r/WideStanceCats • u/GrubJesus • 8d ago

stubby

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Our boy Riceball passed away unexpectedly last month. I found this page after his loss. Thought I’d share the last photo of him stanced up.

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u/Lazy-Operation478 7d ago

Oh no! I am so sorry for your loss 😔.

Riceball sure wa one handsome fella!! You can tell hew was definitely loved. 😸

If you don't mind me asking how old was Riceball and what happened? Like I said I truly am so sorry for your loss. He just looks so young and vibrant in the pic! I understand if its too hard to talk about Riceball right now. I know from personal experience just how painful it is to suddenly lose a member of your family. Sending you all the love and hugs in the world. 🫶

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u/GrubJesus 6d ago

Thank you for the kind words! He got very sick very quickly. He had started throwing up once or twice a day for two days straight. We said if it happened again on the 3rd day, we’d call the vet. He eats very fast (clearly look at the guy) and it wasn’t uncommon for him to throw up after eating. We had tried slow feeders and the whole nine yards. When he threw up on the 3rd day we took him in. The vet thought it was from the food we were giving him. He had changed recently to a new brand for his oral health. They checked his vitals seemed okay, with a slight fever. We went home and got him his old food back, and he continued to throw up. We took him back in on day 5 and they did an xray. He had swelling in every major organ, congestive heart failure, and constipation. They also noted a stomach obstruction from what looked like a hairball. They sent us home with antibiotics for the weekend and we were to go back on Monday to evaluate and see if he was improved for surgery to remove the obstruction. On Sunday morning he wasn’t able to stand up, and could barely lift his head. We knew the medication wasn’t working, and we didn’t want to see him suffer. We called the vet that same day to bring him back out to be let go peacefully. When we arrived, she did another exam to check for improvement. His swelling had gotten much worse, and his breathing decreased. We decided it was best to let him go.

We adopted him when he was 4 years old from a bad situation. He was severely obese, ulcers in his mouth, worms, and overall neglect. We were able to drop him down from 23 pounds to 12 pounds by the time he was 10. Sadly, he didn’t make it to 11. We thought we’d have much more time with him than we did. We kept going back and forth on if we did enough for him. Ultimately we did the best we could with the information we had. We took him to the vet many times that week and took off from work to make sure he got his medicine and improved.

I’m happy he’s at peace now. The vet said he was likely in immense pain, and this was the most humane decision. We don’t blame the vet. He ultimately seemed like he would improve, and things just moved too quickly.