My husband and I have a story about head trauma and hope, as well. I
had rescued a 6 week puppy that had been dumped in the park near my
house. After painstakingly appraising prospective adopters, (home
checks, applications, 3 page signed contracts), we placed him with a
empty nest couple, he was about 10 weeks old by then. They had plenty
of money for vet care and it seemed like a great home. Anyway, I called
to check up on Vladimir about a week after the adoption. The woman told
me he'd been lying around and seemed very unhappy. She thought maybe he
was missing us and asked if we would come over to see if he perked up
when he saw us. I hung up the phone and went to see him. It was a good
thing I did. He looked up at me and weakly wagged his tail. When he
tried to get up, he fell down, he had little to no motor function and
was really dehydrated. I picked him up and rushed him to the Emergency
Vet, (this stuff always happens after hours). The ER wanted $700 to
start fluids and run tests. I kept cradling him and telling him he was
going to get help. He was so close to death. Well, the adoptive couple
wouldn't pay the expenses, they said that if they couldn't be assured he
would make it, they didn't want to put out the money. I reached into my
wallet and pulled out the credit card. The vets decided it was some
sort of head trauma, put him on prednisone, and sent him home with us
the next day. After about a week he still wasn't able to walk. My
husband and I had carried him out to the front lawn to relieve himself
and began to discuss tearfully whether we were doing the right thing in
keeping him alive. No sooner had we said that did he perk up and
actually walked a little bit. We joyfully asked him if he wanted to
stay, and he tried to climb the front steps! He's now a healthy, happy,
four year old with no signs of his trauma. He plays surrogate mom to
bottle babies, has his therapy dog certificate and goes to convalescent
hospitals, and helps me with dogs that need socialization. Miracles do
happen.
Nina
Denise Uriarte wrote:
Macarena,
I saw your post on Agonic and would to share a story of hope. Almost 2 years ago, a lady showed up at my door with a tiny 2 week old kitten in box. A little black & white "cow" kitty with a horrible head injury. The kitten had been thrown from a passing car in front of her workplace. This tiny kitten had a very severe swelling on the brain and was in a coma. I cried knowing her probable fate. I had my boyfriend drive me to the emergency vet, expected the outcome to be euthanasia. Well, the vet talked me into not euthanizing her (talk about a switch, ..I'm usually the one saying "Save them, save them!!") and told me to take her home, tube feed her and let the swelling go down. It took weeks and when she finally came to and could walk, she could only walk in circles, indicating permanent neurological damage had occurred. Again, knowing that quality of life was not good for a cat that could only walk in tight circles, I scheduled a appt. for euthanasia. The day of her appt, !
o!
nly 30 mins prior to her appt time, with all of the family crying and sitting around kissing and hugging her, a miracle occurred.
I set Kellie down on the floor, and she walked 3 circles to the right, 3 circles to the
left and all be damned, walked perfectly straight !! This little girl wanted to live.
Kellie is now almost 2 and is the love of our lives. She is still blind from the cruelity
she endured, but is fully mobile (hops around like a bunny!!), silly, playful, plays rough
& tumble with other cats, plays momma to the any new foster baby I bring in and is oh
so funny. She makes us all laugh and everyone who meets her, loves her!! Kellie gets
around just fine and uses her whiskers and sense of smell to get around and find the other
cats so she can do a sneak attacks on them !!
Love and faith can heal the worst wounds. That said, I have a feeling little Agonic
will be just fine. He is in good hands.
Denise
