Like most cats, (and I think pets in general), she manages to get herself into some trouble.
I have many art/craft projects that I do .....or at least used to prior to this computer *smile* and one of those is handmaking all of my own greeting cards.
A friend had just had a baby, so I made a card for her, complete with blue ribbon trim. I put all of my things away, and went to mail the card.
It was the middle of summer, and by the time I got home, there were several little piles of cat stomach contents on the carpet, at that point I thought it was maybe just the heat that was making her sick. But later I saw the open craft box and a chewed end of ribbon.
Hmmmm, it looked like she might have eaten some, but she wouldn't do that?....would she???
There was none visible in what had come back up, so maybe she had just nibbled on the end a little.
I wasn't too worried at that stage, however she continued to be sick all night. So it was off to see Sam (our vet) in the morning.
He didn't really think she had swallowed any ribbon, because:
"cats just don't eat stuff they find lying around, like dogs do"
He thought it could have been the heat, or a hairball, Take her home, give her some fluids, and watch her, were the instructions.
So I took her home, and watched, while she continued to throw up. She had also started meowing sadly, as if she was in pain. Back to the vet in the morning, they kept her to do some xrays, which showed a distended bowel, she had an obstuction there, but it seemed to be quite low down. I consented to a quick anaesthetic, and they did a manual examination "down there"
......poor little pudding. Yes she had an obstruction...they had removed a big red elastic band!!! Heaven knows where she got that from. Made a mental note to ban all elastic from then on.
They decided to keep her there until she ate something to make sure all was well.
Luckily I was on leave, so I didn't have to go in to work. But there I was going into the vet twice a day in 35+ deg (cel) heat.
It was now the 4th day, when I went in to see her she looked pretty sorry for herself, and all she wanted was a cuddle.
It was hard leaving her there, but I was up at 6 the next morning to see if we could tempt her to eat some of her favourite food, but nope, we couldn't. She didn't eat the next day either. They gave her a drug that stimulates the hunger centre, most cats apparently then eat a whole plate of food, not mine.
Then she started throwing up again, obviously there was still a problem.
Sam and I had a long (tearful) talk, he recommended that she have a laparotomy (exploratory surgery). I was feeling sick myself by this time.
She was first on the operating list the next day.....guess who had 2 metres of blue ribbon curled up in her bowel????
Everything had gone well, and there were no other problems. I went in a few hours later, groggy from the anaesthetic, and with a large wound on her abdomen, she still just wanted to be held, and managed a short purr.
I then proceeded to drive Sam totally nuts by trying to get him to let me sleep there the night. I gave it a fair shot, and ALMOST succeeded. He was very patient, and said "you two are very close aren't you?" He was right.
He knew I was in the medical profession, so he let me look at all of her charts, answered a thousand questions and promised to give her regular pain killers.
The Pud was back home two days later, she went to bed. And stayed there. She didn't eat, didn't drink, and didn't pee.
Two days of that and we were back at Sam's, she had blood tests to check her kidney function, and that was OK, so the diagnosis was depression!!
She wanted to stay in bed, I got her out and carried her around. She still didn't eat, so hormone tablets were the next step.
We were now about 11 days into our ordeal. I went and got the tablets, and was just about to give her the first one, when she got up, ate half a bowl of food, had a drink, and used the litter box (sure ...do it now, AFTER I spend $20 on pills).
We were on the road to recovery, she got better pretty fast after that....except for the strange egg-like swelling under her wound.
Back to Sam........by this time it was taking me almost an hour to get her into the cat carrier, first she would hide, and then turn on the biggest performance. It was a toss up as to who was more stressed by this, her or me!!
She had to stay and have the fluid collection drained, but there were no other problems.
She looked pretty sad though..........my beautiful girl had a shaved abdomen, a shaved neck (from the anaesthetic), and two shaved paws (one from the blood tests and one from the IV).
She looked like a well loved toy with bits missing. She had lost quite a bit of weight too.
Neither of us could face the vet again though, so she let me take out her stitches with out any fuss.
The bill was around $1500, but hey, she is worth every cent.
That was 4 years ago, and she recovered fully, we haven't had any more adventures like that
BUT if you come to visit, remember, no elastic bands, string, rope, or ribbons of any kind thanks.
There is a permanant ban on them around here!!!
And YES some cats do eat stuff they find lying around (or will open boxes to get to)
DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU...........
