Sorry for the lack of TT last week, I was on vacation. We went to Disneyland. We had a petsitter, the same we’ve had for years. And this was her last year. Because when we got home on Saturday, the house was cold, all of the doors and windows open and it stank. The floors had been vacuumed, the litter boxes cleaned out, but there were a couple of places where the cats had peed and nothing was done.
But the worst thing was Wally was sick. I noticed he was uncomfortable Saturday night and Sunday morning I was very alarmed to see how very yellow he was. We rushed him to emergency (where he still is) and after blood tests and an ultrasound, it was determined that he has hepatic lipodosis, or fatty liver disease. Yesterday afternoon, they placed a feeding tube in his belly. We were warned that there could be some repercussions from anesthesia, because the liver, being in such bad shape, would have a difficult time processing the anesthetic through the system. They were right.
Last night, at nine, I took a couple of AdvilPMs, hoping to sleep through the night. At 10:10, the phone rang. It was the hospital, Wally wasn’t doing well, he’d fainted and was in and out of “it”. I asked should we come down, the doctor said “yes”.
We dressed in silence, drove down in silence, neither one of us knowing what to say. We were stunned, we were in shock. We got to the building, rushed inside and were shown to a waiting room. The doctor finally came in, after a very long period of waiting, it seemed like an eternity but was most likely five or ten minutes. She said that they’d put Wally in an oxygen tank and that he was doing better. Earlier, he’d stood up and started howling. His eyes were fully dilated and he’d fallen over. But the oxygen seemed to be helping and if we’d like, we could go back and see him.
We did. What a sad little cat he was, all huddled and hunched over in the tank. His eyes squeezed shut, his ears down. We spoke to him. He opened his eyes and let out a couple of little meows, more just moving his lips than making any sound. I started to cry.
The good thing is his eyes were no longer dilated, they were back to normal. The doctor told us she’d taken an x-ray of him and although there was a small amount of fluid in his belly, everything else looked good. And that he was keeping the food down he was getting, he hadn’t vomited recently. She said they’d be keeping him in the tank for at least twenty-four hours.
Obviously, I’m very upset with our sitter. We hired her because she is a vet tech and would be able to catch something early. We were wrong. She told me last night that she rarely even sees any of the cats. Because she brings her kids over. It wasn’t a big problem when she brought her older children over, but she now has a two year old (adopted) who’s mother was a drug addict when he was born, so he has issues. He’s very active and his presence most likely scared the cats into hiding. Well, that’s just fine, but now we have a cat who’s very, very sick and with a lot of luck and prayers and healing thoughts, just might make it. She said last night when I spoke with her “my kid made your cat sick!” To which I replied, “let’s just hope your kid didn’t kill my cat”. Cold, yes, I know, but I’m very, very upset and disappointed. If I’d known she wasn’t seeing all of the cats, at least trying to find them, she wouldn’t have been here. We pay her a hundred dollars a day for special work. And now, we find out, too late, that it wasn’t being done. Of course I’m upset.
Anyway, in honor of Wally, the king of Tummy Tuesday, here’s a picture from earlier this year, of his wonderful belly.
click for a larger picGet well, Wally. I miss you. News that you’re on the road to recovery would be the best birthday present ever.
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If you’ve got a Tummy Tuesday blog entry, feel free to post the link in the comment section or trackback to this entry. And if you put a link back to this page, then more kitties will get to show off their tummies!
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