Re: First Weekend in Dec. Time Wasting Thread

Mary Ballard wrote:
Brady <waterclock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
: So what's happenin', people?

***unpleasantness spoiler warning//injured cat (in addition, this is
long and tedious and very OT and it is a bit gross)***





I've been having a pet crisis. My male cat, Tao, who (along with his sister, Pooh) is nearly 15, was attacked by something earlier
this week. I didn't see him at all on Monday. I was a bit concerned,
but not too worried, as Tao still occasionally stays out all night.
But, when he wasn't around on Tuesday morning, I got very worried
and started looking for him. I found him crouched in a corner where
I couldn't easily get to him. He just glared at me and wouldn't come
out. I worried about him all day, but couldn't get away from work until about 7 to check on him.

That evening he came when I called him and I was relieved, at first. Then he turned around and I saw the awful wound on his shoulder. I
don't know what had gotten him, but he had a large abrasion and 2 bad puncture wounds. I tended the wound the best I could, and he ate and drank and wanted to be petted, so I decided that he could wait until morning, when my vet opened, to go to the Dr.

I dropped him off for his examination and went to work. About an hour later I got a call. "He might live with just antibiotics, but
he really needs surgery. He has a nasty infection and we need to put him to sleep and remove some tissue and put in a drainage tube."
I was about to freak out. I agreed to the surgery and asked if I
could come and be with him until they took him in.

I went to the vet's office and spent about 1/2 hour with Tao before
they took him into surgery. I asked how dangerous the anesthesia would be for a cat his age and they admitted that it was a bit of a
risk, but not as much of a risk as not performing the surgery.

The vet (who was terrific, btw) called about an hour later to tell
me that Tao had made it thru the surgery fine and had woken up from
the anesthesia and seemed to be doing fine. The vet said that Tao
had a very nasty bacterial infection that had destroyed a lot of
tissue.

The next day Tao was alert and eating well, but still required enough
care that we decided that he'd be best off spending a few days "in
the hospital." I went and visited him and he was so cute and pitiful
with his stiches, drainage tube, and plastic collar shield. He seemed
fine otherwise and, as always, drooled copiously when I petted him.

I picked him up today from the vet today and I think he will recover. He has lost a lot of weight, but seems okay otherwise. I have no idea what got him. He's still on antibiotics and still has his tube and the plastic shield. As a result, he can't see where he's going and walks a bit like a drunken sailor. I have him in a small "cat proofed" area so that he can't hurt himself and he's very annoyed that he can't go outside. I've had to separate him from his sister, which is a bit odd,
but the vet was worried about that she might pull out his drainage
tube. I have to take him back on Monday to have that removed and then
he can shed the dreaded collar.

Hopefully within a few weeks he'll be back to his old self.

MeanMary

Wow! It sound like the worst is over, as long as he heals up.

Speaking of health scares, this past Friday my wife took my car to the Land Rover dealer in Wexford, near Tow W.'s city. I spoke with her on the phone to let her know I got a chance to let the dog out of the crate (I had to work). She was only about 15 miles from the dealer, according to the GPS. She calls me about 30 minutes later, very anxious stating she was having a medical emergency and didn't know what to do. She got very shaky, with uncontrolled trembling of her feet, very light-headed and anxious. She missed the exit and ended up taking the turnpike, going about 20 miles away from the dealership. She called from a filling station/convenience store and thought maybe it was because she hadn't had any breakfast. She ate and had some juice, all while I was taking to her on the cell phone. She felt a little better, so she tried driving again. She programmed the GPS to avoid any highways. She again felt very trembly and quite anxious. I spoke with her for what seemed like an eternity as she told me turn-by-turn where she was, which I tracked on google maps. When she got to the dealership, they took her to a nearby E.R. She had a full work-up, including a CT scan of the head. It turns out she had labyrinthitis causing vertigo symptoms. She didn't have any nausea, so it wasn't your typical presentation. She said they gave her an IV with medication, and in 20 minutes she was remarkably better. The whole ordeal was very scary, to say the least.
.

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