Cat dramas
We took the cats to be desexed on Wednesday - they have been on heat (or should that be ‘in heat’?) several times in the last few months so we booked them in as a 6 month birthday present - aren’t we nice? Cat desexing seems to have gone up while we were away ~$500 for the two.
Anyway, when said cats got home, supposedly groggy and in pain, they ran around, ate and acted like nothing happened. Within 2 hours, Miss Lillie had pulled out one of her 3 outer stitches and had a gaping hole in her tummy - you could see through to the muscle tissue.
So, vet being closed at that stage, we go to the 24 hour Vet hospital in Strathfield (all the veterinary clinics seem to refer to these sorts of hospitals now instead of running a pager service and attending to their patients personally); Cat gets a couple of staples put in and an Elizabethan collar to stop her from pulling the remaining stitches out. ~130 for the late night consult + collars (that was after the vet kindly gave us a discount off the usual $175 consult fee)
We get home and try the E-collar which she manages to half-wriggle out of and get caught around her jaw. So collar comes off and we end up with cats in the bed in the hope that easy access swatting will deter would-be stitch tuggers.
HAH!
Come morning, the stitches are gone. Phone call to the vet gets us an appointment at short notice; $50 later, 4 more staples and some antibiotics with instructions to stick the e-collar back on.
Grant was home so we left the collar off and cat was fine. Until we went out for groceries. Error! We come home to find she’s pulled out the two middle staples. Back to the vet with the E-collar on (*looks sheepish*) and more staples. ~$30
Even with the damned collar on, the cat is trying to tear the staples out. We’ve taken to using very sticky, large bandaids as a barrier. Mind you, she can pull those off too if left to her own devices for too long.
Anyway, both seem to be healing okay. Lillie went through some very obvious phases in dealing with the imposed disability of her e-collar. She went from being very distressed and desperately pawing at her head trying to get it off; lots of walking backwards (I guess she thought she was in a tunnel?). Then she went through a very dejected, depressed stage where she just wouldn’t move or get up - she looked so sad, it was harder to keep the collar on her when she was being so pathetic. Now, she seems not to notice the collar at all - eats, drinks and even plays/wrestles with Pixie… funny cat version of the Kübler-Ross model!
