*** Note: if you get emotional over the loss of family (pets are family!), you might not want to read this.***
What happened with Puka. it's been a week, and it's still really hard to think about. She was so young still... not a very full life, but I know we gave her a much better (and longer) life than she would've gotten out in the streets, or with the Crazy cat lady.
When we got Puka, she had all kinds of diseases and after several different medicines, including a stinky sulfur dip, she got through it. I think this experience had weakened her immune system.
about a month ago, she was acting very lethargic... very unlike her active kitten self. This was not long after Cassie and Britt came to visit us. We took her to the vet, and we gave her antibiotics. she didn't show any improvement, so the next week they switched the antibiotics and the vet said she might have toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease which felines are the main hosts. the most likely way she got it was transmission from her mother while a fetus. that wouldn't surprise me, since she had all kinds of problems anyway. Toxoplasmosis causes flu-like symptoms (she had a fever), muscle aches (which would explain the lethargy), and in animals with weaker immune systems, it can cause eye damage or worse.
So, for a month, we took Puka to the vet once a week. mid-month, her eyes got cloudy and we had noticed they were always dilated. this made it even more likely to be toxoplasmosis. we kept up the antibiotics and also eyedrops.
Puka seemed to be getting better. she was more active (not at the level as before, but she was walking around and greeting us at the door like before) and was eating and drinking more. then... a day before her fourth vet visit, she seemed to stop eating and reverted back to the whole lethargic thing. she was still drinking water, but not getting any real food. Mike tried to force feed her before taking her to the vet, but didn't succeed.
the vet said Puka seemed to get through the toxoplasmosis okay; her eyes weren't cloudy anymore and her eyes were also not as dilated as before. her sinuses were all clogged up (she was breathing heavily through a stuffed up nose) and her eyes started to get a little goopy. the vet said she got a secondary bacterial infection, and in her weakened state, she wasn't doing so well. the vet recommended feeding her soft foods, like baby food and kitten milk.
I got home that night with the baby food and kitten milk, but when I saw her... I couldn't stop crying. she looked so weak and she was crying in a painful way. I sat with her and Maile and Blair came over to keep me company before Mike could get home from work. I force fed her some of the baby food. she kept wanting to sleep and I would feed her in intervals. slowly, it seemed like she was getting back some energy (it started getting a little more difficult to feed her 'cuz she would squirm and bat her paws to get free).
Mike got home and Maile and Blair left. we fed her a little more and gave her some water. I fell asleep for a few hours and during that time Mike fed her again.
around 3am, Mike began to give Puka her antibiotics. this is when it got really rough... as Mike finished feeding her the medicine, Puka started to go into a seizure. all I could do is watch. Mike put her down on the floor and let her convulse, and then she stopped breathing for a bit... but Mike rubbed her down and she started breathing again.
after that... Puka was all disoriented... trying to walk away, hobbling and not going in any particular direction. I started crying and getting a bit hysterical. I couldn't take seeing her in so much pain anymore. Mike tried keeping her still, but she still kept trying to move away.
I called the VCA in Waimalu and I explained to them the situation, and then told them we wanted to put down our kitty. I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to see her suffering anymore. It really reminded me of what we went through with Kinky. it didn't seem like it was serious until the very last couple of days. everything just accelerated exponentially, and all we could do was comfort her and make her last moments easier on her.
We got back from the VCA around 4:30am. I told Mike to throw away every cat thing in the house. Toxoplasmosis can be passed through feces, so the first things to go were the litter boxes.
we still have her toys around, scratch post (she never did use that thing), food dishes... we'll probably keep the scratch post, but I'm pretty sure everything else is going into the trash.
I really didn't want to have to go through this again... so soon... that was the risk we took with adopting from a lady who catches feral cats from who knows where and then medicates them herself and says "it's all good."
We'll adopt another kitten, but not sure when. or from where. everytime I go to the Humane Society, they are all out of kittens. now I'm wary of adopting from foster homes... maybe it's just this one lady that seemed to not really pay much attention to whether the kittens she brings in have lots of diseases or not.
Puka was such a pretty kitty. her colors were so unique. I really miss her cute self.