"often times they have cancer and you don't know till they are
seriously ill."

This is so true, Fugazi was winning a game of "king of the castle" one
tuesday morning, became unwell later that day and was put to sleep the
following day because of cancer. I was upset because I thought I ought
to have spotted it earlier but our vet assures me that sometimes cats
show no symptoms until the point is reached where the disease
overwhelms their systems

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

Thank you all for your replies... I too was certain through my own
researching that prednisone was not recorded anywhere as showing this effect
on an animal. The biggest part of the shock for myself and my partner was
the suddenness of it all... we KNEW our cat (or at least we thought we did)
and we knew when she was in any discomfort - for example a stomach/gut
infection a year or so ago and we could see straight away she was
"unhappy" - her tail was not "up" much and her pupils were wide open a lot
and she lost interest in scratch-poling and all the usual - that was just a
tummy bug (which was cured quickly I hasten to add). THIS situation was very
different - literally up until the first day of the 4 days we applied the
prednisone (25mg tablet crushed into her food) she was her "normal" self -
with the exception being the thirst she had had for quite a few months (e.g.
would get into the empty bathtub many times during the course of a day in
order that we turn the tap on for her to drink). Despite all this she was
purring and "normal". She never actually drank her water bowl dry - we
always kept it full - we just assumed she "preferred" running water and in
fact there is a lot of evidence to show that cats do actually prefer running
water to drink - so it was not as if she was permanently camped beside her
water bowl as you hear with some calcium-ridden cats.
No - it was EXACTLY the same time the prednisone kicked in that she
"crashed" - there is no other way to describe it. She was unable to keep her
food down, was sick 2/3 times over that weekend, became very lethargic,
would crouch on floor and stare straight ahead - not fixing her eyes on to
anything in particular, several pounds of weight FELL off her during same
period - I woke up in the middle of the last night utterly convinced it was
the tablets... my worst nightmare was that maybe the vet had put the wrong
pills in the bottle - this in fact remains a small possibility in my mind.
The vet assures me they did not and stated everything is double-checked.
Within 24hrs she was dead and I am still having sleepless nights racked with
the guilt of possibly having not insisted on a smaller dose or getting the
vet the re-check the tablets before administering them - it was ME that put
them in her food and it was ME that could be to blame for all this.
The very last blood test that came back (taken from her when she was taken
in overnight) - according to the vet, when they got them back from the lab a
day after she had died, indicated problems with liver, kidneys and bone
marrow. She was extremely anaemic when she was put down - again she was NOT
anaemic at all prior to that weekend. My fear is that she must have been
haemorrhaging internally or something because what else would cause her to
be so anaemic in so short a time?
My partner and I are still completely zombie-fied by this grief we are going
through - I never imagined the grief we would be going through. We do not
have children and I guess this can only be compared to the loss of a child.
The pain seems like it is never going to end:-(