kolling@magic.ARPA (12/21/84)
I adopted a cat from a shelter a few days ago. I wisked her right from the shelter to the vet's because between when I picked her out and when she was released for adoption, she developed a very bad upper respiratory infection. She's in an isolation cage at the vet's, curled in a miserable heap, she drools a lot constantly, and doesn't eat, presumably because she has a monster sore throat. She's on intravenous fluids, and the vet says if she doesn't start eating by Monday, he recommends a surgical procedure to insert a tube into her stomach to feed her thru. He also says this type of infection is usually fatal to only a few percent of the cats that get it, but he doesn't sound as positive when he says this as he sounded when he said it yesterday..... Anybody had a cat with this condition who has any advice to offer? Are her chances really non-zero? I'm wondering if this surgery thing will do more harm than good? Karen (kolling@decwrl.arpa)