A week in disarray

When your loved one has sudden and serious health threats.

It’s ok Kinki, I’m still here.

Mrs Tubbs has been feeling neglected for a number of days. But instead of looking to Tubbs for some love, she has done the opposite by avoiding him. Until this morning. 

She nonchalantly sauntered around Tubbs and flicked her tail in his face. She had bet that he couldn’t resist and he didn’t. He groomed her and she pushed her forehead to his face for more.

…

Mr Tubbs has been going through a crazy week. He’s still trying to figure out what’s happened. For a wise old cat (he’s as old as Sir David Attenborough), he’s finding it hard to comprehend . 

Last Saturday and Sunday and Monday (21 Oct), Tubbs lost time up to 9 times each day. He doesn’t know where he went during this time. It would always be sudden. He was jolted, attacked out of nowhere, as if his soul was being held hostage. He would yelp five times as loudly as he could. 

Each attack lasted just a minute, but it felt like an eternity before he returned to normality. During these excursions, Tubbs felt his mummy’s touch, he heard her calling, but muffled, through a vacuum. He looked at her with unblinking eyes. It was disorienting, bewildering. He was scared. He was defenceless in the safety of his own home. When he returned, Tubbs was always frozen and drooling.

Tubbs’ vet Dr Wong suspected “partial seizure”. Even though Tubbs didn’t have an epileptic fit, it was still a serious neurological condition that needed arresting. On Monday night, Dr Tanja prescribed anti-seizure pills Keppra. After the first dose, the seizures stopped. Phew. Tubbs pended a referral to a neurologist at Beecroft.

Tubbs was at first happier, more social but as he got subsequent doses, he felt more and more drowsy. This was an expected side effect. Tubbs was already receiving 50mg short of the standard daily dose of 3x 100mg. 

The dust was just about to settle when Tubbs suffered two bouts of “asthmatic attacks”. On Thursday 6pm and Friday 3am, he coughed violently for 2 min each time. 

This time, Dr Deborah Khoo heard a gallop in Tubbs’ heartbeat and his X-ray revealed a sinister blob over 2 of his 4 heart chambers. Tubbs had fluids in his chest cavity. A blood test revealed an abnormality in the heart. All of this pointed to a high risk of “throwing a clot” ie stroke and paralysis. Tubbs needed immediate referral to AnE.

Tubbs was whisked to Beecroft AnE. The attending vet Dr Sasi’s ultrasound scan confirmed fluids in Tubbs’ chest cavity: “pleural effusion”. His heart was enlarged - he had a “smoke sign in the left atrium of the heart”, possibly a Restrictive cardiomyopathy. He couldn’t breathe effectively as his lungs were blocked by the fluids buildup.

Tubbs needed diuretics to help him Pee out fluids and also blood thinners to prevent “throwing clots”. As he has a pre-existing renal condition, Tubbs had to manage the risk of losing electrolytes from the peeing. 

Tubbs was giddy with all the commotion but felt lucky that he received such decisive and competent care. Mostly he was grateful that Mummy had astutely picked up all the signs! 

Tubbs meowed a note of thanks to Mummy’s late bunion, whose sacrifice required Mummy to be home instead of working/gallivanting. He was also grateful that it was Friday and Daddy was not working and could be his ambulance.

…

How did this suddenly evolve? Was the heart disease related to the seizure? What else have we missed? What must we prepare for?

Looking back to last wed, I had noticed his hoarse meowless mew. I had commented that Tubbs meow was “laohong” but didn’t dwell on it. It was inexplicable then. From hindsight, that could be the early onset of the weak lungs?

On 25 Oct Friday at 3am, Tubbs came to sleep alongside me after his asthma attack. He has not slept alongside me for a long time. His head was on my arm pit. I had my arm around him. I could feel his agitated, heaving breath. I tried to “breathe him down” by slowing my breath. We fell asleep. 

At sunrise, Tubbs came again to lie on me and looked hard at me, in silence. I now know he was trying to communicate with me

For now, we watch closely. He doesn’t have any open mouth breathing. His resting breaths per minute is safely under 30 times/ min.

We try to be strategic in feeding meds, but Tubbs seems to be always ahead of us - he’s so super tuned to the sounds of medication prep. He also is highly skilled in frothing up any foreign material and flicking his drool all over the floor and walls. He can even now pretend to have swallowed and then cough up the impediment, tossing it in the shadows. Lastly, because he is normally so aimable, his super scowl and grumpy growl hit me hard.

We considered the capsule way to reduce pilling, but decided to stick with pilling. I tell myself it’s on a best effort basis. Prioritise the 8 pills/vitamins and if cannot, then don’t force, don’t fret. Last thing I want is to stress Tubbs out more. 

Just didn’t expect that Tubbs would threaten to leave this soon and so dramatically. Always thought he would live for another 7 years until he hits 25 years. After all, his kidney disease has been so well maintained for the last 6-7 years. He is and will always be our first cat. I believe we have done everything we could since we brought him home in 2008. So, we can’t regret anything.

We hope for everything.