Animal Insting

My sister Chloe is very sick, and she is so sick that she has been in the hospital for two nights.  Mom noticed on Sunday that Chloe was just sitting around in her cat bed all the time like she felt really crappy, and then she didn't eat supper Sunday night.  Mom thought this was a Very Bad Sign for a fat cat like Chloe.  And then when Mom thought back over the weekend, she remembered that Chloe wasn't doing all her usual stuff like sitting in Mom's lap when Mom was trying to use the computer or getting in bed with Mom at night or all those Chloe-type things.

So Mom took Chloe to see Dr. Patricia on Monday afternoon.  Mom had no idea what was making Chloe sick, except that sometimes Chloe would cough, so Mom thought maybe it was some sort of respiratory something.  And whenever Chloe coughed, we dogs ran over to her because we thought maybe she was going to cough up some yummy kitty food, but she didn't do that.  She just coughed.

Anyway, like I said, Chloe went to visit Dr. Patricia, and Dr. Patricia wasn't sure what was wrong with Chloe either, but she was very worried about Chloe because Chloe lost weight and also she was dehydrated and she had a high temperature.  Dr. Patricia thought maybe Chloe had something called pancreatitis, but she wasn't certain about this.

Then Dr. Patricia told Mom that Chloe needed to go to Mission MedVet, which is where Gabe and I had our physical therapy and where I got my knee surgery and where Gabe got fixed up after The Incident with the greyhounds.  And the reason that Chloe had to go there was because she had to have IV fluids for many hours, and Dr. Patricia's clinic couldn't give the fluids to her during the night because nobody would be there during the night.

So Mom drove over to Mission MedVet, and they knew she was coming because Dr. Patricia called and told them that Mom was coming there with Chloe.  And first the emergency vet, whose name is Dr. Spry, looked at Chloe, and she figured out all the stuff they needed to do for Chloe, and she estimated what all this stuff might cost.  And the estimate came to between $1100 and $2000.  So Mom had to pay part of that right away before the doctors would start taking care of Chloe.  And what Mom paid was $860, which was about $100 more than Mom recently paid for our new garage door.

Then Mom left Chloe there and came home.  But later, Dr. Spry called Mom and told her that Dr. Wasmer, who is the internist vet, did a sonogram and an x-ray of Chloe, and what he found out was that Chloe probably doesn't have anything wrong with her pancreas.  Instead, she has some yucky fluid stuff in one of her lungs, and that is what is making her cough.

And yesterday morning, Mom talked to Dr. Wasmer himself, and he said he had sent off some blood and pee to get tested, and what he was looking for was pneumonia or something called toxoplasmosis.  Or maybe it could even be cancer.  But he thought it probably wasn't cancer.  But Chloe had to stay in the hospital again last night because they are waiting for the test results and also they are trying to get her temperature to keep being normal.




Anyway, Charlie is kind of lonely without Chloe here, and Mom says she misses Chloe, too.  And I have to admit that I sort of miss her myself, so I hope she gets to come home soon.  And I also hope that none of the rest of us catch whatever terrible disease she's got!