The other day I heard cat shrieks from the backyard, and caught a glimpse of motion going over the back fence into the yard next door. I came out to look for Misty using the tracker tile on her collar, but she was out of range.
I was a bit worried, but found her home when I returned at the end of the day. She seemed herself, but did vocalize (a rarity) on being moved out of my lap. Later on, her dear friends the downstairs tenants reported that she seemed injured. They showed me where a piece of skin seemed to have been removed from her heel, and I made her a vet appointment for first thing the next morning.
The vet said it didn't appear to be a bite, but was a deep tearing of her skin, exposing tendon and muscle, and was right over a joint that could not be immobilized. The injury would be hard to heal. She must have tangled with something sharp in the backyard.
We got her cleaned out and stitched up, and pumped full of antibiotics and NSAIDs; and she came home in her least favorite accessory - the Elizabethan collar. It is supposed to keep her from chewing on the wound, which would contaminate it and pull out the stitches.
She had another collar a month or so ago, when she was spayed, and managed to work her way out of it twice. I gave up on it after two days, and she healed just fine. Now, though, I really need to keep the collar on for at least 10 days, and that's not going to be easy. She just kicks at it with all her strength until it gives up and slides off.
I'm also supposed to keep her indoors, and she doesn't like that a bit. She keeps going to the kitty door and pounding on it with her paws.
And I'm also supposed to keep her confined to a small room as much as possible, to keep her from running or jumping around and tearing out the stitches that way. So I've put her food, drink, and litter box into the bathroom. She doesn't like that much either, and sits in front of the door yowling.
So I'm sitting here in a pair of earplugs. Although she thinks I'm torturing her, I'm just trying to follow doctor's orders and get her healed up.
It's going to be a long two weeks.
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Hi Dana,
Sorry to hear about Misty's Misstep. I can empathize with you about how difficult it is to "follow doctor's orders" when you have a pet impatient and itching to do their normal routine so they can feel comfortable.
I didn't know whether my dog Rinchen would make it for about a month. The ultrasounds of his kidneys showed thickening of the ureter in one place and then straightening out. The presiding doc didn't know whether it was a stone that had passed through, kidney disease (which is much worse) or just a build-up of cells. He wasn't eating (I had to feed him by hand) and drinking volumes of water. He lost 3 pounds--20 to 17 in just 10 or so days.
They said to wait to see what would happen and take another ultrasound in 2 weeks. This was on top of the fact that they found degenerative changes in the mitral AND tricuspid valves of his heart. He had a murmur and they did an ex-ray of his heart. Fortunately the changes to the valves are not serious yet, but they will get progressively worse. There is no cure for regurgitation in the valves, and they said he could live for several years with possibly with medication when they become problematic.
So for 2 weeks I made a kind of gruel out of rice, veggies and chicken so he'd get more fluids down him and hoped that he'd eat at least a little. I bought reverse osmosis water as I found an article on the internet that said the kidneys need to have clean water when they are healing. I took him out sometimes 6 times a day instead of 3. I even had a friend do some reiki treatments on him. He went from feeling crummy ( no energy at all some days) to becoming much more himself at the end of 2 weeks.
So a more "seasoned" doctor looked at his second ultrasound and more definitely determined that he had had a kidney stone that had passed. What a relief!! Since then he has gradually gotten the full compliment of his appetite back.
When our beloved pets go through rough times we are so much more grateful for them. I would just find myself looking at him when he had no light in his eyes, and hoping that he would be with me for just a little while longer. I have so many places I want to take him, so many experiences I want to share with him. It looks like I'll have him for at least a little longer and I am grateful that he isn't in pain or uncomfortable anymore.
Thank you for this "leave a comment" page, and I left more than a few. Hope it wasn't too burdensome for you......
Tsulin
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