Oh, no. Sweetloaf the cat has heart disease. We learned this because we took him to the emergency vet Saturday night after finding him sprawled on the floor, panting and yowling, his hind legs dragging and next to useless.
The vet said his heart is enlarged and threw a saddle thrombus, a blood clot that blocked the blood flow to the back half of his body; it was crazy luck that the clot broke up and his legs regained strength after they pumped him full of blood thinner and fluids. Usually cats don't survive that, at least not with the use of their back legs. But Sweetloaf is fine now after a weekend at the kitty hospital. Great, even, jumping up on tables and windowsills as though nothing happened.
We're told he won't live very long with an enlarged heart like that--it will almost certainly generate another clot within the next few months. We could do a bunch of stuff with scans and needles and medicines and blood draws, all guaranteed to annoy the shit out of him and drain our bank account without improving his chances very much. With our regular vet's guidance, it wasn't hard to decide to just put him on a tiny dose of aspirin and enjoy him while we can.
It was a horrible weekend. I'm heartbroken that our sweet, dumb, beautiful, healthy-looking boy is so sick and won't be around much longer. And I'm glad he is home, purring and eating kibble when he's not hiding under the bed.