A man from the cremation place personally delivered Maggie to us on Saturday. I’m happy she’s home now in the warm. She’s in a lovely wooden casket with her name, the breeder, and her mother’s name on the plaque.
Maggie’s certificate of creamtion.
In her lovely little casket.
We received a nice card in the mail from Bucklands Beach vet. Tomorrow, Mum is going to take them a bag of goodies to say ‘thank you’ from us.
“Good friends never leave our hearts.”
“To Gary, Linda, & family, Thank you very much for letting us look after Maggie May. We know you will miss her very much. Thinking of you at this time. From all of us at the Bucklands Beach Vet Clinic.”
I’ve made a small donation to The Lonely Miaow. The Lonely Miaow is a non-profit organisation operating in Auckland. They rescue stray cats and kittens in the Auckland region, sometimes fostering or rehoming them, and desexing them and leaving them in the care of a responsible person. I made it under Maggie’s name. I think she would be happy that she was able to help make other cats’ lives as happy as hers was.
If you’d like to make a donation to The Lonely Miaow, click here to do so. It’s a great organisation with a very important purpose.
D’arcy has cheered up a bit, although occasionally he still gets pensive. He still needs lots of love and attention, and often demands it from us which is good.
After this morning, I’ve decided I think Maggie is suffering from a weird kind of separation anxiety.
She managed to get me to get up at 5:00AM this morning. I cleaned her nose and she seemed OK. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I sat with the light on, on my phone reading the news.
I put my phone down just before 6:30AM and decided to shut my eyes until 7. As soon as I’d gotten to sleep, Maggie was frantically trying to wake me up again, meowing deeply, pacing, getting up in my face, and climbing all over my pillow and me.
Mum got up and told me that Maggie had done the same to her at 2AM. When Mum got up to go to the toilet, Maggie followed her. Even when I went to the kitchen this morning to check that Maggie’s feeding things were set up, Maggie followed me down there.
It’s almost as if Maggie was trying to resuscitate me. Does she suddenly, for some reason, think that when I’m asleep I’m actually dead? Her eye widens and she panics. She’s almost like Simba after Mufasa dies.
I’m not sure if it’s that, or if she’s feeling more crappy than usual and therefore more vulnerable and feels she needs me to be alert. The weather wasn’t great; it was windy and that may have unsettled her, though there was a day last week that was worse. D’arcy was so unsettled I left my TV audio on for him during the day, but Maggie wasn’t fazed so I don’t know why she would be now. Perhaps a tumour is placing pressure on the part(s) of her brain that control anxiety… I don’t know. We’ll make an appointment for her to see the vet early next week. I don’t think she’s in pain – I think it is anxiety – but it would be good to have someone validate or challenge that belief and also check her weight and general condition relative to last visit.
I’ve left the audio of my TV on for her today, and she has D’arcy keeping her company on the bed. Hopefully that’s enough.
We’ve had a mixed weekend. We still have to check in with the vet, and I think Mum’s going to do that later today.
Maggie still sleeps with me most of the night. I think she gets up periodically to have a big drink, but I always wake up with her on my bed.
Early in the morning…
Sharing well with her brother.
Cuddle times, bed hair included.
She needs to be close to me at all times.
She likes the wall.
She didn’t have a bad sleep last night. She slept for about an hour under the covers with me with her little head out. She got really comfy and stretched her arm out and turned her head upside down for a short time. She was very quiet; no snuffling or snorting.
We had another cuddle this morning before breakfast. In all honesty, she was terrible to try and feed this morning. She really resisted and we had to re-wrap her twice. She just spat and sprayed the food all over the place.
I went home with Dad to feed her her lunch just before. When we got in, Dad looked behind the TV and she wasn’t there, so he said she was probably in my room. He was right. As soon as I got to my bedroom door, Maggie got up and got off the bed. I thought she was going to gap it initially because she’s gotten to knowing what is coming next, but she didn’t. She came to the door and waited. I gave her a pat and her tail stood up and she looked at me lovingly. She tried to clean her nose with her paw (all by herself!) then turned around and jumped back on the bed and started chattering away to me. I got on the bed and lifted the blanket and she went underneath. She had a quiet rest for around 15 minutes until Dad was ready with her food.
