Emergency Vet

Yes. Emergency Vet. Patches started being a bit quieter basically the evening of my last post. He was still under antibiotic but I knew there was something wrong. He was less playful and started sleeping on what we have now named "The Sick Chair" up in the office. He was off his food a bit also. Yesterday I found out the pet insurance won't cover any of the expenses for Patches due to a glitch in the when he was sick first (even if unrelated) and the proper start of the cover. We cancelled the policy and at least we will get a full refund.

Last night he was definitely unwell and I measured his external temperature which was at 104 F or 40°C. Very high. We called the after hour emergency Vet which is based in the college I work in and off we went. It was midnight. The Vet confirmed the high temp, suggested it may be an allergy, faxed to our Vet her findings and ideas, gave Patches steroids and something to help him breathe better. We got home around 2am. This morning seemed more or less the same, maybe a bit better but I brought him to our Vet. I got a call around 11 that his temp was up at 104.4 F and she kindly said we may want to consider other options.... I'm in tears as I write this. She said it's up to us and she knows we're paying everything out of pocket and that perhaps it won't be worth it for us and for Patches also. I said we didn't mind and we'd like to have a full blood profile done, test for FeLV again, check for Toxoplasma and anything they can think of. My worst fear is that we put him down and then we find out we could have treated him.

The Vet gave him more steroids and said if the temp wasn't lowering he'll have to be put on fluids. I fear we are torturing him with all these injections and probing and testing and my heart is just in pieces.

I just called to see how he was doing, the temp is nearly normal, he's eaten a bit and the blood is practically normal. He doesn't seem to have a massive infection, FeLV also still negative. If it's a virus they don't know which one it is and we are not sure what to do next. The Vet asked for a consult with a Veterinary Pathologist for which other virus we can test. I will call around 5 to see if we can bring him home.

I know it's ICLW week, I'll post tomorrow a proper post for it, between the little sleep and the heartache my head is not in the right place at the moment. Thank you all for your support.