Coping With Feline Leukemia Virus

My little Bear-Bear died yesterday (07-30-07) and laid to rest. Bear-Bear was only 28 days old and full of life. At least that is what I thought. I adopted him into the family when the mother would not take care of him and his two other siblings at the precious age of three weeks. I was told that they were weaned at that age since they were link bobcats. I had no idea, they were eating and drinking on their own and full of spunk. Bear-Bear was a mamma’s boy. I was up every two hours with him if he was hungry or just wanted to be held or rocked. Everyday when I came home from work, I would sit on the couch and put him on my chest and ask him how much fun he had that day and he would meow with his motor just a purring and put his little paws on my mouth and nibble on my nose and try to play with my eyelashes. When he was done playing he would crawl up on my shoulder into my hair and fall asleep. When I suspected something was wrong was a couple of days before he died: he had a couple of episodes of liquid stool. I thought I might be giving him to much milk, so I gave him water for a day with his food. The day before he died he would just meow and nothing I did could comfort him. He finally fell asleep and seemed to be resting comfortably. I thought he would be okay. I checked on him in the morning before I went to work and he was warm and sleeping. I told him I would see him when I get off work. A couple of hours later I received a phone call from my husband saying he thought Bear-Bear was dying. He informed me that our 9 year old son found him lying on his back with his feet straight up in the air and meowing very loud. I dropped the phone and rushed home. It only took me 15 minutes to get home; but it seemed like an hour. I picked him up in his little blanket and rushed him out of the house with my son still in the house crying. I rushed him to the vet hospital with him barely gasping for air. When I got to the hospital, The Dr. told me he was very anemic and they gave him a shot of dexamethasone to get his heart to beat better and put him on oxygen. With the tireless effort to keep him alive felled. He did not get better. The Dr. told me Bear-Bear was suffering from Fading Kitten Syndrome. Then he explained it is also known as feline Leukemia Bear-Bear was infected through the uterus. The Dr. said he did not have a chance to survive. He also said by the time I got Bear-Bear to the hospital, he was already in a coma. I went ahead and took him home so he could take his last breaths in his loved warmth home around people who loved him so dearly. The Dr. informed me that he was not suffering since he was in a coma. He could not feel any pain. He lasted only two hours when I got him home. We had a little family funeral for him. I had no knowledge of this deadly disease. His older sibling died a week before he did and his younger sister died that night following Bear-Bear. The mother still seems to be healthy and full of life. I did learn a lot within the last 24 hours of this fatal disease. I am so glad that Bear-Bear was in my life even though it was for a very short time. He made me smile and feel so young again. As I grieve over his death he has taught me a lot in his little time on this earth. I will always love my little Bear-Bear.