busybee fluffy rambles

Fiona’s been dealing with some respiratory stuff for a while, with what seemed like a cold starting around a month ago. Over the past few weeks she’s been having continuous problems with mucus in one nostril, and this past weekend she was also having nasal bleeding, although that’s cleared up.

Anyway, she’s really tired of going to the vet, but yesterday she got another examination with the most recent developments and it seems that whatever she has is probably systemic and/or structural. The most likely issues are that she either has a tumor or other structural issue in her nose, or she has an abscess in a tooth. It’s unlikely to be a sinus infection since it’s not bilateral.

Unfortunately, because she’s so elderly (she’s at least 15 years old, possibly older), the vet is hesitant to do anything invasive (such as dental work or a CT scan) since they’d all require anesthesia, and that can make things a lot worse.

She’s also lost a lot of weight, but it’s been difficult to keep her well-fed without also overfeeding Tyler as a consequence. It doesn’t help that she’s had typical old-lady dental problems for a while which make her unable to eat dry food anymore (and I think the mucus has impacted her sense of smell so even wet food doesn’t seem so appetizing to her right now).

So for now we’ve just got her on antibiotics which should at least help to clear up the acute infection, and if it returns later we can try other palliative approaches like steroids.

Fiona’s still super energetic and cuddly and generally a happy little creature, but she’s at the age where things could take a sudden turn for the worse and it’s time to start feeling grateful for the time I’ve had with her.

On the plus side, she’s doing a lot better than Werner did at this age and he still made it to around 19 or 20, so hopefully I still have a few years left with her. But I’m not going to go out of my way to extend her life; I’d much rather she has a happy time on this planet while she’s here.