My love is gone. Tommy’s condition was too complex to manage. He was running a fever towards the end of December, and we noticed his fur wasn’t growing back in high friction areas. Dr Perl gave him an antibiotic and told me to use lanolin on the bald area beneath the collar that Tom had been wearing for only 9 days. He still had surgical alopecia from his dental in November. His appetite was less and less, regardless of the probiotics with the antibiotics, and the Mirataz transdermal gel wasn’t encouraging him any further. His father was able to get a vet just around the corner that took CareCredit and would gather his lab work. The very next day they called his dad about the labs and they were so irregular that they wanted someone else to see him. The day after that, his father got him in for an exam with Dr Levy. Tommy had an arrhythmia of 60-200bpm, the anemia noted on the labs, as well as acute pancreatitis. She said that if his case were not so complex she would call ahead to an ER with a specialist. Acute pancreatitis can often be fatal in cats, and with his overall health of different systems, Tommy would require intensive care and in all probability he would die in a strange place without family allowed in because of ongoing COVID19 precautions. That night we had Dr Perl come back to euthanize him surrounded by family in our home.
The next morning his father and I took him to the crematorium. The following day, which was a Sunday, I got the call that his remains were ready. I sent his dad to gather up our Tom Dirt. I was working that day.