Possibly that was a real reflection of actuality. Our canines repeatedly romped by means of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, swapped germs with playmates and scarfed down rogue hen bones, whereas our cats lived cosseted, indoor lives.
Now I believe that we could have missed indicators of sickness in our cats. I had anxious that we have been overreacting once we took Olive to the vet for seeming possibly, barely, kind of not herself. The truth is, she was critically unwell.
Certainly, cats are proficient at masking their signs, which can additionally current in a different way from these in canines, specialists informed me. Arthritic canines usually develop noticeable limps, that are simply noticed on walks, whereas many arthritic cats present no apparent indicators of lameness, Dr. Perry mentioned. They may simply bounce onto the sofa much less usually or appear crankier when being dealt with.
“On condition that cats are sleeping so many hours a day, and homeowners are typically solely round them for a couple of of these hours, it’s a lot simpler to not understand that your cat is progressively altering over time,” Dr. Perry mentioned.
Looking back, it appeared seemingly that Olive had been quietly declining for weeks.
Finally, vets concluded that her immune system was destroying her pink blood cells. However they couldn’t say what had triggered it or discover a treatment that helped. Lastly, as one thing of a final resort, an internist advised that we might contemplate eradicating Olive’s monumental spleen, which was in all probability the place her pink blood cells have been being destroyed.
I emailed one other veterinarian for a second opinion. “Splenectomy just isn’t the worst possibility,” she wrote again, noting that it was a longtime therapy for human sufferers with related circumstances. “We simply don’t have knowledge in vet med,” she added, “particularly in cats.”
