An amazing thing has happened

How many teeth?

You may recall on Saturday I made mention in my post that as I fell asleep a thought struck me that I would blog about later. This is later! I didn't want to blog it until I had confirmation that what had happened was correct.....and now I have!

Firstly I must apologise, I feel somewhat of a fraud, you will understand as you read.

Late on Saturday night as I fell asleep thinking of Poppy's predicament and how I could help her, a memory almost lost, of something Maggie had said to me suddenly returned to my conscious thoughts and things started to fall into place. She had said to me earlier in the day that I should check in Poppy's mouth for obstructions but having spoken to the vet and got his sad prognosis I forgot in my state of upset.

So in the middle of the night we got back up, propelled a rather confused cat into a suitable examination position and against her protestations managed to open her little mouth. It is not easy for the un-practiced to know quite what to look for in the mouth of a cat who is struggling madly but I noticed a kind of 'hole' on her gum. I first thought it was, as the vet had suggested, an ulcer, caused as a result of her failing kidneys but it was not angry looking like an ulcer, then it struck me.............she had lost a canine tooth! I was still unsure but as luck would have it I had taken the above photograph a few weeks earlier so we quickly checked the picture and sure enough there had been a tooth where there was now not one. This set off a chain of thought.......I recalled a few days previously that she had been 'fussing' with that side of her mouth but satisfied at the time that she was not choking I had forgotten it. Now it made sense.

And so this was what had lifted my spirits on Saturday night, the possibility that Poppy's symptoms of slavering and drinking may not be her advancing kidney failure but rather a dental problem.

This evening we made our way to keep an appointment with our favorite vet, still not really allowing ourselves to hope too much.

She was duly inspected, listened too and gently prodded, she had a little basic dental care (she has very few teeth anyway, having had some extracted a few years ago) and a shot of antibiotic.

And the prognosis?.....she lost a tooth, she has a sore slightly infected gum and that is the cause of her symptoms. Yes, she does still have kidney problems but not as as advanced as was first thought, in fact the vet finished by saying she is in the general health of a ten year old cat, not bad for a cat who is 16 tomorrow!!
Yes, we could lose her at any time at her age but if nothing changes it will not be as soon as we had feared....she may even have a year or two left if we are lucky!!

Some birthday present :o)

I feel like someone has taken something very heavy from my mind. You will understand now why I feel somewhat of a fraud, all the kind thoughts and comments at the sad news and now it seems thankfully that my sadness was unwarranted. I did, I know take the advice of the professionals and they made the best judgement with the information available.... but still I feel a fraud!

And Maggie, well I have thanked her personally of course but now I will do it publicly, without her special gift I would never have known..... and how long Poppy might have suffered I don't know. She said to me in a mail this evening "I looked closely at her face in yer picture, she told me she was irritated, NOT dying". Where animals are concerned there is something Maggie has that most of us don't.

Thank you Magz, the biggest most chocolate covered thank you ever...... and thank you also to all of you who left me so many caring comments or mailed me. The time will come when I lose Poppy but hopefully and with a little luck her demise will not be quite so soon!!!

I am happy tonight......and Poppy has tuna :o)