Heartbroken At My Beautiful Fenix's Passing, From healthy to critical in 9 days Options

[My beautiful Fen...]

Hi, my beautiful snowshoe died two days ago, he was just over a year old. Nine days before that he was boisterous, very vocal and playful and always greeted us when we came in the front door.

One evening I cleaned all the tiled floors and then used an insecticide spray. Fenix settled on our bed as he always did when I cleaned the floors, until they dried out. The next day, I noticed he was quieter than normal, I fed him, changed his litter tray, fresh water etc and me and my husband went out for a few hours. When we came back, I suddenly noticed Fenix hadn't moved from his spot. I was slightly confused, but didn't really think much more about it. The next day, the same ritual and when my husband and I left home and returned around four hours later, there was Fenix still on the bed, this time quite sleepy. Friday was the final day he did a pooh.

We decided that we would pop him to the vets the next day as I had a strange notion it was a hairball that he couldn't shift. The next day came and he seemed to have perked up so we didn't take him. Sunday went by, Fenix was quiet but not too bad, we put it down to him perhaps being depressed due to being indoors all the time, so we put a little harness on him and took him out, he seemed okay. Then Monday arrived, he was quiet, sleepy, still hadn't dirtied his litter tray, but he was drinking water and urinating, but he wasn't eating much at all so figured there was nothing to dirty the litter tray with. We made an appointment at the vets and upon getting there, after blood tests, it was found that instead of having a red blood cell count of between 35-40, it was just 6. Severely anaemic, they kept him at the vets for further tests and to see if they could find cat blood to give him a transfusion.

We got a phone call that afternoon at 4pm to say the only blood available was in another country and it would take 24 hours to arrive, but first they were going to try to find the underlying cause and hopefully he would respond to that, they told us to pick Fenix up at 8pm and return him the next morning for more tests and a saline drip.

Now during the time between the phone call and picking him up, I suddenly remembered the insecticide spray. I looked on the ingredients and it said "Permetrina" which is Permethrin - toxic to cats and can be lethal. I immediately phoned the vets and said I thought he had toxic poisoning, they said they would do something and then told me to come back at 8pm. When we got there, he seemed brighter, the vet said the spray was not an issue and that if he had toxic poisoning, although the symptoms were similar, they weren't the same and they believed it was due to parasites in his blood causing his own immune system to turn in on itself and destroy his red blood cells, so home we went. The next morning, he was, once again, quiet, hadn't eaten, hadn't poohed, we went off to the vets. The vets gave him some recovery liquid, we left him there all day and went back at 8pm to collect him.

He was due back at the vets on the Friday morning at 10am.

Friday, I got up, he was facing the wall laying down, he mewed three times, I gave him some recovery drink via a syringe and put him gently on his sofa. After having my cup of tea, I suddenly went into his room and couldn't see him, checking behind the sofa, I saw him over the back against the wall just laying there, I stroked his head and suddenly he fell to the left. Immediately I picked him up and in a complete panic took him into the living room, whereby he gave two terrible screams.

I knew, but couldn't accept it. The next 50 minutes were a pure nightmare as his breathing became more and more laboured and his screaming occurred every several minutes. Several seizures followed and then suddenly he went quiet, breathing once every 10-15 seconds. Then he was gone.

To say we are heartbroken is a complete and utter understatement, the pain is completely unbearable. We pick his ashes up in 7-10 days time. I can't believe he is gone. My massive regret was not taking him to the vets sooner. The insecticide spray did not warn about being toxic to cats, only to marine life... I have no idea if it really was the spray or not.

I do however, thank God I was able to cuddle him in his last hour, for that I will be eternally grateful. I will miss my little boy and was so glad I was able to say I loved him at the very end. There are no words for the pain and no words to describe how much he is missed.

[moon_beam]

Hi, my beautiful Fenix, thank you so much for sharing with us how you're doing. Congratulations on your new companions. May you and your precious new companions have a long and happy, healthy earthly journey together. I have no dobut that your beloved Fenix guided your path to these two beautiful girls who needed a loving home so that they could stay together. I know your beloved Fenix is smiling.

I hope today is treating you kindly, my beautiful Fenix, and that you will have peaceful evening blessed with your beloved Fenix's sweet Living Spirit to comfort you. Please know you are in my thoughts and prayers, and please let us know how you're doing.

Peace and blessings,
moon_beam