Then, over this past weekend, there was a dramatic change -- she stopped eating, she's interacting with us much less than she used to, and she's been drooling like crazy. She basically just lies around, and has drool coming out of her mouth.

So we took her to the vet, and they did X-rays and a blood panel. The X-rays showed that her lungs maybe looked a little worse, but that was it -- no huge tumors or anything that shouted "Here's the problem." I just called the vet's office, and had them tell me the lab results -- she showed as a little bit anemic, but nothing else was abnormal. When we took her in yesterday, the vet also put her under anesthesia and examined her mouth and throat closely, on the theory that it might be an oral problem -- she found nothing.

So...what do we do at this point? She'll only eat a tiny bit (with coaxing), she's hardly interacting with us -- if we go up and pet her, she may purr, but most of the time she just sits there and looks sad. And then there's the drooling thing. No idea what that is about. She seems to be in pain, if you ask me -- sitting stiffly most of the time, angry eyes, moving stiffly, etc. I'm going to talk to my vet in more detail later today, so if anyone has run into something like this, I'd appreciate any insight you might have.

One of my biggest concerns right now is that we're about to leave on a week's trip on Saturday -- family obligations that we can't get out of. My biggest concern right now is poor Fred, and having us be gone while she is sick. We can board her with the vet so she'd get great care if something were to happen, but what if she dies while we're gone? It seems so horrible. But I don't know at this point if she's "far gone" enough to put her to sleep. I just want to do what's best for her. Any advice greatly appreciated.

Don't take the following as 100% accurate (there are always exceptions), but on people, white spots on the lungs are of concern. If they have like a water spot appearance, as though you dropped a spot of water on the counter (meaning like a sunburst- a dot with jagged edges) it's usually cancer, or other lung desease.
If the lungs have darker appearance it's usually asthma, emphysema...etc. Air shows up dark on xrays. Gas in the stomach shows up dark...Bloodwork rarely, if ever, shows cancer. In fact, my vet worries when the bloodwork comes back normal and the client is concerned about their pet.

Maybe its different with cats.

Prednisone masks a lot of problems. Of course it heals some things quickly IF they are treatable. Otherwise, Prednisone can speed up growths, or compromise the immune system. I had that with my dog.

Don't mean to scare you because I really don't know about your kitty, but is there a cat scan (the xray) or something they can do to get a better diagnosis, so you know what you're dealing with?

Good luck and let us know how you make out with your kitty.

I will talk to the vet about an appetite stimulant and pain meds tomorrow.

I also have to board my asthma kitty at the vet since no one can pill her, and it puts me at ease thats she's there. She goes on prednisone every spring until the first snow. Her lungs have shown the dark shaded area like Ann Marie said, but never white spots. She also gains weight from the prednisone. (hopefully your kitty is not on the Nutro food!) The drooling sounds like she's trying to avoid swallowing.

I'm sure you know all this but I just want to say good luck to you, and whatever decision you make will be the right one.

I wish you all the best.

The house and our hearts feel very empty without her.