On Saturday, Wash got caight in my legs as I was walking round the kitchen table trying to pin out my duvet cover. It was a noteworthy occurrence, because the last time Wash had got caught my legs was just before he got hit by a car - and we later discovered the lack of agility was a symptom of his liver problems. So, I mentioned it to DH, and asked him to watch out for any other instances.
On Sunday, Wash failed to get out of the way when DH was coming downstairs in the dark. We checked Wash over, and couldn't see any obvious injury, and he wasn't exhibiting tenderness anywhere. On Sunday night we found a scab on his head, which hadn't been there in the earlier examination. He'd presumably got caught on something, or had a run in with another cat.
On Monday he seemed fine, just a bit sleepy. On Tuesday, he was still laying about (which isn't unusual), but he just didn't seem right. We'd been testing his blood sugar levels, and they weren't unusual. We made a Vet appointment for the following day.
On Wednesday, the Vet determined that he'd had a bite from another cat. A battery of tests was run, but everything came back normal. He wasn't fighting an infection, there was nothing obviously wrong. However, the Vet (who knows Wash reasonably well now, having had so many interactions with him since Christmas) agreed that something wasn't right. He gave Wash an antiobiotic jab, took another urine sample which this needed to go to an offsite lab, and we made an appointment for the following day.
The following day was yesterday. Wash had eaten some food in the morning, but promptly vomited it back up. He continued looking really miserable all day. The Vet checked him over, and Wash's heartbeat was a bit fast (not surprising, he hates being at the Vet). Th ewanted to do a chest xray, to rule various things out, so we waited while this happened. And we waited. And waited.
How long does a chest xray take?
Well, the reason for the delay was because the chest xray showed some clouding, and the Vet had gone back to the Christmas xrays to do a comparison. There was definitely something there. The next step was to do a heart scan, and also to do a test for pancreatitis. The scan would be done on Friday, Wash would be kept in and, because he had vomited his breakfast, he would be on a drip.
We had not expected to come home without him. We had to go back a little later, to take in his insulin. We arrived at 8.15pm and were surprised to fid the Vet was still there. He'd stayed on to do the heart scan that evening.
The good news is that the heart scan was clear.
Wash has to stay at the Vets until his situation has improved. We had, of course, expected we'd be bringing him home today.... but we know that he's in the right place.
Hopefully we'll know more later.
