Recquiescat in Pace

A Sad Farewell to Our Beloved Pickle

Some three weeks ago I was composing a blog post for an update on Pickle's health in my head. It would have been a cheerful post. At the onset of 2018 she was diagnosed with feline colorectal adenocarcinoma, a very aggressive, malignant cancer with the ability to rapidly progress. The average life expectancy following diagnosis lies between 8 weeks to 18 months. This January our beautiful Pickle was just about to turn a massive corner, completing her first year more or less without symptoms since the diagnosis. Things were looking good. 

Apart from minor skin issues, which didn't appear to bother her too greatly, she was doing fine with a good appetite and no litter tray disasters. Her coat had improved (not that it was too bad to begin with), her claws were in good condition and, especially during the final three months of her life, she appeared to be more active and playful. She was in a stable state and, as we were unable to determine the stage of the cancer at the time of diagnosis last year, she was not on any medication. 

She had her first follow-up examination in April 2018 and appeared to have recovered well from her dental surgery at the end of 2017, during which the cancerous polyp was removed from her anus. The polyp showed no sign of returning and her vet was not able to detect any obstructions when taking her temperature. Pickle would have been seeing her vet for her next check-up in early 2019 and we were keeping fingers and paws crossed for her. 

RIP Pickle 2009 - 2019

Sadly, I never got round to writing my 12-month update on how well she was doing, as she started to rapidly decline around eight days ago. At this time  we noticed the first significant change in her behaviour. 

Instead of tucking into her dinner (a mix of home-cooked and raw food, which we introduced following her diagnosis) last Saturday, she walked away from her bowl after a few bites. Even though alarm bells started ringing loudly inside my head, I was only able to monitor and offer her a different variety of food, whilst hoping for the best throughout Sunday.

We were very lucky to have booked an appointment at the vet's for her sister Mietze on Monday and decided to take Pickle instead. Owing to the New Year Bank Holiday on Tuesday, the processing of Pickle's blood tests was delayed and we had to wait until Thursday to exclude Pancreatitis as the reason behind the symptoms she presented. To be able to exclude any musculoskeletal reasons for her distress - our final straw - we decided to go ahead with x-rays under sedation. As we prepared Pickle for another vet visit in the morning of Friday, we had to brace ourselves for the worst possible news. By now she was continuing to refuse both food and water, making it impossible for us to administer pain relief. 

Cats are experts at hiding their pain and Pickle, as we now know, was particularly good at it. She soldiered on, trying to pretend that everything was business as usual. Despite feeling terribly sore, she chose to stay near us in the living room, albeit in a spot that was difficult to access. From time to time she even jumped on furniture or left her sick bed to scratch and mark the usual spots. 

The severity of the pain she was enduring only became obvious to us when it was clear that, whilst palpated and despite the administration of sedatives, she was still feeling what must have been excruciating pain. Her x-rays were subsequently taken under general anaesthetic and revealed a dramatic picture of a substantially enlarged lymph node above her colon.

We asked her vet to ease Pickle's journey into the next chapter and to not wake her up from the anaesthetic. Waking her would have meant her return into a world full of pain, which we would not have been able to manage adequately. On top of that, and given that her heart and lungs were not affected, she would have suffered a horrendous and comparatively slow death. It was time to let go of our beautiful fur baby. We are grateful that we were able to have made this difficult decision with confidence and backed by the diagnostics available to us; and we received fantastic support from Pickle's vet and her team of nurses. 

Pickle died peacefully and painlessly at around 2pm on Friday, 4th January 2018, exactly twelve months after she was diagnosed with colorectal adenocarcinoma. She had lost her fight. And she fought gracefully. 

Fortunately, we were able to share Pickle's last moments by her side, and we are hoping that she felt our hugs. We are all missing her terribly and are trying our absolute best to comfort her sister, Mietze, and our third cat, Pebble. Both are greatly affected by the loss of our beautiful Alpha Cat. 

Picksy Baby, we are all missing you so very, very much. May your beautiful soul watch over us wherever you are now. We loved you so much and always will.