First of all, I wanted to bring you a little bit of sweetness to your day by sharing this picture of my wonderful kitty Pumpkin! :D Yes, I am definitely biased! I think he is the most wonderful cat in the world, and he thinks I am the most wonderful human in the world, and we both agree with each other! ;) Pumpkin was rescued as a stray from the streets of Fort Worth, Texas, by a rescue group--and that is how we ended up with him. He really seems to appreciate having a home to live in and humans to care for his every need, and he tries to show his appreciation every way he can.
Anyway, I also wanted to share with you all some information that I just learned myself--so that if you have a kitty that you love, you will be more knowledgeable in caring for your kitty. I learned yesterday, that cats can get pneumonia. I had no idea! I guess I should have not been surprised, because I knew they can get cancers. But I guess I didn't realize how MANY illnesses that humans get our animals can also get. For three days Pumpkin has had a little cough. I didn't think much of it the first time I heard it--I wasn't sure if it was a cough or a sneeze, but he acted completely normal activity wise, and I figured maybe he had a little cold or something and that it would go away. Afterall, it is not cheap to take your animal to the vet, so we can't be running them to the doctor at every little sneeze!
But after three days and the cough was still there--by the morning of the fourth day I was feeling like he might need some help. He IS an old cat--around sixteen--and I know that in older animals just like older people, sometimes an illness that a younger creature could recover from an older one might not. So off to the vet we went.
I am SO glad I took Pumpkin in, because after agreeing to let the vet do an x-ray, the x-ray showed that Pumpkin had an infection in his lungs, and had pneumonia. I had never even heard of a cat getting pneumonia, but my vet told me it is actually fairly common. She said that since cats do tend to throw up quite a bit--with hair balls or food or whatever, and because they are not walking vertical like we do--it is very easy for them to end up breathing in some and developing bacterial pneumonia.
According to the web site petMD, "Symptoms of bacterial pneumonia in cats include cough, fever, difficulty breathing lack of appetite and consequent weight loss, sluggishness, nasal discharge, dehydration, and rapid breathing. Intolerance to exercise due to breathing difficulties may also be apparent."
My kitty, Pumpkin, only showed the one sign of a cough. But thankfully, now that he is on some antibiotics, we have every reason to believe that his body will be able to recover and I should be able to enjoy his furry company for several more years still. I LOVE Pumpkin, and I know that God understands because He is the one who made cats!
Anyway, just wanted to share what I learned just in case this information ends up helping anyone else care for their cat. As they say, you learn something new every day! :)
~Susan
