Perhaps that was a real reflection of actuality. Our canine commonly romped by means of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, swapped germs with playmates and scarfed down rogue rooster bones, whereas our cats lived cosseted, indoor lives.
Now I believe that we might have missed indicators of sickness in our cats. I had nervous that we had been overreacting after we took Olive to the vet for seeming possibly, barely, form of not herself. In actual fact, she was critically in poor health.
Certainly, cats are gifted at masking their signs, which can additionally current in a different way from these in canine, consultants instructed me. Arthritic canine typically develop noticeable limps, that are simply noticed on walks, whereas many arthritic cats present no apparent indicators of lameness, Dr. Perry mentioned. They may simply soar onto the sofa much less typically or appear crankier when being dealt with.
“On condition that cats are sleeping so many hours a day, and house owners are typically solely round them for just a few of these hours, it’s a lot simpler to not understand that your cat is step by step altering over time,” Dr. Perry mentioned.
Looking back, it appeared doubtless that Olive had been quietly declining for weeks.
Ultimately, vets concluded that her immune system was destroying her crimson blood cells. However they couldn’t say what had triggered it or discover a treatment that helped. Lastly, as one thing of a final resort, an internist urged that we might take into account eradicating Olive’s monumental spleen, which was most likely the place her crimson blood cells had been being destroyed.
I emailed one other veterinarian for a second opinion. “Splenectomy will not be the worst choice,” she wrote again, noting that it was a longtime therapy for human sufferers with related situations. “We simply don’t have knowledge in vet med,” she added, “particularly in cats.”
