Maybe that was a real reflection of reality. Our dogs regularly crossed through prospect park in Brooklyn, exchanged germs with playmates and shoes the bones of chicken bones, while our cats lived inland lives.
Now I suspect that we may have lost signs of illness in our cats. I had worried that we were reacting excessively when we took olives from the vet to look slightly, slightly, a little not herself. In fact, it was seriously ill.
In fact, cats have talent in masking their symptoms, which can also present themselves different from those in dogs, the experts told me. Arthritic dogs often develop evident hooves, which are easily identified in the walks, while many arthritic cats do not show evident signs of lameness, said dr. Perry. They could simply jump on the sofa less often or look more irritable when they are managed.
“Since cats sleep so many hours a day and the owners are generally around them only for some of those hours, it is much easier not to realize that your cat is gradually changing over time,” said dr. Perry.
In retrospective, it seemed likely that Olive was silently down for weeks.
In the end, veterinarians concluded that his immune system was destroying his red blood cells. But they couldn’t say what had triggered him or found a drug he helped. Finally, as a kind of last resource, an internist suggested that we could consider the removal of the huge spleen of olives, which was probably the place where his red blood cells were destroyed.
I sent another vet for a second opinion. “Splenectomy is not the worst option,” he wrote, observing that it was a consolidated treatment for human patients with similar conditions. “We simply don’t have given in vet med,” he added, “especially in cats.”