- Aug 5, 2018
- 1,211
- 3,178
- 346
This is Bert. He was my foster cat, I brought him home from the humane society in March while he was waiting for surgery on an ear hematoma scheduled for the beginning of April. He was the sweetest most affectionate cat ever. He just wanted to be loved on, nothing else, just love in any form you wanted to give it. I have no idea how he ended up in the shelter in the first place since he was the type of cat everyone dreams of having.
When I first brought him home I noticed that he was entering the litter box constantly-like every 5 min. So we did a round of antibiotics in case he had a UTI. The frequency of his trips to the box slowed but this cat drank a LOT of water so he always had large volumes of urine. Then he had his ear surgery. That evening when I picked him up his ear looked terrible-the stitches were not holding the skin together and it was bloody and oozy. I called the humane society the next day and we got him in to be seen for a follow up with a different vet. The vet took one look and said, “what did they doooo!?”. This poor boy ended up needing several sedated clean ups and restitchings of his ear, he was put on antifungal meds and steroids and ear ointments. He lived in a cone for over a month! Finally his ear was healed enough for all the stitches to come out! He was doing great. He was taken off all medications. Through everything he went through he was always happy. He always wanted affection from whoever was around. He was playful and silly and was an amazing cuddler. We had a date set to go back to the shelter so he could finally be listed for adoption. Then last week he started to scratch at his ear again. So the cone went back on. Then over the weekend his ear developed a scab and then an open wound and then looked to be infected again! He was still the sweetest boy ever, but he seemed a little more reserved and would go lay down a bit more often. We again set up a follow up appointment for today with the vet and when I dropped him off I mentioned how he always drank a lot and peed a lot and I felt like he might be losing weight. So we weighed him. He was down more than a pound from when I first brought him home! I left him at the vet with the understanding that they were going to talk to the humane society about checking labs on him due to these symptoms. He demanded holding and gave me cuddles before I left.
I waited all day for them to call me to come pick him up after they were done examining his ear. (As a humane society animal the vet sees these animals between regular cases) At about 3:00pm I did receive a phone call, but it was not from the vet. It was the humane society. When the vet examined his ear they found that the part that opened had formed a drainage system that was probably never going to heal properly, and his blood sugars were through the roof-definitely advanced diabetes. They were suggesting euthanasia. This poor beautiful soul was dealt a rotten hand. Could he have lived with a constantly draining ear and diabetes? Probably, but the chances that the ear would continue to get infected and make him uncomfortable were very very high. And getting a diabetic cat adopted without all those other issues with his ear would be next to impossible and in the mean time he would be draining valuable resources from the humane society so they wouldn’t be able to help other animals in need. I wish I could have just adopted him myself but my house is already overflowing and if I adopted him I wouldn’t be able to continue to foster other animals in need either. But I am still devastated that this ended this way! I have been crying ugly tears all afternoon for this cat that wasn’t even mine.(oh and not to mention he was even an emotional support cat for another cat that came to the shelter “extra spicy” -that cat wouldn’t let anyone touch her until she met Bert and he showed her that people are ok!) Rest in peace little buddy I only had you a few short months but you will be deeply missed!
I understand you totally. 
