Hello everyone
We doen onze actie in het Engels omdat we vrienden en kennissen hebben door heel Europa die ook bezorgd zijn om alogan.
Thank you for taking the time to read the journey of our sweet boy Logan.
Logan is only 3 years old, we adopted him in Lisbon as the only survivor of his litter. His siblings were, sadly enough, murdered.
Logan always has been a healthy and happy boy.
He loves to hunt and show us how strong he is.
Logan enjoys cuddles and sitting on your shoulder while walking through the house.
As Logan was having a hard time being alone we gave him an adopted sister: Lilica.
Logan always protects his sister.
But just as real siblings they also love to argue with each other.
Never truly hurting each other but playfully telling each other that enough is enough.
This Thursday, the 4th of April, our hell began.
When we called Logan and Lilica for their dinner Logan did not come.
He was just laying on the bed, not coming for the food. This is very atypical for him as he normally will do everything he can to help us open the bag.
We had this situation once before, while still in Lisbon, but that was because he just fully devoured his prey.
That was not the case this time.
This time it was clear that he was not feeling well.
We took his temperature. He had a fever of 40.8°C. Way too high.
We forced some water into him as we know that dehydration happens fast in cays and is very dangerous.
We provided him with a bag of ice cubes (in a towel) so that he could use that if he wanted some help in cooling down.
It was easy to see that he wasn't doing well but we hoped that he just ate something bad and would be better in the morning.
Friday, the 5th of April
Logan was still being less energetic than normal and we noticed that he also still had a fever and that his breathing speed had increased quite a lot.
So we took him to the vet.
They were also instantly worried as he is a young cat with a healthy history.
He always gets his vaccinations and antiparasites on time.
They firstly took his blood, gave him fluids and some food (forcefed) to make sure that his organs would keep working.
The blood result was not bad but not good either. (You can see it between the pictures)
He also still had a fever, 40.6°C so they wanted to do more tests.
They made an echo and an xray of his belly.
The normal dark spot in the colon was seen but they also saw a shadow on his longs and a dark spot on his intestine.
They couldn't say what it was but couldn't rule anything out yet either.
So they tested him further.
Luckily no leukemia or FiV.
But what was it then?
What made our boy suffer?
Did he eat something bad?
Was he poisoned?
Did he get a virus?
The doctors just didn't know.
So for now we would treat the symptoms without knowing the cause and see how that went.
We went home with medication, antibiotics and a painkiller. We only had to give it starting on Saturday as he got everything in injection form for now.
Saturday, the 6th of April
Logan is not feeling well.
He is laying in bed or on the couch but not doing anything else.
He feels cold one moment and hot the next.
So we take his temperature again.
40°C.
Still too high but at least it seems like the medication is helping him and he will get better.
After force feeding and providing him with water we go to bed.
Sunday, the 7th of April
4.35
If we wake up that early it's never good.
Logan is feeling hot again and is breathing heavily.
We can see that it takes him a lot of effort to get the necessary oxygen into his little body.
We call the emergency vet and they tell us to come over at 10.00 but already give him an extra dose of his pain medication.
At 9.30 we are already at the vet and she quickly lets us in.
It's obvious that Logan is having a hard time.
He is crying but every sound he makes comes with a gasp to get more oxygen.
The vet provides him with fluids and puts him in a oxygen chamber to help him breathe.
She will do some more checks as soon as he feels a bit better.
After the tests she calls us with an update. She believes Logan has pneumonia but it doesn't explain all his symptoms.
We agree on trying a new antibiotic and keeping him in the oxygen chamber as that seems to give him some relief.
He will stay with the vet until the morning. Then we will pick him up and bring him to his regular vet so they can do further checks, based on the results they already have.
Monday, the 8th of April
We go and pick up Logan at the emergency vet from the weekend and see that his breathing is getting worse.
Before we leave he gets some more fluids and then we drive to our regular vet.
When we arrive there he immediately gets taken to the oxygen chamber again.
They will redo their tests from Friday to see any developments and inform us when they know more.
Hours go by without news.
It's after lunchtime when they call us.
Logan is getting more and more distressed and they are not able to find the cause of it.
They advise us to bring him to a specialised clinic to have him helped.
They warn us that this will get expensive fast but that they can't do anything else anymore.
We ask honest advice as we don't want Logan to suffer in vain.
If Logan would haven been 10+ they would have advised us to take the hard decision to not put him through more tests and let him peacefully go.
As he is only just turned 3 they don't feel comfortable with letting him go as long as they don't have a diagnosis.
So we take the decision that he is our baby and we will go every step the vet and clinic think can benefit him.
The clinic gets informed that we will arrive.
With all the information from our vet they know what to expect and can prepare the oxygen chamber already.
Now it's our turn. Logan gets a shot that will assist him with breathing on the way and will keep him a bit calmer.
The 2h drive feels like a nightmare.
At one point it really doesn't look good as he really struggles to breath.
We pull over and take him in our arms.
Whatever happens, we don't want him to be alone. We want him to know that we are here for him. Always.
He stabilises enough to continue the drive.
When we arrive they immediately take him to go put him in another oxygen chamber. They also give him fluids and take an emergency echo to see how the drive affected him.
Other than that he is exhausted and his breathing worsens he seems the same as before the drive.
The vet tells us that they will fully check his belly and lungs, they will do a full bloodwork (focusing on electrolytes as well).
Depending on what that shows they will discuss with specialists and continue from there.
This is where we are now.
We will update as we receive information. The good, the bad and the ugly.