No thoughts, Sandy, but I am thrilled that he seems to be okay
now. Sending positive thoughts his way!
=^..^= Terri, Siggie the Tomato Vampire, Guinevere, Sammi, Travis, and
6 furangels: RuthieGirl, Samantha, Arielle, Gareth, Alec & Salome'
=^..^=
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, November 19, 2005
4:36 PM
Subject: Cotton crisis
Cotton and I have survived our
first crisis together. He is fine now, but last night I thought I
might lose him. Friday morning he was his usual bouncy self, just a
little less hungry, like he's been since he started taking the
Metranidazole (for his bacteria laden stools). I came home from
work, and wondered why he didn't greet me as he usually does. I
found him in his favorite boy's room laying by the litterbox with a puddle
of watery diarrhea next to him. He was weak, lethargic,
straining/cramping, vomiting and shivering from pain. He seemed to
have the most pain in his back. When I picked him up, the look on
his face was a mixture of fear, pain and sadness and broke my heart.
I will never forget it.
My son and I rushed him to the Vet ER,
where he had xrays, bloodwork, etc. He didn't have any urine to
analyze, nothing but gel in his rectum. He was found to
have enlarged kidneys, left greater than right (enough to be
pushing on his stomach), an elevated white count, a very slightly high
calcium level, which concerned the vet, and a density of some sort in
his colon which the vet wasn't sure about, because it wasn't clear on
xray. She said she wasn't sure why he was vomiting and
straining to defacate, but she said it didn't really look like a foreign
body, and there was a lot of gas. Poor baby.
The night before he was seen carrying
around a dropped piece of lettuce that was probably unwashed and fallen
from the trashcan. He was batting it around and playing with
it, but I took away from him, fearing he might eat it. In his vomit
on Friday, I noticed that there was little bits of green, and pieces of
what I thought might have been worms, but were little pieces of red string
from a decorative sword tassle. I wish I had thought to examine it
more closely. Anyway...mentioned all this to the vet, who said
worse case scenario is that he might need an exploratory laperotomy to
investigate the colon, and perhaps while he is under, to biopsy his
kidneys. The vet did some further labwork, and wasn't too
concerned with the findings, and so she agreed that outpt therapy was
the best.
He got sub-q fluids, a dex (steroid) shot,
some Zantac, and something else I can't remember for nausea. I
came home and put a cold compress on his poor little bottom, which was all
red and swollen and put him to bed with his favorite
boy.
This morning, he was his usual self!
Loudly meowing to be allowed out, jumping, running, being naughty,
complaining when I picked him up to look at him. He is bright and
cheery, and hungry now! I'm still reeling! Any advice on
what happened, what might be the best way to proceed to feed him? I
am so glad he's better, and I know you are not all vets, but so much of
his severe symptoms kept coming back to his FeLV+ status. I'm
concerned that he might have something going on with his kidneys, and may
consider ultrasound of them in the future.
Here are my theories, in order of
probability:
1. The lettuce might have been a
source of bacteria that might not have made a normal cat ill, but
because of his weakened immune system, Cotton got
sick.
2. The string caused him to have
his symptoms or contributed to his symptoms. (but that doesn't exactly
explain the
diarrhea)
3. Since he went to the vet last
week, he might have been exposed to a stomach virus. (He was all over
the exam room and was beginning to eye the tops of the
cabinets.)
4. ?
Does anyone have any thoughts? You
all know how new I am to all of this, and if there is something I can do
to prevent such occurances in the future, I will do whatever it
takes. Sandy
