u/Delicious-Client-355

this is o'malley. i've had him since i was a freshman in high school. he's 16 years old. saying this cat is my soulmate is an understatement. he's the first animal i had that i was old enough to care for independently. today we went to get his senior panel done which i was nervous for. scared of what may be in his bloodwork. but to quite literally everyone's surprise, everything is within normal limits. not even a hint that something is wrong or beginning to be wrong. our vet said he'd never encountered a cat his age that didn't have some sort of abnormal bloodwork.

i feel like we so often see sad stories about pets online. mourning and loss, which is totally okay we need to celebrate and remember our babies. but i thought it would be refreshing to some to see good news and celebrate that as well. here's to hopefully many more years with my old orange boy.

I posted on here about 20 days ago looking for any advice or insight about what may be wrong with midnight where i got a lot of good advice. particularly to get him a chest xray. shortly after that post i took midnight back to the vet where he was finally diagnosed with fungal pneumonia. specifically blasto. apparently, it is rare in cats. he is on day 15 of medication that could last anywhere from 2-8 months and isn't guaranteed to work. i won't lie, the first week i thought he was going to die. he refused to eat. i was taking him for fluids every 2 days and trying every stimulant. his breathing was awful. but i started to syringe feed him and he appears to be doing so much better. his breathing is much less labored and he's starting to show interest in eating on his own. i also got my first aggressive headbutts for the first time in a month tonight. so i wanted to thank everyone who helped and listened to me. also, if you feel something is wrong with your cat trust your gut. midnights diagnosis isn't something that vets are immediately looking for. it took persistence. and hopefully i'll be back in about 8 months to report that my boy is fungus free.