March 22nd through March 27th were five days I wasn’t prepared to face.
A Change In Tanner’s Behavior
Things started several weeks ago when Nicole noticed that our cat Tanner – who we adopted shortly after getting married in 2015 – wasn’t acting normal. His appetite had reduced and he seemed to be sleeping more than his daily amount. Every morning he could not wait to venture into the woods behind our home, but these last few weeks those explorations have reduced significantly with the amount of time he spent in the wilderness in favor of resting.
Nicole wondered if maybe he had a dental issue. When she looked into this mouth, she saw what we thought to be the cause. Tanner, who we often called “Tanman”, needed to have a dental cleaning and maybe even a tooth extracted.
An ensuing appointment with Zionsville Country Vet Clinic (ZCVC) confirmed Nicole’s suspicions. On Friday (March 22nd) Tanner was scheduled for a routine surgery that would clean his teeth and remove 1 to 2 teeth which could not be saved.
The Weekend of March 22nd
Tanner wasn’t allowed to eat the morning of his procedure and Nicole dropped him off at ZCVC before 8:00 am on Friday, March 22nd. We are not quite sure how much Tanner had eaten on Thursday, because his appetite had dramatically reduced to where he had lost four pounds in recent weeks.
By 5:00 pm on the day of his surgery, we returned to pick up Tanner who ended up with only one tooth that needed to be extracted. We were glad to know that everything went well.
For the next two weeks, Tanner was not supposed to eat any hard food. This wasn’t a big deal, because we keep plenty of soft food available due to having our newly adopted kittens, Zuri and Ranger.
Aside from one time where he attempted to drink water from our reverse osmosis faucet, we did not notice a time when Tanner was trying to eat or drink anything. Numerous times we would offer him food, but he did not act hungry at all.
That weekend, Tanner would make the walk down the stairs to spend time at the screen door to look outside, or just sit on the main level to watch the other cats play. He wasn’t himself, but we didn’t expect him to bounce back right away. By the end of the weekend, he stopped coming downstairs and found peace either under Finny’s bed or in the closet in our guest bedroom.
Since Tanner was still acting so differently, we decided to stop giving him the pain meds. I mean, he was acting like a zombie at this point.
Monday, March 25th
By Monday, Tanner still had not eating anything, so Nicole called to see if we could get fluids to administer. You might recall that we had to give our cat (Zoey) fluids twice a day when she reached the point of Kidney failure.
The staff at ZCVC had fluids ready for us that morning and we hoped giving Tanner some fluids would help him with his recovery. By this time it had been four full days since he had eaten anything.
We gave Tanner two rounds of fluids (afternoon and evening). Before we went to bed, Nicole gave Tanner soft food by putting it on her finger and giving it to him. He did digest some food, but this did not jump start his appetite.
Tuesday, March 26
Tuesday morning, we tried to feed Tanner again and also provided him fluids. We were still hoping to see a turn in his condition, but he seemed to still be getting worse.
Nicole reached out to ZCVC and asked for a feeding tube. They offered an appointment right away and indicated that they would be able to jump start his appetite without having resort to a feeding tube. They would also do bloodwork to see if anything has surfaced since the surgery on Friday.
Two hours later, Nicole received a call to inform us that ZCVC was putting Tanner under anesthesia in order to install the feeding tube. They told us that Tanner was in the early stages of liver failure – something that can happen when cats do not eat anywhere from one day and as long as seven days.
That afternoon, we received instructions on how to feed Tanner via the recently installed feeding tube.
We fed Tanner water, appetite suppressants and food two times on Tuesday evening. While he took the feeding without any issues … well maybe a couple times he tried to get up from not knowing what was happening … his condition remained the same.
Tanner fell asleep on a soft blanket in the guest bedroom closet.
Wednesday, March 27 (Worst Day Ever)
Writing about this day still causes tears to race down my face while becoming overcome with sadness and sorrow.
Wednesday morning, I woke Nicole up at 6 am to feed Tanner through the feeding tube. We were going to feed him every six hours, with one last feeding again before we went to bed each night. We would do this for as long as it takes.
Tanner had moved from the guest bedroom closet to under Finn’s bed. Those were the two places he seemed the most comfortable. He was still acting the same with no improvement in condition. This time when we fed him, we could hear a small noise coming from his mouth. To me, it sounded like how people sound when they are not able to breathe through their nose when they have a cold … mixed with a very mild gurgle.
