Farewell

Ollie died last October, almost exactly a year after he came to live with us. He was a lovely cat, and I'm still missing him. I'm so glad that I was able to give him an extra year of quality-of-life, when he would otherwise have been put to sleep within days of when I picked him up.

Moving On

It's been a while since I updated here - this blog was, after all, created mainly to be a backup of my Ollie posts at catchat.org as it was feared that they may be lost when the forum closed - but they're all still there so that's good.

After a little while it became apparent that the steroids were helping Ollie for a little while, but as they wore off he was returning to the circling, calling and litter tray confusion.

Eventually, last Tuesday, the vets finally came out with it. They think he's probably got a brain tumour. It hasn't been confirmed by any of the things you'd use to confirm it in a human, but the nature of his symptoms and his response to the steroids make that diagnosis far more likely than any other.

We will not be attempting chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. He's a tired old man, terrified of the vets and the cat basket and the car, and none of those things are ever terribly effective in cats. I will keep him on the steroids until they stop working, at which point his life will end.

At the moment, he's actually pretty chipper. He had another steroid jab on Tuesday, he seems more confident staying in the kitchen at night with bed and litter tray and food and water all close by, and he's got much more affectionate in the day.

It may be months or weeks or even just days he has left, but I'm determined that he will be warm and happy and loved for ever minute of them.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Twelfth

*13.11.06*
Hiya - sorry if the silence worried you!

Ollie is absolutely fine, really chirpy, came and pestered me for ear scratchies for AGES this evening. I'm feeling a bit ropey so not so much computer time for me today, I did an hour's (violin) teaching this afternoon and it's really knocked the stuffing out.

It's funny, he does the usual butch meowly growly things when the kittens are bugging him but he's got this really squeaky girly mew when he's saying hello, it's sooooooo sweet.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Eleventh

*12.11.06*
We have lift-off!

Well, jump-off, anyway. Or jump-on. Or something.

Anyhow, Ollie came and joined me on the bed for my five-hour afternoon nap (oopsie!) today. I haven't seen him do that for... weeks. So that's the fourth 'indicator' of him feeling pretty chipper.

What on earth could be wrong with him that steroids help so well but makes him so ill when they run out? It's bizarre.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Tenth

*10.11.06*
Ollie is just grand thanks - he's done a wee AND a poo in the litter tray :-):-):-) and is currently curled up right behind me chair so I'm trapped at the puter (what a hardship!).

He slept upstairs in my bedroom, just in the right place to trip me up when I'm staggering around trying to find socks and braces and crutches in the morning, and followed me going downstairs telling me allllll about how hungry he was.

He still hasn't jumped up on any furniture but I think he's in pretty good nick - and I see you've found my other thread so I'll not bother mentioning that again but ouch! :-)

You know, it's not half nice having all you lot saying friendly things and asking how the Ollifer is. Makes an 'orrible cold wet windy Manchester night a bit cosier and all that.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Ninth

*09.11.06, later*
WOOHOO 3 out of 4 indicators for Ollie feeling well: he's just come upstairs for the first time in... ooh, about a week. And told me all about it too :-) He's now sitting on my lap as I type this and purring nicely.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Eighth

*09.11.06*
Hiya

We did indeed make it to the vet this morning - and saw our favourite vet, Mr Barry. He has suggested that we try Ollie on a dose of the long-lasting steroid, which should work for a month, and if that goes well then a blood test probably won't be necessary and we'll just maintain Ollie on the steroids. So - no tests for now, and Ollie is feeling a bit perkier already.

There are 4 main indicators for how Ollie's feeling: purring when being cuddled, taking a swipe if a kitten tries to pinch his dinner, coming upstairs and jumping on the bed. He's up to 2 of the 4 so far this afternoon!

The Ollie Tails: Part the Seventh

*06.11.06*
Strewth - I reckon I ought to stop posting Ollie updates on here cos every time I say something he goes and does the opposite.

This morning he's still going round in circles but managed nearly all his breakfast AND half a sardine for afters, purred when I picked him up, had a good long cuddle, went and tried (oops) to have a wee in the litter tray, came back for more cuddling and ended up on his back purring like a lawnmower and wriggling so that I could rub his tummy to best effect.

Murphy's law, I reckon. Dead confusing. What do you lot think? I'm wondering if I ought to see if CPL would pay for a set of blood tests for Ollie, see if we can figure out what's going on and whether it's treatable.

Fingers crossed I haven't just jinxed him by posting this...

The Ollie Tails: Part the Sixth

*05.11.06*
Sorry to post with such absolutely rotten news but I'm pretty sure Ollie is dying.

He's really very unsteady on his feet, another steroid injection on Monday brought a small improvement but he's deteriorated again, much faster than before and that's with my wonderful assistant making sure he definitely got all his pills every day and all.