Again, she was even more terrible to feed. We had to re-wrap her twice, and she growled the whole time. We did manage to get a bit of food into her though. I’m actually really surprised at how much energy and strength she has, considering she’s a very sick cat that weighs just over a third of what she should weigh (last weigh in weighed her at 2.92kg; a 30g loss). None of us believed it when the nurse at VSG said this to us, but I can safely say that she has earned the title of ‘ferocious’.
After feeding, I put her back on my bed under the covers, and she settled down. She was comfy, though miffed.
Her face has closed up nicely. It’s not weeping or bleeding, and doesn’t seem to be causing her as much pain as it was a couple of days ago. I do still think it’d be beneficial for her to have some kind of topical pain relief for that area and her nose, but I’m not a vet so it may be that the risks aren’t worth it, or there may not be any topical pain relief that’s suitable for wounds. I don’t know.
Not looking as terrible as it did.
I have found a few little lumps around her neck and face that are just over the size of a pea each. They don’t seem to be causing her any discomfort, but we know it’s not a good sign.
Oh. And Maggie did big poos in the dirtbox. She hasn’t done that in a while, so we were pretty excited.
My parents took Maggie to the vet last night about her face. I wasn’t there, and the information my parents have fed me is vague and incomplete, but it sounds like the vet thinks the wound on her face is actually the cancer breaking through and spreading to her skin. It seems to have calmed down but she’s lost a bit of fur there and if she scratches it again it’ll open. Dad seemed to think the vet thought something would happen over the weekend because he made sure to remind us that VSG is open over the weekend. He also wants us to call him on Monday to let him know how Maggie is.
We’ve had a weird day today. Maggie has decided that she occasionally wants to sleep next to me with her bum on my shoulder… Well, OK then.
Why you do dis???
She’s also been outside today. It’s probably been around 9 degrees Celsius today. She went out on the back deck, and I was like, “oooooh no you don’t…” and went inside and got my onesie. She cuddled up inside it on the deck for a short time, but then she got out, walked over to where I was sitting, looked at me, then walked back to the onesie. She was telling me to bring the onesie closer to me. I did what she asked and she happily curled up inside it with her face out. She stayed there like that for about half an hour. I noticed she started shivering (surprise, surprise) so I brought her inside into my room where the heater had been on. She didn’t enjoy that one bit.
Outside!
Exploring
Taking in the sights
Cuddled in the onesie
“This is inadequate…”
“Bring the onesie over here plz”
Cuddly in the onesie again
“My ear escaped!”
She’s also been sleeping in weird places like next to her water bowl, in the hall, and behind the TV. She hasn’t really been hiding, but she’s been almost seeking out places that are cool and have a wall for her to press he face against. She’s not been that interested in staying on my bed… Probably because I get my room nice and warm for her. The vet has said her temperature is fine, but I’m sure something isn’t right with it. She’s currently being restless. It’s 11:15PM now, I’ve not long gone to bed, and she’s already been up and down twice. I’m not sure what that’s about. She’s had one day where she was agitated like this but by the evening she was OK.
We’re on the downward slide again. Maggie has stopped eating again even with the anti-nausea pill, so we’re going to start syringe-feeding her. She’s snorting again and her lymph nodes are quite inflamed. Either that, or she’s growing another tumour in her neck. This seems to be making mouth-breathing slightly difficult and she’s also finding it hard to get comfy to sleep. She gets a lot of discharge out of her nose and Dad has to clean it several times a day. I brought her up to sleep in with me the other night (little shit decided the middle of my single bed was the perfect spot for her) and she did relax and stop snorting after a while. We’re going to take her to the vet tomorrow, and then to VSG for her chemo. Hopefully things perk up a little bit a few days after her next chemo.
