sister_raphael | Emergency! (Reply)

An emergency trip to the Animal Hospital, follow up X-Rays and further vet checks... the tale of a sick kitty.

Somehow my kitty hurt hurself badly and didn't tell me. She always tells me when she's got something to say, so it came as somewhat of an alarm when it was 5pm dinner time new Year's Eve and my little girl dragged herself out limping and barely able to walk. She turned around to eat and just fell down. Instant panic! I gathered her things and headed for the Animal Emergency grateful that while I don't have medical insurance for myself, I do have it for my cat. I was expecting the absolute worst news. A broken hip, perhaps.

There were a few wildlife injuries ahead of us and we were triaged fairly quickly where she was given a quick once over by the vet and some pain meds for relief while we waited to be seen properly. Being alert and not bleeding, we weren't the highest category of need and they were short staffed, one of the vets having being bitten and gone off to people Emergency to be seen.

A few hours later, we did get to see the vet and have a proper examination. Her hip, leg and back were very sore and her whole leg was swollen. Luckily not a paralysis tick. Due to the high volume of seriously bad emergencies, they couldn't do X-Rays (no staff) but said they could give me another vet who could tonight, or I could come back in the morning. We left with anti-inflammatories and kitty morphine.

The next day we rested but she wasn't doing so well, not eating or drinking and refusing any water. I was syringe feeding what I could. She was really unwell and using her litterbox then just lying in it getting much all over her hair, and for such a fussy cat, I knew it wasn't right. The following day was just as bad but the vet had said that it would take a few days to see if it's helping and to bring her back then.

Luckily, I have a friend who is a vet surgeon who asked how she was recovering and when I said what was happening, she told us to come straight in for X-Rays and another examination. She had to be sedated for them and then un-sedated afterwards but at least we had answers while the $$$ piled up. Her hips weren't broken, and the main suspect fell to her knee and spine. The Vet guessed she had tried to jump up onto something high and fallen, like you see in cartoons. So muscular damage, but no breaks. She changed her medications to kitty valium to go with her antibiotics and for the next two days I had to carry her to her litter box and food dish and she slept a lot and purred her head off. She started eating again and carefully walking with a kid of duck waddle of her bottom which was a bit funny.

UPDATE: January 13th. It's been 2 weeks and she's back to her self again, but she has needed meds and constant watching, and I really haven't had time to do a lot of other things besides spring clean the house a bit. She's feeling happier in herself as well, but still a bit wary of jumping places. Thank goodness for insurance which paid about a two thirds of the bills.