Sterling was born July 28, 1994 and passed away on January 29, 2009.  He was on Animal Planet on That's My Baby Show because he liked to ride on horses. He was so friendly that he would go up to babies, little tiny kids and all to get love, snuggle and purr.

 

He was having a hard time eating, started dropping weight and his canine tooth was broken off. He went in for a dental and bloodwork was done to see how his levels were. Everything in his blood was fine. Kidneys were completely normal. The dental was performed and 3 teeth were pulled. He was put on Clavomox for infection and Metacam for pain. Within a week and a half he was not eating again and I was told to put him on Clavomox again for infection for the weekend. By Sunday night he couldn't swallow and I could tell his body was shutting down.

 

I took him in first think Monday morning to another vet who did a blood test and determined he was in acute kidney failure. His levels were so bad they couldn't even be measured to the level they were...they were off the charts. We tried for 3 days with fluids and on Wed. he hadn't shown improvement, so we thought we'd try until Friday. His kidney function wasn't improving and he was dying. We put him to rest that Friday late and are so sad to lose him to kidney failure when 2 weeks earlier he had normal functioning kidneys. Earlier in his life he was screened for PKD (polysystic kidney disease) as were all my cats and he did not carry that.

 

We had hoped for at least 5 more years with Sterling, but he's gone now. I wish I would have known to check out the drug before giving it to him, but trusted my vet to give him the proper pain medicine. This is a big lesson learned by all involved. I know nothing was intentional, but if the label on the drug was followed, no cat would ever get this medicine. It is labeled for oral use in dogs only.

 

Sterling left behind us and his loving sister who miss him very, very much.