When I got home from work, I could hear Dad talking to one of the cats before I even got in the house. It was so high pitched and loud. Once I got in the house and came up the stairs, I realised why he was so excited; he was giving Maggie a cuddle and she was purring and breathing well. Apparently, he couldn’t see her when he got in but when she heard his voice, she came running out to greet him. When I got in her eyesight, she started yelling at me, which is something she hasn’t done in a long time.
Dad put her on the floor after a while and her body language told me she wanted to go somewhere. She was hunching over like she was getting ready to move off, and kept looking in the direction of the kitchen (immediately to her left). I mentioned that she looked hungry and Mum got her some food, thinking she’d do what she usually does and be interested, sniff, then decide, “that’s not food…” and leave. But……
Maggie ate food on her own for the first time in a week!
EATING!!
Eating MORE!!
Managed to get through half a plate of food in a few minutes.
We decided not to syringe feed her this evening because she’d eaten more than we’d have fed her through syringes.
She also came to me when I called her, which is something she hasn’t done in a while too. She’d usually just sit there and look at me uncomfortably.
We took her to her vet appointment and she’s gained 200g. We found out we’d been overdosing her on her anti-inflammatory drug. The scale on the syringes are in kilograms, not millilitres… We were giving her enough for a 10kg cat! Luckily, the vet wasn’t too concerned, and had a bit of a chuckle. We’re definitely giving her the dose she’s meant to have from now on!
After that, she couldn’t get enough of me and Dad. She kept giving us headbutts and chatted away to us, and at one point nearly gave Dad a love bite on his nose 😂 she even followed him onto the couch when he had his dinner.
Seconds before the near-nose-nip.
“I love my daddy…”
Can’t get away from her!
She’s been sleeping more comfortably and actually gets sleep. When she’s sleeping with me, she sleeps like a baby. Her ears relax completely. She struggles to sleep on her own. I think, because she’s sick, she feels insecure, as if some big animal could come and eat her. It seems that all the deterioration before may have been due to her just being too damn tired.
The sleepy ears…
The old Maggie is back! I guess I really will have to sacrifice my sleep for hers 😂 BRING ON THE RED BULL!
Mum and Dad have figured out a less stressful way to feed Mags. They wrap her in a towel and put her on the kitchen bench while Dad scruffs her and syringes food into her slowly from a 10mL syringe. He’s put a bit of soft tubing at the end of it so he can get further back in her mouth, and so it’s softer for her. She’s had around 100g of food today, and had gained 10g as of her vet appointment this morning. I’m glad it’s less stressful for her, because until yesterday, feeding her was absolutely traumatic for everyone involved.
Sorry for the lapse in posts. I’ve been super busy with work, family stuff, and of course, taking care of Maggie.
Here’s what you’ve missed.
Living it up with her onesie and possum tail.
Keeping me company while I’m talking to Mum on Facebook.
Again, with her onesie, using her possum tail as a pillow.
On my bed with her little pillow.
We got her some bibs so she could eat without making a mess.
A really good effort.
Using my foot as a pillow…
Enjoying face scratchies.
Being left at VSG for her CT scan.
A sick little baby…
And of course, several vet visits and weigh-ins.
Maggie has started snuffling. We noticed it around the end of March, and it’s gotten progressively worse. We were scared a fistula might have formed somewhere. We took her to one of her usually scheduled vet appointments and asked for their advice, which was to take her over to VSG. We managed to make her an appointment to go over on the 4th, and were told that it was unlikely a fistula had formed, as she didn’t meet the criteria for it. Things to look out for are:
Loss of appetite; at that stage, she was eating less, but not much less
A high temperature; Maggie’s temperature was within the healthy range
Foul-smelling discharge from the nose; although Maggie did have a lot of nasal discharge, it was her breath that smelt fouler
We went away happy that it was likely not a fistula causing the issue, but also none the wiser as to what was causing the issue. We ended up taking her back to VSG a few days later. We couldn’t see our usual vets so we saw another one. We left her at VSG so she could have a CT scan and some blood work done.
