidney cats.") And she started having heart palpitations, which precluded any more dental work. But... she ate, she slept, she purred (except for a brief period this fall when she lost her purr, for unknown reasons), and she seemed generally happy. I had to block the stairs so she couldn't use them, because her balance was getting worse and it was clearly agony for her to come down the stairs (I'd give her the treat of getting carried upstairs to the couch from time to time.)This past couple of weeks, she was losing weight again, and she was having a very, very difficult time moving around. I think that without the latter, I might have been able to keep her going for another 6 months -- but just getting to the food bowl and the litterbox was difficult for her, and she would stop and rest after being on her feet for a minute or two.
And so... we spent today together; she slept in my lap and purred for several hours, and then it was time. And I still keep looking down to the heated kitty bed under the computer desk, expecting her to be there...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 02:42 am (UTC)This summer, I got a new housemate who brought two cats, Abbie and Martha. Martha died in late September and Abbie wrote about it in his blog. (It might resonate, but it's pretty affecting so only look if you don't mind possibly crying.)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 02:58 am (UTC)just ... *hugs*
*sniff*
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 03:05 am (UTC)*sniff*
You were the best catmommy Myrtle could have had, and she knows it...
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 03:06 am (UTC)I'm sorry.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 04:39 am (UTC)That's her...
Date: 2005-12-16 05:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 05:22 am (UTC)Your thoughts and prayers are with me and mine.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 07:25 am (UTC)And there are indeed times when the utmost love you can offer is to allow a more dignified end to suffering.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 02:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 03:59 pm (UTC)That's what happens when you adopt a cat that was abandoned in an apartment. :)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 04:27 pm (UTC)her kidneies were failing. Herbie, my fiance and I have talked about it and we have decided that we probably wouldn't be able to keep Matilda if hers fail,
because both of us are blind and we are busy during the week days, so we can't be around to help her to the box, otherwise we would in a heart beat! I've
thought about what I will do when she can't do some of the stuff she's always done, and it breaks my heart. I am so, so sorry for your loss, but at least
Myrtle had a wonderful home for the last few years of her life.
Huge Hugs,
Dawnielle
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 04:45 pm (UTC)kidney failure is really common in old cats. But the litter box (usually) presents no problems. The main symptoms (in my experience) are that the cat starts drinking a lot of water, eating less, and losing weight. And their fur gets all clumpy and greasy -- a "kidney coat" is easily identifiable by touch.
A lot of vets will do "geriatric profile" blood tests on older cats, usually twice a year. This will often catch a kidney problem before it gets really bad, and usually just changing the diet will help for quite some time.
If the diet alone doesn't help, treatment is sub-cutaneous fluids -- you poke a needle under the cat's skin and let a prescribed amount of Lactated Ringers solution drip in. This is done either every day or every other day (Myrtle had 100 cc's every other day, which took about 15 minutes.) If the cat is cooperative, it's not too hard. But if you are *totally* blind, that might change things.
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 05:39 pm (UTC)You're a good cat mommy. She was blessed to have you as much as you feel blessed to have had her in your life.
I'm so sorry. (wipes tear)
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 09:43 pm (UTC)Thanks for that help. I will be on the look out for those signs as Matilda gets older. Yes, both Herbie and I are totally blind, so it would be hard to give her fluid, or anything like that. We'll see what our vet suggests, if and when she gets to that point. I'm sorry again for your loss.
Hugs,
Dawnielle
no subject
Date: 2005-12-16 11:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-17 05:43 am (UTC)