Honestly, at this time, we really began to question if we weren’t getting the entire story from the procedure.
How does this happen as a result of a routine tooth cleaning and single-tooth extraction?
Is there something the vet is not telling us that could have caused all this to happen?
We also connected with Annie, who is a veterinarian in the Las Vegas area and a family friend. Annie asked why Tanner was allowed to leave ZCVC without eating something first on Friday and why they didn’t sound the alarm on Monday when we indicated Tanner had still not eaten anything. We didn’t have any answers.
The only thing we could do is seek a second opinion. By this point, Tanner stopped responding to our voices.
The Visit to All Animals
Until ZCVC opened their new facility closer to our home, we took our animals to All Animals Veterinary Clinic (All Animals) in Lebanon, IN. At this point we felt like this was the best place to go for a second opinion, since Tanner had been there before.
Nicole wrapped Tanner into her arms and I drove us to All Animals. Within a couple of minutes, a doctor started looking at Tanner. We provided a high-level overview of everything I’ve mentioned above.
The veterinarian attempted to look at Tanner’s mouth and he would not let her see inside. She also noticed that Tanner was very pail and in a lot of pain.
Her recommendation was to take him to an animal hospital as soon as possible. To make things easier, the team at All Animals called our preferred hospital while we were making the drive there.
MedVet Hospital
We arrived at MedVet Animal Hospital to a waiting room full of animals.
It was here that I held Tanman on my lap while we waited.
I didn’t realize it then, but this was the last time he would ever sit on my lap.
At this point of time, despite his condition, I felt like they would be able to figure out what is going on and he will again return to be that amazing cat of ours who spends mornings outside in the woods behind our home. Maybe even staying out longer, because this issue with his teeth would be resolved.
We mentioned the noise Tanner was making when we fed him this morning and the doctor at MedVet recommended the following plan of attack:
- do bloodwork again to see what’s changed since earlier this week
- perform an ultrasound to check on Tanner’s liver
- do an x-ray of the throat area to validate the placement of the feeding tube
With all the technology and staff in place at MedVet, I was still able to remain positive and I remember telling Nicole, “let’s try to focus on being positive for Tanner at this point.” She agreed.
The Final Chapter
Around 5:30 pm on Wednesday, we heard back from the doctor at MedVet. What they discovered during the x-ray was that Tanner had an enlarged heart and that fluids were already starting to fill his lungs. With the enlarged heart they would not be able to treat the liver condition without the use of a steroid – which is not recommended for cats with an enlarged heart.
Unknown to all of us was that Tanner had developed Feline Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) or heart disease. The concluding thought is that the HCM was the cause for Tanner’s reduction in appetite, ability to stay outside for most of the day, and desire to sleep for hours on end.
The first surgery on Friday required anesthesia which caused the HCM to react in a negative way. The second surgery to install the feeding tube on Tuesday caused additional strain on his heart.
This discovery led to March 27, 2024 being the worst day I’ve ever had to endure. Because we had to make the quality of life decision to end Tanman’s life.
Sydney joined Nicole, Finny and me at MedVet where we all got to spend some final moments with Tanner. We prayed, talked to him and touched him as he found his way to the other side.
Conclusion
I’ve realized that the best way I can work through grief is to put into words what is on my mind. While this is a therapeutic approach, reliving this experience has made me cry harder and longer than I ever thought I could.
It hurts so bad to look out to the woods behind our home. Every “white” item scattered across the leafless early spring trees makes me see him out there – but then I realize it’s not him.
It can’t be him now.
Over the weekend, a family member stated that it sounded like Tanner was giving up on life. At the time I could not understand. I even felt angry that some form of mistake was at the heart of his condition. In reality, the underlying cause was a genetic issue that was likely to surface in a matter of time.
The optimist in me wants to believe that the way everything happened was the best way for Tanner’s pain and suffering. While he was in pain leading up to the surgery, he was still interacting with us and the other cats on Thursday. Our friend Annie in Las Vegas educated us on how painful HCM can become over time. So I feel like we got to spend as much quality time as was going to ever be possible with this amazing cat I called “The Tanman.”
I cannot stress enough to try your best to become a cat whisperer and remain laser-focused on how your animals are acting. Because, we are their lifeline to the world and always their biggest advocate.
To close on a positive note, here’s the earliest photo I have of Tanner shortly after we brought him into our lives.
Have a really great day!
J. Vester 