Oscar's at the emergency clinic overnight

On 2006-07-04, Takayuki penned:

Awww, poor Oscar. She really loves her meowmie! I read your post
about Oscar having an itchy paw, and it didn't sound like an
emergency. Amazing the things they can hide from us! Sending purrs
for her.

It got bad fast. Friday evening she was licking her paw, but the paw
itself didn't look too bad. I decided to wait through the weekend so
she could see her regular vet (heh, clearly the fates had other
plans), but it was definitely looking worse over that time, and I kept
reconsidering my decision, but it didn't *seem* bad enough that I
would want to traumatize her by taking her to an emergency clinic
where she'd have to sit around in her carrier for hours.

By last night, having her sit around in her carrier seemed a lot less
traumatic than any other options. But still I just thought I needed
some help getting the sock on and taped up. I didn't think she'd need
surgery.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
Short version:

Oscar needs to get an abscess (sp?) removed/cleaned, so she will be
staying overnight at the emergency clinic. I am freaking out a bit,
but also extremely tired (and about freaking well finished with
stressful events in my life, thank you very much!).


So sorry to hear that. I know it is difficult, but please try to relax
a bit and get some rest, espeically since today is a holiday. Sounded
like you didn't get much sleep. Please watch
out you don't get stressed out that you get a tummy flareup.
Oscar is in good hands now. When Rusty was in the emergency clinic for
a weekend
because of a urinary blockage, the vet called to update me.

Purrs for both of you.

Winnie

On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 00:19:27 -0600, "Monique Y. Mudama"
yodeled:

Short version:

Oscar needs to get an abscess (sp?) removed/cleaned, so she will be
staying overnight at the emergency clinic. I am freaking out a bit,
but also extremely tired (and about freaking well finished with
stressful events in my life, thank you very much!).

Long version:

As some of you may have read, I brought Oscar to her vet's this
morning. The vet and I put her in an E collar, and I got liquid
antibiotics to give Oscar twice a day. The vet said, if the E collar
didn't work out, we could try a baby sock taped to the leg, but we
really wanted the E collar to work because it allows the paw plenty of
air flow and kept her from licking *any* of her paws.

I got home planning to somehow find a way to give Oscar her meds, but
when I came home she was in silent hiding, and she hadn't touched
*any* of the treats all over the house, let alone her food. Finally I
found her hiding in the back of the elevated dirt area in the
basement. I carried her out -- she was purring and trying to rub her
face on me, but she couldn't because of the collar -- and brought her
upstairs. As soon as I set her down, she started backing up and did
so until she hit a wall, then got "stuck" there.

As I called DH and his aunt (a medical professional, human variety) for
advice, I heard some loud noises. Oscar went missing again. I think I
once again had the chance to intimately explore the basement. We have
shops close by, so I was able to get tiny baby socks and some vet wrap
(the stuff that sticks to itself but not other stuff).

Came home and searched for Oscar everywhere. Not in the basement, not
in the bedroom. Finally found her under the futon in the guest room.
I guess she backed under it, then couldn't get out because of the
stupid collar. I felt like such a traitor as she purred and slobbered
in thanks for being rescued. Straight into the bathroom, where I had
stashed the new stuff and the medicine.

I couldn't get the medicine into her mouth with the collar on, so in a
gesture of trust, I removed the collar. She put up a minor commotion
over the medicine, but I actually think most of the dropperfull got
into her mouth.

Next step, baby sock. She was so hungry that I managed to slip the
sock onto her paw a few times as she ate, but she would freak out when
I started trying to put the tape on, and the sock instantly came off.
I asked my neighbor to help, but that just seemed to make everything
worse. I had a hisspitting, bucking, clawing, biting fiasco on my
hands. Every attempt, though, the second I put her down, she purred
and rubbed on me and told me how much she needed my comfort. I felt
evil. I wished I were a smoker so I could have a smoke to take the
edge off.

Decided to go to an emergency clinic to ask for help bandaging the paw
and maybe a sedative. The closest one also had the shortest
anticipated wait, so there we went. Unlike our regular vet, no humans
go back with the patients. They refer to pets as "kids" and owners as
"parents", a touch I appreciated. Also had coffee, tea, and snacks.
I went with the camomile tea, hoping it would calm me down.

I fully anticipated some kind of help getting the paw wrapped and
getting out of there, so I kind of went into shock when the vet tech,
Katie, came out to let me know that there was an abscess (however
that's spelled) and Oscar would need to get surgery to have it
drained. I waved away any discussion of price, just wanted to
understand the risks. I elected to get her blood checked first to
make sure she doesn't have any conditions that would keep her from
waking up after the anesthesia.

So. Oscar is there now. It's midnight. There was another surgery
case there, so the estimate is that she will be done around 4am.
Because of the delay, they'll keep her till the morning with no
hospitalization charge. They won't call me unless something goes
wrong, so in theory I can sleep (hah).

They let me say good night to her, and also let me drive home for an
ancient (like, from when she was 6 months old) catnip pillow and a
sock for licking. I wasn't able to give them to her myself because
another surgery was being prepped when I got back. I'm hoping she'll
be tempted to lick the sock instead of her paw.

I'm strongly considering keeping Oscar there for a few days. They
mentioned needing to give her two other medicines (in addition to the
antibiotic? Not sure). I figure that she will stay cleaner, have
people to watch her better (tomorrow's a holiday, but I have to work the
rest of the week), and won't be able to get into trouble. Not to
mention that maybe they will cause her less trauma than I would, trying
to handle the paw or feed her the meds. And presumably she won't
require the e collar. That would be about $120 a day. With the
kitty-morphine they gave her (B-something, can't remember the name), she
was calm enough to even luv up on the vet techs.


