Mali has, at most, 1-2 years to live.

I just got back from a vet appointment that went much longer than expected.

Mali had an ultrasound - her gallbladder looks great, her liver looks great. One kidney is still much smaller than the other - something they suspect was a congenital problem. What this means is that her kidneys are functioning at 25% of their normal function. This is highly unlikely to improve.

We still do not know the source of the recurring infections.

If Mali doesn't get another infection, then she may live another year, possibly two.

It's extremely likely that Mali will, in fact, get another infection. There is simply no way to figure this out at this point.

So, while Mali is doing extremely well at the moment - eating, active, happy - she... she can't really get better.

When Odin died, he was doing great on a Monday and was dead on a Thursday. We had no idea he had pancreatic cancer - and even had we known, there was nothing that could have been done - it is a highly aggressive, untreatable cancer. Nevertheless, I had thought that I would have preferred to known in the few months that he had cancer. That maybe there was something I could have done.

There wasn't.

Now . . . I have a very, very sick cat. Oh she looks healthy now, but her insides are not healthy. This isn't treatable. There's not a damn thing I can do. She's being put on a home-cooked, special diet that is low in protein so that her kidneys do less work.

I was wrong with Odin - I think I prefer sudden and unexpected. Maybe that just seems better now.

There is one possibility - and even Mali, in this state, isn't viable for it yet, and that is kidney transplant. They get the kidney from a healthy, screened stray. There isn't all that much research on how long this would extend her life or the success rate; furthermore, Mali has a consistent history of recurring infections for apparently no reason. If she got an infection after a transplant the kidney would basically be wasted. So we have to see if her infections stop coming now that she is stabilized - in which case she may become a viable transplant candidate - but that is highly unlikely.

Quite honestly I have not stopped crying since I heard the "1-2 years" - I asked, and I wish I hadn't, you know? But I suppose it's important that I know. Right now, my best bet is to find an internist wherever I move that is good at this. Ideally, UC Davis is where I'd be near. They are the hospital for this kind of medical problem.

1 to 2 years. Maybe, if she doesn't get an infection the causes of which we have no idea and no way to proactively deal with.

1-2 years.

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