Since yesterday afternoon, Hiro had been sleeping for long hours.
By evening, he was still sleeping and he skipped dinner too. That was unusual.
This morning, Hiro didn’t wake up when I woke up, which is again, very unusual. He would always greet us every morning and in fact, at any time. He would greet us at the door when we come home. He would come over from the sofa and “say hello” when we go to bed.
When I served breakfast, Hiro refused to eat. Something was definitely wrong. So I tried to force feed him and that’s when he bit my finger until it bled profusely.
For the past two days, Hiro did feel slightly warmer than usual, but since he was eating well, I did not think there was anything wrong. The weather too had been crazy hot.
But something was wrong with Hiro this morning, so I quickly made an appointment to take him to the vet’s. He was also not active anymore and just kept sleeping. But while we were waiting at home to go to the vet’s, Hiro got up and asked for food. I gave him food and he ate some.
There was an emergency at the vet’s so we had to wait for quite long.
When it was finally our turn, the vet took one look at Hiro’s gum and said he was pale. Most likely anaemic. An ear-prick test showed the presence of a lot of lymphocytes which indicates the possibility of FIV or FeLV positive. So the vet decided to take blood and do the FIV/FeLV test. Normally, this test isn’t done until the cat is at least 6 months old (if younger, there could be false positive), but since Hiro was anaemic and unwell, and Misty (his mother) is FIV+, the vet thought we should test Hiro.
Blood had to be taken for this purpose and it wasn’t easy taking blood from his leg. The vet also needed to take some blood to check Hiro’s blood PCV.
Hiro’s weight was 625g which means there has been no increase from his weight taken on 8th April. Again, this is not a good sign. I was worried about FIV, FeLV as well as the deadly IMHA (IMHA in cats is normally fatal).
The blood results showed a faint positive for FIV, but negative for FeLV. So Hiro is FIV+ and he most likely got it from Misty during pregnancy. This is worrying news because infant FIV+ is much harder to handle than adult cats who get FIV later in life. Being FIV+ at this neonatal age means his little body has to do battle with the virus. The vet prepared me that in some cases of infant FIV+, the kitten might just fade away. It’s called the fading kitten syndrome where the kitten does not put on weight and just fade off.
Sigh…
Hiro’s blood PCV was 21%. The minimum reading should be 25% so Hiro is slightly anaemic. I asked if Darbepoietin might help but the vet said normally the response from a neonatal like Hiro is not good. So I asked what food might help him with anaemia. Liver doesn’t help, the vet said, but beef does.
The vet said that there most important thing for Hiro is that he must eat.
Hiro’s temperature was 38.9 degree, which is not feverish for cats.
So Hiro was given a B-12 injection and prescribed Doxycycline and Tramadol cream for pain management.
We came home and Hiro was hungry, so that was a good sign. I fed him, and then his medication, and we had to rush off to attend a relative’s wake in Negeri Sembilan. But I managed to quickly write to the vet in Singapore to enquire if RetroMAD1 might help Hiro.
When we left, Hiro was sleeping soundly on this favourite blanket.
We came home past 7pm and the first thing I did was to feed Hiro.
Hiro was super duper HUNGRY!
He ate beef chunks and Riley tried to steal his food so between the two of them, they finished whatever beef chunks I had from the fridge.
And quickly feeding everyone else and settling Jayden (who had come home with us from the wake), I rushed out to buy more beef chunks just in case Hiro got hungry in the night. I did try giving him chicken chunks, but he refused to eat it. He also refused Coco&Joe’s. Looks like he only wanted beef chunks.
Luckily the grocery was still open and I managed to buy beef chunks. I’ve never eaten beef all my life, so I only know how to buy the cubes from Jaya Grocer’s. It was too late to go the Jaya Grocer’s so I went to a nearby grocer and they did have big beef chunks. I bought whatever types they had and quickly came home.
As I entered through the door, Hiro was already following me to the kitchen.
He ate again!
I suppose it is a good sign that he has an appetite again.
After eating.
As I write this now, Hiro is sleeping on my lap.
He’s such a good little kitten. My husband and I are really sad to hear that the prognosis for Hiro isn’t good and that he might just fade away. But I’m going to do everything I can to help him.
I hope the Singaporean vet will reply to me soon about using RetroMAD1 for Hiro.
Of course the best case scenario is that today’s test was a false positive and Hiro only has an infection that caused the anaemia. I’m not in denial, I’m just saying that that’s the best case scenario.
Another scenario would be that he would have to live with being FIV+ all his life. Well, Bunny did. Bunny was discovered to be FIV+ at 3 years old when I offered him to be a blood donor as he was our biggest and strongest cat. Bunny was not very strong during the first half of his life, always taking longer than everyone else to recover. He was also very prone to illnesses. But he would pull through and Bunny lived for 16 years 9 months. Cow Mau is also FIV+ and is going to be 17 years old in May.
Our FIV warriors:
Tiger – passed away at 12 years old of epilepsy and hyperesthesia, but survived sporo.
Rosie – passed away at 6 years old of hepatic cholestasis.
Zurik – passed away at an unknown age of FIP, but survived sporo.
Bunny – passed away at 16 years 9 months of suspected lymphoma.
Presently, Cow Mau (17 years old) and Ginger (12 years old) are FIV+.
Misty is also FIV+ and now, Hiro has tested a faint positive.
I’m going to do my very, very best for Hiro.