May 06, 2008

WWC and medicating cats

i played WWC this week! go me! the words this week were three and fire. i've been super impressed (slash jealous) of how cool tink's number collages have been, so i went ahead and sort of did, uh, the same thing. imitation is the highest form of flattery, right? ....right?

anyhoo. on to the pictures. fire is pretty self explanatory.. i wish i'd had time to do something cooler with it, but here's what i've got:

i like decorating in groups of three, it turns out, so i took most of those pictures in my house last night, then added in the butterflies and the bridesmaids to fill out the grid :-) clockwise from the top left, we've got:

*a grouping of three vases, from japan, nicaragua, and peru;
*three butterflies from a camping trip last year;
*three lit bulbs from my bathroom;
*three prints with some of my favorite lines from le petit prince;
*three super hot bridesmaids at our bridesmaid dress party;
*three astronomical prints i have hanging (vertically, like that) in my living room; and
*my "garlicky / onion" dish, which just happened to have three items in it last night - one shallot, one onion, and one hunk o' garlic.

so you know the expression to describe something frustrating slash futile, "it's like herding cats"? i'd like to modify that to "it's like MEDICATING cats. repeatedly. with oral medications given via syringe down the gullet." i mean sure, it doesn't quite have the snappy conciseness of the original, but jesus h., it's accurate.

ps:
nilsa teased me last week that i was becoming a cat lady, what with all the kitten posts. hold on to your hats, folks, because here comes a lot of cat talk :-)

on thursday when i got home, oliver was acting... weird. normally he GALLOPS to the front door when he hears me come in, purrs like his little head is going to explode, and flops onto the floor in front of me so i'll pet him. on thursday, he just... didn't. he spent the evening lying under various pieces of furniture looking miserable, and doing this weird retch thing every few minutes, like he had a hairball. except six hours later, he hadn't produced a hairball (or anything else), was still gagging, and hadn't eaten or drank since i'd been home. i googled "cat retching" and promptly freaked myself out (intestinal blockage!! act immediately or your cat may DIE!!!!) so i called the emergency vet clinic to ask if they thought his symptoms sounded worrisome. they said it was too vague to tell over the phone, and should probably bring him in just so *i* could sleep. in i went.

sick cat

once at the vet, she found that in addition to the gagging, lethargy, and loss of appetite, he also had a really high fever. she examined his mouth and throat to see if he had something stuck in it: nothing. she did xrays of his throat and abdomen: nothing. i spent about 2 hours there while the vets basically scratched their heads because it was such a weird combination of symptoms. they eventually sent me home and told me to watch him closely, and keep an eye on his temperature - if it went up any more, i'd have to rush him back in immediately. (aside: guess how you take a cat's temperature? hint: not in the mouth.)

by saturday, there was no improvement, so i brought him back in. at this point the vet was really worried, because if there WAS something caught in his intestines - say, he swallowed a string or some pieces of plastic bag, because he's an idiot - we were now running the risk of rupturing an intestine, which is Really Bad. i had to make a decision on the spot whether or not to send him to surgery to check it out. there was crying. i sent him to surgery.

the vet called soon after to say that inexplicably, they found nothing at all in his stomach or intestines (although bonus: he looks REALLY HEALTHY on the inside!). they put him on anti-nauseau meds and gave him stuff to coat his stomach and throat, assuming that it must have been irritation of some sort that was causing all the retching. he spent sunday and monday in the vet hospital, then came home with me last night - on a bunch of meds, and with a big incision up his belly, but more or less fine. the little shit basically faked us all out. he's WAY better now - acting like himself, playing with the kitten, eating like mad - but i have to give him a whole ARSENAL of medications several times a day for the next week to ensure he stays this way. and the method of giving him these meds includes shooting syringes full of scalding lava into his mouth, as far as he's concerned.

much better cat, but showing off his poor shaved belly and forearms for sympathy

so! that was my weekend. hopefully yours involved less crying and fewer thousands of dollars. i mean, unless it was on something SWEET, like a car.

26 comments:

  1. Awww, poor Oliver! Although can I say that I feel a tad smug because I totally suggested that he might just have a throat irritation back on Friday or whenever it was? Still, sucks that you had to pay lots of money and give your cat surgery to find out for sure. I'm glad he's feeling better!

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  2. Again, dogs are superior. It's easy to give them medicine. They eat anything.


    And I like the candle picture. What were the settings you used to shoot it?

    ~Jef

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  3. Poor Oliver! I hope he's feeling better. Wonder what was making him sick?

    Also, why did they shave his forearms?

    P.S. I love that candle photo - candles are tricky to photograph. Good job!

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  4. I guess this is why you get pet insurance? But good god, that was a LOT for NOTHING.

    Perhaps he was just faking to get more attention wrestled away from the kitten.

