It’s Christmas Eve! Marty is at work tonight and I’m sitting around with the fur babies. He’s hopefully going to get off early from the nightshift to go to Midnight Mass with us.
The cats got a new cat tree, some dental treats and a sardine can toy. They love the new tree! It will be shredded in a month. LOL We got the dogs gingerbread dog houses that Sean and I will build with them tomorrow. Yes, we are goofy and it’s okay. Life is good despite the sad news we received on Monday.
Monday morning before work, we dropped River off at the vet to be neutered. A few hours later I received a call from the vet. I was told they were unable to perform the surgery because River has a severe heart murmur. It was not present a few months ago when we brought him in for his first visit!
The vet asked if it was okay to do chest x-rays to see if River has an enlarged heart. If his heart was not enlarged, they could go ahead with the procedure. Unfortunately, the x-ray showed that his heart is enlarged and they could not proceed. Cats with this condition can die under anesthesia. They can also develop clots that will kill them. <tears> She asked if he had been lethargic or showing signs of distressed breathing.
He is only 7 months old and he acts like a normal kitten! He is full of energy and pounces on the other cats. He loves to chase them around, too. You would never know there was something wrong with River if you saw him playing. The vet started him on a blood thinner and we will see a cardiologist for an ultrasound next Tuesday. The blood thinner will decrease the clot risk and risk of sudden death.
The cardiologist will give us a better idea of what we are dealing with. Right now it is hard to make a decision without knowing the whole picture. The vet we saw was honest and said that the fact that it came on so suddenly and worsened so rapidly is not good. She ran an enzyme test the proBNP, and River’s is 224. Below 100 is normal. 270 is considered congestive heart failure.
Maybe River can take daily blood thinners and live a year. Once source said a kitten with rapid progression has a 20-30% chance of surviving a year. It seems so unreal because he doesn’t have any lethargy or outward symptoms. He’s not struggling to breathe, doesn’t have a cough and he runs around like wild!
I don’t want to put another animal down, but only time will tell what will happen to River. I asked God on Monday, “Why did you give me the heart of St. Francis?” It’s so hard to watch an animal suffer. Right now he is doing seemingly fine…… but I won’t let him suffer if and when the time comes. Animals offer humans such amazing companionship and comfort in sorrowful times, they deserve to be treated well.
I can’t remember if it was 13 years or 15 years ago that the dishwasher flooded the kitchen and ruined the wood floor. At the time, we did not have the money to replace the wood or to get any sort of nice flooring, so we bought these really cheap adhesive vinyl tiles. There was no seal in between the tiles. As one would expect, water was always getting in between and they started lifting. Here recently, they lifted to the point that we’d catch our feet on them. Marty doesn’t rest on his days off during the week! Bless him for fixing the floor.
Now for a happier topic….. Last week, Marty was off for a few days, so he removed the old tiles in part of the kitchen and replaced it with the extra flooring we had from redoing the upstairs 2 years ago. It worked out perfectly! No cost to us! Marty even put a new floor vent in!
The rest of the wood floor in the house can be refinished, but that is one heck of an undertaking! I don’t think we will be refinishing the wood floor anytime soon (or replacing it). That project may just have to wait until retirement! Counting down the years. Hopefully just 5 more to go.
I can appreciate not having a super exciting Christmas. Making gingerbread houses with the dogs is plenty of excitement. Sometimes it is good to have a restful holiday.
Merry Christmas! Salvation is born.
My Little Red Bike 