It's a daggone sickness competition

So Lucy manages to be just as sick as Amanda. If not slightly more.

Two weeks ago she was wheezing a little bit, right before Amanda went in for chemo #5. I kept an eye on her for a few days, and while her condition worsened, it just looked like a bad kitty cold.

By Monday of last week, her eyes were all gooped up with sticky nastiness. I took to cleaning her eyes 3 or 4 times / day for a couple of days, and scheduled a Wednesday morning vet visit. Before we went in, I did some research and found that she had conjunctivitis, which is often brought on by feline herpesvirus and generally accompanied by an upper respiratory infection. It seemed a perfect fit, and required medical attention.

So we took her in. We got medicine to put directly into her eyes, and amoxicillin to shove down her throat (Amanda and I are both allergic, so it would be really fun to get scratched or bitten while handling that stuff!). We also learned that she'd lost about a pound, which wasn't too worrying since we'd switched their diet to a lighter formula a few months back.

So we went home, medicated our girl, and watched her condition improve overnight. And then worsen over the next several days. She wouldn't eat. We couldn't force-feed her.

Monday morning, I called and asked if I could hospitalize her. She was super-weak, super-snotty, and has been blowing bloody snot-chunks all over the house.

I took her in and she'd lost another pound in 5 days. She is now hospitalized, being syringe-fed, on a full course of slightly different antibiotics, and receiving IV fluids.

She was severely dehydrated, showing signs of liver damage, had a white blood-cell count of 30,000 (it should have been 19,000) -- don't worry, it's not leukemia. Another couple of days and her liver would have been irreperably damaged.

So it's kind of close, and the vet is being guarded on her chances. Just like the VCU doctors do with Amanda.

And our poor other cat, Vivienne, was left to wonder just what in the hell is going on. With Lucy, Amanda, and Alastair out of the house last night, she was extra clingy this morning when I had to leave for work.