Hallie's Wild Ride
Some of you know Hallie. If you have read any of the three previous posts, you’ve at least heard of her.
The craziness started last week during one of my nightly visits. She was sitting on my lap and her nail got stuck in the blanket. When she jumped down, her leg was askew. It was sticking out and hanging. It was very disconcerting and freaky. I didn’t know what to do, but was getting up to get the carrier to take her to the emergency room. But the leg went back to normal. Whew. I didn’t think much more of it.
A few days later, when I trimmed her nails, the leg popped out again. I was able to put it back. That is a level of freaky that I didn’t think I’d ever get to. So I called her vet who explained that it the nerves have deteriorated and could no longer control the muscle. He said the leg needs amputated and set me up for the next available surgery day, which was yesterday.
All weekend, I wasn’t sure if I did the right thing. I was nervous. I didn’t want her to lose the leg, although I understood why it happens. I have seen dozens of animals recover quickly from an amputation. It’s no big deal. Until its your pet of course. I just felt that there is something more wrong with her.
She had been losing weight over the last year … and I felt that there was something wrong with her, but blood tests showed nothing remarkable. High calcium and high platelet count was it, neither of which tell us much and she was on a wait and watch status.
Well, in the last two months, she has lost an additional half pound. The vet was very concerned about this and called me immediately. He felt that it is too hasty to amputate … that we need to get behind the weight loss first. So they gave her a dental cleaning since she was under and drew blood and gave her an x-ray.
The x-ray confirmed the doctor’s original thoughts and diagnosis, and amputation would be the proper thing to do. It is her elbow that is actually messed up, not her shoulder. A feline leukemia and FIV test is also negative. Her blood tests showed regular platelets (meaning that the previous elevation was due to stress, as we found out, that can happen), and high calcium and CPK. Nobody really knows why cats get high calcium or what to do for it, and CPK is an indicator of muscle wasting, which we know she has, you can see that just looking at her. The high CPK can mean something with her heart or it can be cancer.
We won’t know unless we do some further testing, seeing a specialist who would probably give her an ultrasound and/or exploratory surgery. Since she almost didn’t wake up from the anesthesia, we are not going to proceed. It’s too risky. We’ll keep her on a wait and watch basis, and if she gets sick we will deal with it. I am accepting that she has cancer, and since there are no malfunctioning organs, I would imagine its an immune type or a bone cancer, although that is NOT a diagnosis my vet can give us at this point. And, in case you are wondering, she is only six years old.
She was shaved for the amputation and also along her back where she had some mats … she looks very goofy right now. I hope to add a photo of that to this post someday.
She was rightfully angry when I brought her home after spending the night at the vet. She growled at me (and she has never done that) while inhaling food and when I was visiting with her, she pretty much just snubbed me. So I’d say that she is doing just fine!
Thanks for reading.