    Love the candle shot; you didn't need a candle setting, obviously ;)

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  5. jess - I KNOW! i mentioned that possibility to the vet on saturday, when we were trying to decide if he had to have surgery, and the surgeon agreed it was POSSIBLE, but she'd never seen the symptoms be this long or this pronounced. OH WELL.

    jef - i just had it on automatic :-o with no flash. i tried some manual settings to mess w/shutter speed and aperture, but ended up liking this one the best anyway.

    shauna - forarms were for his catheter and IVs :-(

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  6. I'm glad he's OK...But oh my gosh. All that money for...well, nothing, as it turned out. Oh well.

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  7. that sucks - couldn't he have faked you out in a less expensive way?

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  8. ohhhhhhh honey, I'm sorry about your sweet little kitty! I feel your pain...I just brought BOTH my dogs to the vet this morning (one had a scheduled appointment to get his teeth cleaned; the other had a seizure this morning at 4 am) and I'm betting it'll be well over $1,000.00. EEK! Glad Oliver is ok, tho.

    And I love that Japanese...sake container? The candle light picture is beautiful too :-)

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  9. *stunned silence* "Medicating cats" is WAY better than the original! More true, as you point out, and also people always think I'm saying "hurting cats."

    I love how Bella is hovering anxiously near the sick cat. Like, "DO something!"

    I cannot BELIEVE that cat did not have the decency to have something wrong with him, after all that. It would have been SO satisfying to be like, "And they found X!! Which, if we hadn't gone to surgery, would have killed him within hours!!" But no. He apparently just wanted popsicles and a tum wax.

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  10. Oh gosh. Lots of memories...

    I hope he stays well.

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  11. Glad he's better. Not a fun way to spend your weekend.

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  12. i'm not even a cat lover and i seriously wanna cry seeing that last picture : (

    poor kitty!!!!! i sorry you had to deal with the whole ordeal. but i'm glad he is better!

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  13. Oh, Alice!! I am so sorry! I am so very glad Oiver is feeling better. I really do understand how you were feeling; not knowing what your baby needs is so very hard.

    You are a very good kitty-mama.

    I love that little Bella is looking over him with such a look of concern. Sweet girl.

    Sometimes you wonder if it is all an act just to get some loves, huh?

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  14. Poor Oliver! Sorry you had to go through that! Did they ever say what he had? What the fever was from? Totally sucks having to cut him open just to see if they could find something. Hope he gets better fast!

    Also really liked your fire picture!

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  15. I LOVE the candle shot. Very dramatic! The collage is cool too. I'm tickled that you did it. I was hoping someone would bite. Well done. :)

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  16. Awwww - boo to sick pets. If it makes you feel better, we had to bring SoMi to the vet on Friday afternoon, where they took her temperature, too (probably in the same place as Oliver). She came home doped up on meds and to make matters worse, we dropped her off with our neighbors because we were going out of town! She refused to eat all weekend and I cried myself to sleep Sunday night. By Monday, she was doing MUCH better. Little stinker was protesting our getaway. Grrr...

    Anyway, even though you're still a cat lady, at least your cat is doing much better. :-)

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  17. Poor Oliver, first he has a kitten invade, then he feels like crap and to top it off he gets surgery! I am glad that there is nothing wrong with him, but what an expensive way to find out. Your a good Mom.

    Love the candle and the silver dish is great! Great collection of threes.

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  18. Aww poor kitty! I'm glad he's okay though.

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  19. i have scars from trying to medicate cats and dogs... mental scars...

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  20. Awwwwwww....kitty surgery. I hate to admit, it's kind of cute :)

    Also, I like to decorate in threes as well.

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  21. Wonderful WWC - and I'm glad the kitty is better. I was holding my breath there while reading.....

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  22. Awwe poor kitty! I've recently had to take two of my kitties to the vet, one had some sort of flu (with a temperature). She was really ratty and didn't want to be touched by anyway. And the other, well, shes just stupid and somehow managed to sprain her poor after jumping around like a crazy bitch.

    Silly expensive but oh-so-cute kitties :)

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  23. poor kitty! I'm glad to hear he's better now, fingers crossed it all goes well with the meds.

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  24. Poor kitteh. I am happy he's better! I would drop a few thousand on my cat too ;)

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  25. Poor Oliver, but at this point, I should say Poor Alice!! My cat won recently on the medication issue, although for her troubles she ended up frothing at the mouth (hiding pills in her mouth and making me think she swallowed does have its drawbacks).
    Nice candle pic, and kudos to you for making a collage.

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  26. Poor Oliver! I hope he is recovering nicely. I did the collage thing this week too. Hey, I LOVE the little prince!I was trying to zoom in to see what you three fav. lines are...

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