Rabbit didn't eat dinner yesterday. She had to be pulled out of my closet for breakfast, which she barely touched. She had been a little mopey this week, but this was new. Once we got a good look at her, her jaw was noticeably swollen and she didn't want to be held or messed with at all. She ran back into the closet at the soonest opportunity. It was a very long wait for the vet clinic to start answering their phones this morning. It wasn't until after 9 that the Mr finally got through and made her an appointment.
I couldn't wait all the way until 2:30 for them to see her. I called just after noon, to see whether they could get her in quicker, and they said yes, come in the next 10 minutes. Luckily, the vet is five or six blocks from the house, so I was on it.
The last time I took her to the vet, back in February or March, we had concerns about her teeth, as well as how much weight she has lost. They checked her thyroid, which was fine, but the doc was not happy with the galloping arrhythmia she detected. She wouldn't give her an under-anaesthesia dental cleaning with her heart like that. I didn't say anything to the vet at the time, but I knew then that my own health issues were going to suck all the air out of the room for a while, which they did. I'm finally feeling like my normal self, just in time to have to rush Rabbit back to see her, and this time I explained why I wasn't able to detect any further dental decay in my cat until this morning. Thankfully she didn't judge me harshly.
The doc still won't put Rabbit under to extract a tooth. Not that she could see clearly over the swelling and Rabbit's absolute refusal to let her open her mouth wide enough to see in there. It's obviously incredibly painful for her. The only solution the doctor would offer short of us going to a specialty clinic for a heart ultrasound (which I can't afford while going through cancer treatment myself) is "pulse antibiotics." She got an injectable antibiotic and a pain killer today, and we can see next week whether it was enough to knock down the infection and get a good view of the mouth. We may have to do periodic rounds of antibiotics like this to control a recurring infection, but putting her under for an extraction will be extremely risky.
At this point, the risks are high either way. If she can't eat, which she declined to do tonight again, she'll waste away and die. If the infection gets too severe, it can kill her. If we put her under, to take out the tooth, we may solve the problem, or it might cause her heart to stop. There aren't a lot of good options. This is going to be a rough weekend, worrying about the love of my life. I have to hope that the antibiotics start to work over the next six or eight hours, and reduce her pain. I can't stand that she's hurting.
Picture from a happier day.
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