He doesn't seem to be in pain and is mostly dozing on the sofa and managing to eat the odd bit of sardine, but his breathing's a bit on the noisy side and he's not managing to use the litter tray.

We're going to take him to the vets tomorrow - nothing's changing fast, it's been a smooth decline so I don't think it'd be worth dragging him out twice the distance to the emergency vets this evening.

Thanks for all your kind words and support, I'll let you know how we go over the next couple of days.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Messedupthenumberingsystem.

*28.10.06*
Ollie is aged between 8 and 12 and was in a very bad way when I got him, as you'll see if you read back to the start of the thread - he seemed a lot older than 12 then but now he's feeling better I'm inclined to revise my guesstimate of his age downwards a bit.

The rescues tend to percieve that older cats are difficult to home - wrongly, I think - and would take up more cattery space for longer than younger cats. I know just as many people that want a mature, loving lapcat as prefer a frisky youngster.

If Ollie needed something that the CPL couldn't or wouldn't pay for (and to be fair they've been incredibly generous and immediately offered all appropriate help) then I'd be faced with a very hard set of choices - I'm a disabled student with no income to speak of and I've got insurance sorted for my own kits but you can't insure a short-term fostered cat.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Fifth

*30.10.06*
Ollie is (fingers crossed) back on the road to recovery after a really rotten weekend.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Fourth

*19.10.06*
YEEEEEEEEEHA

We have liftoff.

Well not really.

But basically Ollie's been given the all clear. Given his extremely good response to the antibiotics and steroids the vet thinks it was probably a rather nasty ear infection that had been untreated for a long time.

He's been on and off the bed loads now, dashes over and jumps up when I go in so that I can reach him to better scratch his ears :-)

He seems to have decided that prawn flavour Whiskas is the best thing since sliced mice and has had a couple of interesting-sounding conversations with my girlies, under the door.

Vet says that as soon as I'm confident his diarrhoea has settled (stress-related - our estate is being re-roofed!!) I can start introducing him to the kits properly and I reckon he's a green for rehoming from there on.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Third

*16.10.06*
Meet Ollie.

The reason I thought it was health rather than behaviour related was because he didn't seem to be able to stop - there were things he was interested in but he couldn't stop circling long enough to investigate them, that first night.

He does seem to be feeling a lot better - he's very social and will 'talk' and make a lot of eye contact now, tail held high, he's been playing some more and I finally managed to coax him onto the bed this morning! The vet was very guarded about his prognosis and so am I - he's still a poorly boy, there's a bit of a toiletting problem, he's not keeping himself as clean as cats usually do - but I think there's room for some real hope now.

We're going back to the vets again on Thursday.

The Ollie Tails: Part the Second

*13.10.06*
Am astounded and absolutely delighted to report that I was woken up this morning by Ollie yelling for his breakfast. He must be feeling SO much better - he's a different cat. He's had a bit of a play, rolled over to have his tummy rubbed, polished off a Felix pouch ("beefy steaklets"... urgh!) and joy of all joys used his litter tray - which contained the hugest cat wee I've ever seen.

He's still clearly not quite right, his back legs are a bit wobbly and I haven't yet managed to coax him up onto the bed - but he put his front paws up a few more times and rather more willingly in pursuit of the dangly tag off a catnip teabag. But - thank gawdn - no more circles, which were the thing that really worried both Nice Vet and me. We're going to go back again this afternoon to see what they think.

The Ollie Tails: Part the First

*12.10.06*
As previously mentioned, I collected an elderly gentleman cat, hereon known as Ollie, from a vets in Kirby yesterday afternoon. He had apparently been brought in as a stray about a month ago, and had been in a cage - apparently unexamined - there ever since. He's a handsome, long black cat with a very loud voice and he seems quite happy to be stroked and talked to.

That's where the cosy stuff stops. This is not a well cat, guys. He's spent most of his time huddled under my bed and when he does venture out, he turns in tight circles constantly. I found a huge diarrhoea-y poo on the carpet this morning, I've shown him the litter tray but he was completely disinterested. He's clearly feeling too dizzy/unsteady to even try and get on the (low) bed; with much coaxing I managed to persuade him to get his paws up but in the end I had to lift him, and when he wanted to get down again it was a rather sad and undignified sort of slide off.

The very kind vet at the Ashfield practise in Sale (THANK YOU CPL for paying for that one!) has given him a big dose of antibiotics and steroids and I'm going to take Ollie back tomorrow to see if he's feeling any better, but to be honest I'm pretty sure that he is about due to go on to a happier hunting ground.

I'm absolutely livid at the previous vets who had him for a *month* and didn't bother to check his health out at all in all that time. I can't bear to think about how long this old chap has been feeling so sick and dizzy for - he spends so much time lying down that he's got calluses on his back legs.