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Originally Posted by PeterT
We went and had a long chat with the vet this evening and saw all the blood work results. It comes down to they are mystified; very low red blood cell counts but all other counts / tests show nothing.
She's obviously breathing a lot more deeply than usual trying to get oxygen into her system, but is only breathing through an open mouth very occasionally.
We're trying some steroids twice a day for a few days and will just continue to monitor her over the weekend.
She is still eating well but is quite lethargic; spending a lot of her time just sleeping or resting on her sides. Very little interest in grooming herself.
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When they move around, cats are extremely high energy. Most other animals they meet would never be able to beat them in a short sprint. They are blazingly fast. But even a turtle might beat them in a marathon! Hence the need for them to sleep all the time. Years ago my vet told me that their high energy storage can get easily interrupted by illness, even a simple illness like a tummy ache. When that happens, they can get perilously close to the point of no recovery if they don’t get treatment or manage to get over their illness fairly soon without treatment. They need to constantly eat a lot and drink a lot to stay alive. A couple of years ago my now 19 year old Faded Torty suddenly became lethargic and was throwing up her food and stopped eating. Previously she had been a constant bundle of energy, and still is. Since she was 17 and I had already lost one kitty years before after a long battle with cancer, I immediately thought the worse. I took her in and the vet determined that she only had a tummy ache/infection. A few pills later and she was back to being a bundle of energy, and still is. I guess it is like us humans when we get a bad case of the flu. We pretty much crawl in bed and act as though we might not get out of it. It doesn't take much to get a kitty's health sideways, and it has to be dealt with fairly quickly, but with proper treatment they often bounce right back. So hopefully your bundle of furry wonder and joy will bounce back too.
I've also learned over the years that indoor/outdoor kitties tend to have way more health issues and a shorter life expectancy. I now have indoor only kitties, two little furry rugrats! They are 16 and 19, and other than being grumpy old girls at times, they are doing pretty well for their age. I call my house the GeriCATric Ward since they, as well as me their pet human, are all old now!
I hope your kitty starts to feel better soon, and whatever got her down turns out to be a treatable health issue.