"How I spent my summer....and spring" by Macy

This is where we've been spending our time lately:


Our vet's office. In the spring, Mr GV and I took Macy on a field trip to the emergency vet a few counties over because of a sudden case of blindness. Long story short, the blindness was a result of a very low platelet count caused by ehrlichiosis, a tick-born disease. We got that cleared up with meds, and thankfully the vision problem went away and her platelets are normal. For a while we were told "Don't let her jump/run/get hurt because she might bleed to death." The platelets were pretty much unmeasurable. I promise I'm not just being dramatic! It took a few repeat blood draws to determine that she was in the clear. When she had her vaccinations we had it checked again, and it was normal.

A couple weeks ago Macy started feeling poorly. It's pretty obvious when she's feeling badly--mainly there's a lot of panting and she separates herself from us. In the past it's been an anal gland problem. We visited the vet, where we found Macy had a low-grade fever and had lost a couple pounds and got her gland cleaned out, just in case that was the problem. Her bloodwork was again normal.

Fast-forward a couple weeks and Macy was still not well, and actually seemed worse. Added to her symptoms were trembling, lethargy, and lack of appetite. I took her into the vet this past Saturday and she had a fever of 105 and had lost an additional 2 pounds. A loss of over 4 pounds in about a month is significant when you only weigh 62 pounds to start with. Her bloodwork showed infection, although we have no clue where it's located, and she started on Bactrim, a powerful antibiotic. She was tested again for ehrlichiosis, and that was thankfully negative.

Monday night we noticed a bit of blood here and there. And then more blood--on the couch, the bed, the carpet. And it was coming from Macy's nose. There was no gush, mind you, just enough blood to freak me the heck out. We put a call into the vet and she said she thought it was probably a dry nose from all the panting, and to bring her to the office in the morning. (By the way, our vet rocks! We have been to at least 8 vets since we adopted our Sophie cat back in 1995, and Dr. W is the best EVER! I could do an entire post just on her, but I won't. lol)

Here's Macy, trying to shrink as much as possible so she can disappear into the wall and maybe the vet won't see her. Ha! Poor thing has always been so nervous at the vet. She's still bleeding from her nose at times, but there was no bacteria or fungus growing in there, so that's good. Her temperature was also back to normal, so it looks as though the antibiotic is working. And she started eating again and has started gaining weight back.

So hopefully she is on the mend. She is my baby, I've no qualms about saying that!