Dealing with bad times

It's certainly been a bad time for my household, with the death of the little kitten Tara and my dog’s surgery on her knee.

In addition, all the cats are sneezing a lot and have fevers. My vet tells me that it's lucky that I’ve kept up with all their vaccinations. These flu symptoms would be much worse if the cats weren’t protected.

With antibiotics to treat infection and lots of their favourite foods, they all recover in about a week.

Two of the cats, though, have a particularly bad time. My old lady Susu has stopped eating, and one of her eyes has turned red and inflamed. At first, I think she’s just suffering from the flu, but then the vet discovers two bad scratches on her cornea, the outer covering of her eye.

At 18 years old, Susu has very little control over her back legs. She can still walk, but sometimes, when she tries to scratch an ear, she misses and hits her nose, scraping it badly with her claws.

Now, it seems, she’s missed not only her ear but her nose as well and hit her eye.

With eye medicines and antibiotics, she gradually improves, but she’s still not eating. Finally at a pet product distribution centre, I buy every sort of expensive catfood I can find, and give Susu a kitty buffet.

She, of course, selects the most expensive catfood in Thailand. Well, she’s now eating well, and her eye looks much better.

My boy Pan-Pan is not so fortunate. He’s stopped eating too, and we discover a very bad tooth that’s causing an abscess on his gum. My vet recommends antibiotics to deal with the infection. Meanwhile, we should wait for the tooth to fall out by itself.

The tooth “obeys” the vet and falls out. Unfortunately, the one last tooth in the boy’s mouth is causing an abscess too. The Chula vets say that it should be pulled out as soon as possible, before the boy’s mouth infections affect his entire body.

Poor Pan. In a week or so, he’s going to have surgery. It will be fast, and (we all hope) provide Pan with a much better quality of life.

I’m puzzled. A few years ago, all the cats came down with these bad flu symptoms, and after a week or so, they all recovered with treatment. Why are they having so much trouble now?

My vet smiles at me sadly. “Laurie, don’t forget,” she says. "The cats who are the sickest are now very old and very weak. They’re not as strong as they once were.”

I guess she’s telling me to prepare myself, but how do you do that?