Possibly that was a real reflection of actuality. Our canine frequently romped by way of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, swapped germs with playmates and scarfed down rogue rooster bones, whereas our cats lived cosseted, indoor lives.
Now I think that we might have missed indicators of sickness in our cats. I had apprehensive that we have been overreacting once we took Olive to the vet for seeming perhaps, barely, kind of not herself. In reality, she was critically in poor health.
Certainly, cats are proficient at masking their signs, which can additionally current in another way from these in canine, consultants informed 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 stated. They may simply soar onto the sofa much less typically or appear crankier when being dealt with.
“Provided that cats are sleeping so many hours a day, and house owners are usually solely round them for a couple of of these hours, it’s a lot simpler to not notice that your cat is steadily altering over time,” Dr. Perry stated.
Looking back, it appeared doubtless that Olive had been quietly declining for weeks.
Ultimately, vets concluded that her immune system was destroying her purple blood cells. However they couldn’t say what had triggered it or discover a medicine that helped. Lastly, as one thing of a final resort, an internist advised that we might take into account eradicating Olive’s huge spleen, which was most likely the place her purple blood cells have been being destroyed.
I emailed one other veterinarian for a second opinion. “Splenectomy is just not the worst possibility,” she wrote again, noting that it was a longtime remedy for human sufferers with related circumstances. “We simply don’t have information in vet med,” she added, “particularly in cats.”
