Alex’s correspondent, Cori, had written an update for Alex and it was about to be published.
But, Wednesday night, his situation changed very quickly, for the worse.
During rounds, one of our employees noticed that there was some blood on Alex’s nose and paws.
The blood was dried and he was eating, so we decided to just keep a close eye on him at that point.
Later, however, we saw that he had vomited some blood and his respiration was somewhat strained.
So, we rushed him to the emergency vet.
Chest x-rays showed that “something” was going on in his lungs.
They couldn’t make a definitive diagnosis, though they suspect he was nearing heart failure or it was a metastatis of cancer.
He didn’t appeared to be suffering, however, so we decided to give him the night and repeat the x-rays in the morning.
But, when they removed him from the cage for the x-rays, he began very labored breathing and was obviously in distress.
I received the call on my cell phone as I was driving in this morning.
I really wanted to be with him as they let him go, but I knew it wasn’t fair to him to make him wait for the 50 minutes it would take me to get there.
So, I asked them to be sure to tell him how much we all loved him before they let him go.
Fortunately, one of our vet techs also works at this vet and she was with him as he passed gently.
We have worried about Alex since the day he arrived, as I am sure you have realized from his updates.He never looked robust and he had multiple problems.
Despite this, he was with us for a year and was able to spend most of that time in the suite with his FIV+ buddies.
We are going to miss his grumpy nature and all of the special attention he required.
As per our policy, we have transferred your monthly sponsorship to our Special Needs Fund, which supports all of our Special Needs cats.
As a benefactor of this Fund, you will receive a monthly update on a different Special Needs cat each month.
However, you may choose to do one of the following:
- Transfer your sponsorship to support another Special Needs cat.
You can see all of our Special Needs cats here.
If you wish to do this, please contact us by email and let us know your wishes. - You may choose to discontinue your monthly sponsorships. To do so, please contact us by phone with your request.
We do hope that you decide to continue supporting our cats in need. And, whatever you do, bless you for your caring about Alex.