We had to leave her overnight as it wasn’t until after 4pm that she could get in to have the scan done. We went to collect her the following morning. At the appointment, the vet showed us the scan. The tumour has been resistant to the Palladia with Maggie, has come back, and has invaded her nasal cavity, and part of the left side of her face (the good side). She’s currently breathing through a tube around 5% of what she should be breathing through. That’s why she’s been snorting. It’s also why she’s stopped eating; when Mum puts food out every morning, she runs into the kitchen, takes a sniff of the food, and walks away. She can’t smell. We’ve been syringe feeding her. When we take her to her vet appointments now, they’ve also been syringe feeding her. She has cancer cachexia, so regardless of how much she was eating prior to this, she’s lost a lot of weight. As of today, she’s 3.31kg which is 70g above her lowest.
She’s also been put on a different chemo drug. We’ve been told that this is pretty much the last option for her. The particular drug is harsh on her kidneys and attacks both cancer and white blood cells, so VSG has to administer it once every 3 weeks to allow time for the white blood cells to regenerate. Maggie has kidney failure, so it really is a last ditch effort. There is another drug that could have been tried, but if this one doesn’t work, the earliest she could safely be given it is 10 days after the dose of the one she’s currently on. It’s excreted in urine and faeces, so we have to segregate her from the other two cats for the first two days after it’s administered with a separate dirtbox. None of the cats have enjoyed that. D’arcy cries during the night, and Rosie has been incredibly worried whenever we have to feed her, as Maggie doesn’t tolerate it well.
Mum has been sleeping on the floor with her in the lounge at night, and Dad lies on the floor in the kitchen trying to coax her to eat on her own.
The most heartbreaking thing about it is that, although she’s struggling and is incredibly uncomfortable, she still seems happy. Maybe ‘happy’ isn’t the right word… perhaps ‘loyal’ would be more apt. She still purrs as loud (and snuffly) as ever. She loves brushies and face scratchies. When Dad sits down, she runs to him to give him loves. She gives us so much affection. I was home from work yesterday and I set myself up on the lounge floor with my duvet and laptop, and I put the TV on for us, and she spent the day sitting with me on the floor. She cried whenever I left her to go down the hallway to get something. She knows we’re upset and I feel like she’s trying to be extra affectionate to try and comfort us. She doesn’t like us being upset as much as we don’t like her being uncomfortable.
The vet said that if the drug is going to work, we should see very quickly. Unfortunately, we’re not seeing those changes. I’m afraid she has weeks or even days left.
Maggie had her Tuesday vet appointment today. Her weight has plateaued at 3.75kg, so I will have to increase her feeds.
Maggie had a pretty good feed tonight though. She got through around two thirds of a small tin of catfood. She’s enjoying the ones that are either minced up, or pureed as it makes it easier for her to scoop up with her tongue. She’s gone off the ones with a lot of gravy, all except one tuna white meat one.
Om nom nom nom
“I think I’ve had enough…”
“No wait… there’s more!” (after a top-up)
I gave her another good brush this evening after work. She doesn’t seem to enjoy being brushed as much as she used to, even with her favourite brushes, so I’m wondering whether her skin is causing her some kind of discomfort. She doesn’t appear to be in pain, but she’s got this air of, “oh, just hurry up and get it over with.”
She’s also developed a bit of diarrhea. I’m pretty sure that’s a side effect of the Palladia, but we might have to keep an eye on it. I’m going to bring it up with the vet on Thursday; she might need stool hardeners in order to manage it and keep it under control.
Maggie frothed like mad having her pills today, poor thing. She always puts up a massive fight.
She was 3.75kg today.
I’ve been giving her a brush after she’s been to the vet. She loves being brushed, and I thought it would make her feel better after getting so stressed out (though not every time because I don’t want to condition her to hating brushies), but I can never seem to get all the fur out. I’m going to get her a shedding brush and hopefully this will help.
Maggie's Blog 
