Bad News About Sox

It all happened so fast, we are still reeling from shock. We had to go back to the vet yesterday because Sox needed two more blood tests...and then we had to wait because the doctor wanted to talk to us. I had a really bad feeling about it all.

Just a few weeks ago, I took this picture of the gang. Sox is in the front, in the blue collar, eating with his normal gusto.



The picture I posted of Sox and TB was taken about 3 or 4 weeks ago, when he was still a frequent visitor and cuddler.
I didn't think much of it when he stopped because he began cuddling with Heidi under a nice warm blanket and just assumed he preferred that in the winter coolness of the house to sitting with TB and me.

The girls began to say that Sox smelled and that he wasn't grooming himself. I noticed he was getting thinner and realized that although he was still showing up with the gang, he wasn't eating the dry food. He'd knocked over a pail of garbage and gotten chicken bones and I was worried he had one lodged somewhere in his mouth or throat. I watched him when he did try to eat and saw that he shook his head back and forth and was having trouble chewing and swallowing. So we took him to the vet.

The first vet said she saw an ulcer and a swollen tongue, gave us antibiotics and a pain medication and drew some blood to rule out a problem with kidneys or some other underlying condition.

It was that "underlying condition" that now had me worried.

Sure enough when the vet (a different one from the first doctor) came in to talk to us, she had dire news. She said she didn't see an ulcer but she did see a growth--a tumor--under Sox's tongue. Because of the location, she said we could try chemo but that it probably wouldn't do any good. Surgery is out of the question because it would mean removing his tongue.

"You're saying he's going to die?" I couldn't believe it. Not our dear, sweet little Sox!

"I'm saying we should help him get there," she answered. "He's suffering. He can't eat. He can't groom himself."

But after we'd seen the first vet, I'd gone out and bought baby food chicken and turkey plus all the soft cat food I thought he could handle. He had trouble with the cat food but was scarfing down the baby food.

While in the vet's office, he was as active and curious as he'd ever been, getting into everything.

It is true that at home he's taken to hiding away from all of us and only sits with Heidi when she pulls him out and wraps him in a blankie to sit on her lap. She's been giving him baths to help with the grooming issue and he's been great about it!

So we are all in shock. I think the vet would have been all ready to put Sox down then and there but we said no. We needed for the kids to be able to say goodbye--and WE needed to come to grips with all this. The doctor understood and handed me a box of tissues. I was crying like a baby.

TB thinks the second doctor is wrong. He says Sox is eating the baby food well and we should give him a chance. What if it is an infection and not a tumor? One of the blood tests they gave Sox (which got "blown out" by the tech, whatever that means, and had to be run again) shows he's not making any new red blood cells.



This video was taken in the last week or two. If you look really close you can see what I missed: the left side of Sox's face is a little swollen and so is his tongue.

Nobody wants Sox to suffer.

It's just not fair. Sox is such a sweet, gentle cat! We are all just torn apart.