Bringing groceries in the house, turned around and there she was......

BDF you could try this option for the trip to the pound.

 

Yeah, that might work.

A funny thing happened on the way to the pound with Phoebe...... She went in for spaying yesterday and did fine, brought her home late afternoon and she was doing fine. I even took off her 'cone of shame' and she left the sutures alone, so I left the cone off. All was well. But when we woke up this morning, she was having trouble breathing, wheezing and making an odd, gurgling noise. I suspected pneumonia (not my field though so what do I know ??) and called the vet., which was closed to to a pretty nasty snowstorm. But the message instructed to call another animal hospital if it was an emergency, so I gave them a call and they wanted to see her (of course). So Phoebe got an all- expense paid trip, in the snowstorm, to the emergency animal hospital. The vet there suspected she was suffering from cardiac failure due to a congenital condition which is pretty common in cats apparently. Hmmmmm. But they took X-rays and found fluid in her lung, which might indicate pneumonia or her lungs are filling with fluid due to heart failure. So she went to a cardiologist (I do not have a cardiologist but Phoebe does!) and they did an echo cardiogram and her heart tissue is normal. So now she is being treated for pneumonia and staying in a hyper-baric chamber (to administer oxygen- they hate wearing those hoses with the ends that poke into the nostrils like we usually do) and going to stay the night in emergency care. A full recovery is expected at this point and she will probably come home tomorrow. Well, a full recovery is expected for Phoebe, my wallet has sprung a nasty leak that I am not sure will heal, even with treatment.

Of course I plan on passing all of these medical expenses on to the pound when I take her there- not my job to pay for healthcare of a stray cat after all. So whoever adopts her is going to get a whopping bill.

This is Phoebe, sans uterus, wearing the cone of shame:


Brian

 

Poor Phoebe! And poor you!
I hope she goes home tomorrow as planned, and is her old cat self!

 

Cat Doctors

 

Thanks.

Phoebe's mother is not taking this too well. I am not sure but she may have foolishly gotten attached to a kitten that was always on her way to the pound. Silly woman! I of course would never make that mistake and have not allowed any emotional attachment whatsoever..... Sure, I spend a lot of time with her and it may appear that I like the kitten but it is all just part of the act, all the better to make Phoebe's trip to the pound all the more shocking for her. <evil face emoticon goes here>

Sideways OFFTOPIC: we did see an odd thing though. This animal hospital only handles emergencies and has 36 vets. on staff (I counted the names- most impressive place!). But in the entranceway, they have a little 'cat condo' that is all glass, has several levels with a high walkway over the aisle of the building. Pretty neat, and it had two very large cats in there (not fat at all but physically quite big- I would estimate 20 + lb. cats). So I asked what was up with that and the vet said that they were blood donor cats. Never would have thunk of that but there they were. She said they live there, donate blood in regular intervals and are taken care of by the staff and after they have done this for a few years, are put up for adpotion and almost always end up with a client who has lost a cat recently. Pretty nice deal I think. And 'cause I am a curious guy, I asked how many blood types cats have: two, A and B but B is extremely rare and both of those donor cats were type A. And no, there is no Rhesus factor in cats' blood as there is in ours (and of course, Rhesus monkeys); that is the positive / negative sign after the letter representing the blood type in humans.

Brian

 

So sorry the little kitty is sick and hope she recovers quickly!

Hu, didn't know that about their blood types. I've heard of blood donor dogs, but not BD cats and that is pretty cool.

 

Wishing Phoebe a speedy and full recovery!

Wonder if if she is having a reaction to the anesthesia? Caught a kitty cold from vets office?

 

Hoping for a speedy recovery.

 

Hoping the best for Phoebe. I'm sure she is in good hands.

 

She adopted the right owners!

 

Quick update, 6 Jan 2018 (Sat.): Phoebe is home and doing well. It now appears as though she had pneumonia rather than a heart condition. She spent a day in an oxygen chamber and is now breathing fine and it is no longer labored.

We got her about 8:00 PM last night and she had had MORE than enough of all of that experience, including the car ride home. But w/in a couple of hours she settled in and is mostly like her old self other than being quieter and more affectionate but opiates will do that. She is on two drugs, one for the pain and one antibiotic and it has been proving most interesting getting them into her; the antibiotic is a pill that can be crushed and mixed with tuna and so that goes right in the cat, and she takes care of the input herself. The analgesic is an extremely sweet smelling liquid and once mixed with tuna, she will not eat the tuna. So this morning I held her and held her mouth open while Andrea shot the syringe of medication into her mouth and that did not go well. It did not even go badly but actually much worse. And what made it even worse yet was Andrea only shot 1/2 of the dosage into Phoebe the first time so I had to get and hold her for the same thing again and of course the kitten was more than fired- up for that round.

