Saturday - March 05, 2016

bad week in kittehtown

This was the week both cats were supposed to go to the vet to get spayed. One got there. Neither one had the surgery.

Sniffles, the tiny one with the permanent stuffy nose—I’m trying to rename her Amanda, but it’s just not working—made her appointment, but was hardly under the knife when she had a bad reaction to the anesthetic and started turning blue. So the doc stopped the procedure, sewed her up, and brought her out of it, just to be safe. We’ll try again in another six months. She’s home, isolated in one of the bedrooms, resting comfortably, and being pampered left and right. Two days of that and she’s a loving little purr machine, and can’t wait to get out of the room. Tomorrow, honey, we just want to give the incision an extra day to heal.

Dizzy, the one who was born mostly blind and with a small facial deformity, is in a bad way. We don’t know if the onset of puberty was the trigger or not, but the poor baby has started having petit mal-like seizures. OMG, it’s a frightening and heart-rending thing to witness.

Cats do stupid shit. Cats chase their tails. Cats run around the house at 1000mph, and sometimes they go kind of crazy and leap and pounce all over the place at nothing, as if they were hunting ghosts. That’s cats. This is different.

She doesn’t have convulsions, per se. But she does run in tight circles, spinning around like a four legged figure skater at amazing speeds. Half a minute to a minute of this spinning, her tail and head stretched out straight the whole time while her body gyrates. Sometimes she falls over and then thrashes about. And then, like throwing a switch, it’s over. And she’s scared to death and sometimes wet from heaving up a little phlegm or cat snot or something. So we scoop her up and hold her firmly but gently and pet her and soothe her until she’s calm and has her breath back. And that’s it. And we never know when or if the next one will hit.

The first time was at night in the middle of the living room. We were terrified because there was nothing we could do, and cried our eyes out because ... well convulsions ... this means the end, right? So I get up the next morning and go in to use the bathroom. We’ve learned to not latch the door because the litter pan is next to the toilet, and we don’t want to force the kittens to have any little accidents. Plus Dizzy is totally nosy, and will Kung Fu the door open and come right in to see what you’re doing. And for a nearly blind cat, that means up close and personal. While you’re sitting on the throne!! Cats!!!

So she struts into the room after I’d been in there about 15 seconds, walks a couple steps in my direction, and has another seizure. I didn’t know what to do. “No kitty no!” and I reach over and pick her up and cuddle her fiercely. Her little body is red hot and stiff as an iron bar, and I can feel her torquing against me with amazing strength. So I’m yelling for help, yelling for the wife, still sitting naked on the john. And the cat thrashes herself loose, climbs up my arm and onto my back as I lean forward, and finishes her flamenco de fuego on my back. Untrimmed claws extended. She finally fell off me into the litter pan, and got up a couple seconds later as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, I’ve got 30 bloody gashes all over me. And I still hadn’t done what I came in there to do!

So we got on the phone to the vet ASAP, and he cancelled her operation. But he was very supportive, and said how there were various tests to do, and a whole assortment of medicines depending on the cause. It is not the end. Since then she’s had 3 more fits. I can’t tell if they’re getting any worse, and they don’t seem to have any schedule. One second she’s fine, the next second a demon has possessed her, a minute later she’s fine but upset, and once we’ve comforted her she’s fine again. And we’re emotional wrecks. Again. There have been a lot of tears here the past few days. She’s going in for blood work Monday. And from there? We’ll see.

The good news is—if there is anything that can be called good news here—is that NJ has one of the best equipped large scale veterinary hospitals in the country. The Red Bank Veterinary Hospital has a staff of more than 80 vets, 4 of whom are neurological specialists. The bad news is that it’s on the other side of the state. The good news is that in NJ, that means it’s only and hour and a half away. More bad news; it’s guaranteed to be mighty expensive. But hey, we’ve got ObamaCat! Just kidding. But we do have health insurance for this kitteh, and it’s from the company that says they pay out without a hassle. So maybe she’s covered. Bad news is, we won’t know until we submit a bill.

Poor kitteh. But we have to do something. And we aren’t willing to lose her. Not yet. No. No no no! So there’s been a whole lot of praying going on here too.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/05/2016 at 10:04 PM   
Filed Under: • Animals • Cat Blogging •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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