Hi everyone and happy holidays,
 
I don't post often but read everyday.  This is going to be hard for me so
please be patient.  My little Yuki, 4 1/2 years old and my first rescue
passed away Thursday evening at the doctors office.  I took her in that
morning because of dehydration, loss of weight, and hardly able to walk.
He did a preliminary urinalysis and it came back ok.  The doc wanted to
keep her and monitor.  I said ok, since I had to get back to work.  I would
stop by later that evening.
 
I got to the docs place about 5pm and talked with him.  He suspected kidney
failure but wasn't sure but wanted to keep her overnight and monitor,
wanted to place a cathater for fluids since that is better than sub-q, I
said ok.  I said that I would go home and get some duck soup to bring back,
he said great.
 
Yuki's history is this, her first dad wasn't able to keep her any longer
due to his allergies, he posted about adoption and that's how I got her.
She was skinny, fur kinda coarse, and her bottom and tail were bald.  Her
first dad stated that she had adrenal surgery back in May '99 and the fur
came back in but then later fell out.  So in September Yuki became my first
rescue/adoptee.  She was so tiny, I was so careful to pick her up.  Got
her switched over from IAMs kitten to a mix of TF and IAMs. Her fur didn't
change right away, she still didn't play much.  Took her to the doc and he
ran an adrenal test, the count was 72, should be somewhere between 0-15 he
said.  I opted for surgery, the doc removed the "left" adrenal since the
right was nowhere to be found.  She appeared to recover great.  Her fur
grew back in quickly, it was very soft and full, her tummy covered over so
fast that the doc had to hunt to find the stitches.  Then.....
 
About 4 days after having her stitches removed, Yuki started sleeping all
the time, only got up to eat a little, drink and poop.  I noticed the poops
were kinda jelly like, and very dark green.  Not ECE green, very, very
dark.  I tried calling the doc at night but couldn't get through.  Called
the next morning and took her in and that is where we are.
 
At 7pm on Thursday night I packed up the duck soup to take over to the docs
place and by the time I got there, (only about 5 minutes away) Yuki had
died.  The doc said the fluids were going in just fine, he doesn't know
what happened.  He didn't expect that to happen.  She even crawled out of
her little corner sleeper to die.  I was devestated, this is my 3rd loss
this year, all within 6 mos of each other.  He said that he could do a
post-mortem if I wanted to to see if he could see what was wrong.  He was
very curious also.  At that point, I couldn't say anything, I had to leave,
I was going to lose it.  I said "yes" to the post-mortem and left.  I cried
for 2 1/2 hours, it hurt so much.
 
The doc sent me an email saying that he found 2 problems that led to her
death.  1) kidney failure, and 2) cardiomyopathy.  He said that he
suspected the kidney failure but not the heart problem.  This started me
crying all over again.  I emailed/called and asked about private cremation,
he said yes they do that.  I asked a couple of other questions and he
answered them and sais that he would take care of it personally the next
morning.
 
I guess what I am trying to say is "DON'T" take your little fuzzies for
granted no matter how busy you are.  They might not be there the next day.
 
Give everyone a hug and kiss from me and mine that are still grieving with
our loss.
 
Monica along with James, Clyde, Squeeker, Slinky, Tango, Cash, Amanda,
Taffy, Keegan, Jewel, Samson, Bear, Felix, Karizma, Oscar.
[Posted in FML issue 2902]