But overall, no problem- she should recover fully, and only requires one more X-ray before ending the antibiotic in two weeks to make sure all the fluid in her lungs is gone (otherwise they will extend the medication until the lungs are clear).

And both her legs have been shaved in the standard Poodle cut- all the other cats and dogs were making fun of her at the vets.



Brian

 

Thanks! Best guess is that she aspirated some material from her stomach while unconscious from the anesthesia- apparently it is pretty common for all of us mammals, human and 'other'. Then the lung(s) react to the stomach / food products badly, of course, and an infection starts- bacterial pneumonia apparently. There are no symptoms until the pneumonia has gotten far enough along to start reducing lung capacity, which is exactly what happened to her the morning following surgery- heavy, wheezing and labored breathing.

But this is America and we have animal emergency care hospitals and so if needed and wanted, they can and do perform some frankly pretty extraordinary things to animals to keep them alive or even resuscitate them; I had to fill out and sign a resuscitation form and one of the options was 'full treatment' which may include open heart massage and de-fibrillation. Honestly, I did not even know such things were available but apparently we make available to our pets and other animals medical services not normally available to humans in many parts of the world. That is NOT a political statement in any way, merely what I believe is an accurate and somewhat surprising observation.

So now Phoebe will have a story to tell when she goes to the pound.

Brian

 

OK...OK! Enough with the pound comments already! No wonder why she is intentionally getting sick....

When you get her back to a clean bill of health, go ahead and instead of dropping her off at the pound, pick a town in the U.P. and I'll meet you. Make sure you bring her food, litter box and supplies, all her toys, and maybe enough funds for a year or so just in case you start regretting what she endured with you!



Glad she's better.

 

I'm glad to hear Phoebe is home and doing well!

 

Yeah, nothing exceeds like excess. If something is amusing once, it must be hysterical after the millionth time.

Not to worry though, I do not think even Phoebe is listening to the 'pound remarks' anymore. Right now she is suffering, curled up in our bed- I say suffering because it is only a queen sized and I think she would be more comfortable in a kind sized bed.

Thanks for the kind thoughts Dave. We have gotten a tad attached to the little girl and in all honesty, this little health problem was rather sobering because they were explaining how 'putting her down now' would not be un-warranted if she did have a heart condition because these episodes would be repeated and she would have a short life expectancy. Not what we were expecting to hear about a 6 month old kitten.

Brian

 

Many others have already said it just as I have, but that cat sure did wander into the right household!!

 

True enough. And she did not just wander in, she MOVED in with a vengeance; if she had luggage, she would have been hanging her clothes in the closet before we noticed her. Seriously, she stood in the middle of my kitchen and DEMANDED attention.

And it would take someone a lot tougher than me to throw this outside when it is below zero.....



Brian

 

Brian, you are ONE lucky SOB.

 

Yeah, we think so too. But so is Phoebe, so it kind of worked out for everyone (everything? every living thing?) in this situation.

Brian

 

28 Jan 2018: a quick update. Phoebe has finished her two weeks of antibiotics, had another chest X-ray and her lungs are clear, which means the treatment was effective and is now finished. She is eating like a pig and filling out quite a bit. Her little health set- back seems to have kept her from gaining much weight but now she is up to 3 feedings a day (from maybe 1 1/2 or so) and far more active. In fact, she goes into 'Krazy Kitten Mode' at least once a day, usually around 4:00 AM and prefers waking Andrea rather than me. [nice!]

She is settling in nicely and we are all meeting someplace in the middle, learning how to interact with each other. She really is a neat cat- as I have said before, more dog than cat but now slowing growing affectionate with us in small ways and acting a bit cat- like.

Overall, her training is working out outstanding with absolutely no problem with her trying to get outside, and confining her scratching to her scratching post as well as a couple of throw rugs (which is fine with us- they can be easily replaced).

So we are re- thinking the whole pound thing and <may> end up with a pet cat, entirely by mistake. [yep, this is the part where everyone laughs] That said, she really IS a neat cat and a very positive addition to our lives.

Contractors coming next week to start on the porch and then siding the entire house so we will see how that goes. Given any opportunity at all, she 'sneaks' upstairs and in- between the new and old floors of the house but so far, has been easy to recover as she comes when called and it is easy to pick her up and bring her back downstairs. Not sure how she will react with the contractors but I think OK, and I believe we can make allowances / adjustments as needed to keep her safe and inside during the construction.

Anyway, Phoebe seems to be doing fine and I guess we are going fine with her too. So those of you who lined up at the pound may have to wait a bit longer for a kitten to adopt.

A gray cat, on a gray towel, on a gray couch...... She always 'chirps' several times when I talk to her and is quick enough to purr so I guess she can hang around a little bit longer....



Brian