Our dear little barn cat Finnegan died last week, after a courageous 5 day battle for his life. Finn came to our farm as a rescued feral cat spared from certain death in February. After months of rehabilitation and neutering, Finn enjoyed life in the barn and spent many hours with us all getting petted, brushed and cuddled.
On Friday July 6th, Drummond & I became very concerned that he was not in the barnyard and did not come for his dinner (he got a can of moist food in the evenings, and would not have missed out on his treat unless something was wrong). We searched for him until well into darkness at the farm, and finally I decided to head down to the house in case he was there.
Sure enough when I got to the house, all the while calling his name, he came out from the cedar hedge soaking wet. He literally looked like a drowned cat, and was shaking and extremelly weak. Drummond & I brought him into the house and nursed him through the night, injecting him with fluids subQ and feeding him electrolytes (Gatoraid for cats!). He made it through the night by only a hair, and the vet saw him in the morning.
She gave him a 50% chance, and we took it for Finn. He was put on IV and we started feeding him NutriCal highcalorie meal replacement. By Saturday night he ate solid food and started looking like the Finn we knew.
Good friend Kasia came to help, and spent the next 2 days with Finn in her arms nursing him.
Sunday was optimisitic, as he was up and around... but then Monday he took a turn for the worse and became disoriented and stopped eating. By Wednesday, we took him to the vet to keep him. We would have to make a decision for his comfort on Thursday.
On Thursday morning, July 12th, Finn made the decision easier - for the first time, he was in obvious pain and was experiencing a terrible seizure. Our vet euthanized him... and he was buried on the farm that night.
He had a lovely last 6 months of life, after what we can only assume had been a terrible existence (frozen off ears, broken limbs, starvation...).
Rest sweetly my little Finn.
On Friday July 6th, Drummond & I became very concerned that he was not in the barnyard and did not come for his dinner (he got a can of moist food in the evenings, and would not have missed out on his treat unless something was wrong). We searched for him until well into darkness at the farm, and finally I decided to head down to the house in case he was there.
Sure enough when I got to the house, all the while calling his name, he came out from the cedar hedge soaking wet. He literally looked like a drowned cat, and was shaking and extremelly weak. Drummond & I brought him into the house and nursed him through the night, injecting him with fluids subQ and feeding him electrolytes (Gatoraid for cats!). He made it through the night by only a hair, and the vet saw him in the morning.
She gave him a 50% chance, and we took it for Finn. He was put on IV and we started feeding him NutriCal highcalorie meal replacement. By Saturday night he ate solid food and started looking like the Finn we knew.
Good friend Kasia came to help, and spent the next 2 days with Finn in her arms nursing him.
Sunday was optimisitic, as he was up and around... but then Monday he took a turn for the worse and became disoriented and stopped eating. By Wednesday, we took him to the vet to keep him. We would have to make a decision for his comfort on Thursday.On Thursday morning, July 12th, Finn made the decision easier - for the first time, he was in obvious pain and was experiencing a terrible seizure. Our vet euthanized him... and he was buried on the farm that night.
Finn had been poisoned, by what could be Blue-Green Algae - a side-effect of chemical fertilizers from drinking from an off-property creek. He was blind by the time he died and the poisons had run their course. There was nothing else that we could have done for him.
We thank everyone for their love & support for Finn and Drummond & I as we dealt with loosing this very special feline.
We will always remember the night that Finn caught the large rat in the barn just a few weeks prior and paraded it around like he was a king. After he ate the rat, Drummond & I propped him up on his cat bed, fed him lots of treats, petted & brushed him for about an hour telling him that he was wonderful.He had a lovely last 6 months of life, after what we can only assume had been a terrible existence (frozen off ears, broken limbs, starvation...).
Rest sweetly my little Finn.
1 comment:
I'm catching up on your blog from the beginning, so just read about Finn's passing. How very sad to lose him (and to learn they can be poisoned that way!), yet how very touching that he was so loved and cared for at the end of his hard life!
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