Back to the vet...

I woke up this morning and Arnie was still laying in exactly the same spot I left him in the night before. I thought he was dead. He wasn't. I put him on the couch and put the eye drops in his eyes and set him back on the floor. He laid down right where I put him and went back to sleep. In the kitchen I found some vomit. Apparently he did move at some point during the night, if only to vomit.

I called the vet again. He got me in this morning. Arnie plastic cone collar was covered in snot from his almost constant sneezing. His eyes - both of them now - are runny and he is lethargic and not eating or drinking. Yesterday I tried to spoon feed him and he took only one teaspoon of food. At the vet, they weighed him and he's lost two pounds since Monday. He's also dehydrated, running a temp and is constipated.

So they're keeping him overnight. They'll give him some IV fluids and antibiotics and feed him with a syringe and give him an enema to make him poop. The vet wanted to do blood work too but right now I can't afford that so that's on hold at least until I get paid in September. I hate that I had to choose what treatment to do based on what I could afford. I suppose the treatment will make him better but the blood work would have told me exactly what was going on.

I've been researching Arnie's symptoms on the web and they all match something called feline herpes virus. According to what I've read, cats can only get this if exposed to another cat who is a carrier. Arnie has only ever been exposed to one other cat - Brigette. My Brigette is fine - healthy as a horse - but she could be carrying this virus and not show any symptoms. If that's the case, I'll have to make a hard decision on whether or not to keep her. And as if Arnie being sick wasn't breaking my heart, having to give up Brigette will really do me in.