Remember that $300-400 surgery I posted about a while back? Wellllll.....
Day 1: Cat had surgery. Paid about $420 for surgery, pain meds, etc. Brought cat home without collar since cat will not keep one on.
Day 2: Cat pulled out her stitches and had a gaping hole in her back. Took cat back to vet, where vet looked at me disapprovingly for not getting the collar, but stapled cat up. Said she would be fine and put a collar on her. Paid $10.50 for collar. Cat kept collar on all evening.
Day 3: Sneaky cat waited for us to go to bed, then took her collar off and proceeded to pull out almost all her staples. Gaping hole in cat. Took cat back to vet, where he had to resuture her wound underneath the skin, then tried glue on the top. We said "Told you so" to the vet. Vet replied he had never, never had any animal pull out her own staples. Vet conceeds that we are dealing with an extraordinary cat. Vet charges us $100 because he had to anesthetize cat for sutures.
Day 4: Cat keeps collar on. Seems to have given up the battle to open up her wound. DH and I go out of town, leaving instructions for my parents to give the cat her medicine.
Day 4, evening: I get a call at 10:30 pm that cat was terrorizing my parents. They had it wrapped in a towel to give it medicine, but she ran away and popped the glue. Gaping hole in cat. I'm 2 hours away. Sh*t. Frantic phone call to vet, who calls me back after 11 pm to tell me to sit tight until morning, since there's not much to do tonight anyway. The nearest emergency clinic is an hour away, and nobody but me can get near the cat to get her there.
Day 5: There go my Sunday plans to visit with DH's family. Get up early, get in the car to pick up kids at my MILs, then come home. Coax terrified cat out of hiding (I'm the only one she'll come to), pop her in her modified kitty carrier (AKA cardboard box), and take her to the vet. Vet sedates her and sews her back up. More staples, and a harder plastic collar. It's Sunday, so the computer wasn't on, but I'm sure there will be a bountiful charge to my cc for today. I do have a greater appreciation for my vet, who lives next door to the clinic and was wonderful about meeting us there today.
More to follow, I'm sure. Just checked on the patient, and she is resting quietly (still sedated, so I don't think she's figured out how to get the new collar off yet). She is turning out to be one damn expensive cat. I have to laugh about this, or I might just cry!
My very expensive cat
February 3rd, 2008 at 09:58 pm
February 3rd, 2008 at 11:35 pm 1202081712
February 4th, 2008 at 12:07 am 1202083620
He ripped open an absess on his leg FOUR times. Finally, and this is going to sound horrible, we had to keep him locked up in a cat carrier with a really hard plastic collar on during the night. Anything less, and he was pulling out the stinkin stiches.
I miss my kitty ... but wow, glad I have inside kitties now ...
February 4th, 2008 at 02:16 am 1202091413
February 4th, 2008 at 03:11 am 1202094710
This reminds me of the time, with our prior vet, that we warned him how nasty she can be...of course, they said "Don't worry, we do this all the time, we know how to handle her" yada yada yada...well, they learned very quickly how nasty she can be, and had to put her in what amounted to a sack to do anything to her. I resisted saying "I told you so".
(btw, all this is the result of surgery to have a lump removed - third time in 4 years. If you have a cat and your vet is still giving shots in the back, think about asking him to switch to the tail, so they can just take part of the tail off if a lump shows up. Trust me, it's MUCH easier than the back. My current vet gives most shots in the tail for this reason).
February 4th, 2008 at 04:54 am 1202100845
February 4th, 2008 at 05:27 pm 1202146037
March 1st, 2019 at 10:07 am 1551434868