How scary and exhausting. Purrs for both of you to feel better soon.

Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

Make Levees, Not War

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
Short version:

Oscar needs to get an abscess (sp?) removed/cleaned, so she will be
staying overnight at the emergency clinic. I am freaking out a bit,
but also extremely tired (and about freaking well finished with
stressful events in my life, thank you very much!).

Long version:

As some of you may have read, I brought Oscar to her vet's this
morning. The vet and I put her in an E collar, and I got liquid
antibiotics to give Oscar twice a day. The vet said, if the E collar
didn't work out, we could try a baby sock taped to the leg, but we
really wanted the E collar to work because it allows the paw plenty of
air flow and kept her from licking *any* of her paws.

I got home planning to somehow find a way to give Oscar her meds, but
when I came home she was in silent hiding, and she hadn't touched
*any* of the treats all over the house, let alone her food. Finally I
found her hiding in the back of the elevated dirt area in the
basement. I carried her out -- she was purring and trying to rub her
face on me, but she couldn't because of the collar -- and brought her
upstairs. As soon as I set her down, she started backing up and did
so until she hit a wall, then got "stuck" there.

As I called DH and his aunt (a medical professional, human variety) for
advice, I heard some loud noises. Oscar went missing again. I think I
once again had the chance to intimately explore the basement. We have
shops close by, so I was able to get tiny baby socks and some vet wrap
(the stuff that sticks to itself but not other stuff).

Came home and searched for Oscar everywhere. Not in the basement, not
in the bedroom. Finally found her under the futon in the guest room.
I guess she backed under it, then couldn't get out because of the
stupid collar. I felt like such a traitor as she purred and slobbered
in thanks for being rescued. Straight into the bathroom, where I had
stashed the new stuff and the medicine.

I couldn't get the medicine into her mouth with the collar on, so in a
gesture of trust, I removed the collar. She put up a minor commotion
over the medicine, but I actually think most of the dropperfull got
into her mouth.

Next step, baby sock. She was so hungry that I managed to slip the
sock onto her paw a few times as she ate, but she would freak out when
I started trying to put the tape on, and the sock instantly came off.
I asked my neighbor to help, but that just seemed to make everything
worse. I had a hisspitting, bucking, clawing, biting fiasco on my
hands. Every attempt, though, the second I put her down, she purred
and rubbed on me and told me how much she needed my comfort. I felt
evil. I wished I were a smoker so I could have a smoke to take the
edge off.

Decided to go to an emergency clinic to ask for help bandaging the paw
and maybe a sedative. The closest one also had the shortest
anticipated wait, so there we went. Unlike our regular vet, no humans
go back with the patients. They refer to pets as "kids" and owners as
"parents", a touch I appreciated. Also had coffee, tea, and snacks.
I went with the camomile tea, hoping it would calm me down.

I fully anticipated some kind of help getting the paw wrapped and
getting out of there, so I kind of went into shock when the vet tech,
Katie, came out to let me know that there was an abscess (however
that's spelled) and Oscar would need to get surgery to have it
drained. I waved away any discussion of price, just wanted to
understand the risks. I elected to get her blood checked first to
make sure she doesn't have any conditions that would keep her from
waking up after the anesthesia.

So. Oscar is there now. It's midnight. There was another surgery
case there, so the estimate is that she will be done around 4am.
Because of the delay, they'll keep her till the morning with no
hospitalization charge. They won't call me unless something goes
wrong, so in theory I can sleep (hah).

They let me say good night to her, and also let me drive home for an
ancient (like, from when she was 6 months old) catnip pillow and a
sock for licking. I wasn't able to give them to her myself because
another surgery was being prepped when I got back. I'm hoping she'll
be tempted to lick the sock instead of her paw.

I'm strongly considering keeping Oscar there for a few days. They
mentioned needing to give her two other medicines (in addition to the
antibiotic? Not sure). I figure that she will stay cleaner, have
people to watch her better (tomorrow's a holiday, but I have to work the
rest of the week), and won't be able to get into trouble. Not to
mention that maybe they will cause her less trauma than I would, trying
to handle the paw or feed her the meds. And presumably she won't
require the e collar. That would be about $120 a day. With the
kitty-morphine they gave her (B-something, can't remember the name), she
was calm enough to even luv up on the vet techs.



--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

Poor Oscar. What is with abscesses this month...Oscar, Vino, Biskit
too!
With Biskit (and it was a relatively bad abscess), the vet hardly
touched it except to clean it a bit, gave us antibiotic and sent us on
our way. One time Bosley had one, different vet, they kept him
overnight, sedated him to completely debride it, gave hime antibiotics,
sent him home the next day. Don't know what the difference was.
Bozzie's actually didn't look as bad to me as Biskit's.
Maybe it's just vet preference of treatment. Oscar will get well,
though and be good as new soon. Try not to get too upset. I imagine
it's harder on you than her.
Purrs for uneventful and fast healing.

Sherry

I talked to the vet this morning. Apparently he decided last night,
when he finally got enough time to look at it properly, that it was
*not* an abscess. So he did clean the wound, but no
surgery/anesthesia required. That drastically reduced the cost, which
means that I can use the extra from my deposit to pay for ... leaving
her at the clinic today.

I'll probably need to pick her up tomorrow morning. I can't afford to
leave her there at $200 a day, but at least I know she'll be in an
enclosed area.

The vet's best lead is that there's some fiberglass that caused enough
irritation that Oscar started licking. The licking appears to be most
of the damage right now. The treatment for that is to leave the paw
exposed and wait for the irritant to work its way out, which means ...
e collar for Oscar. There's no way to get around it.

He looked at the irritant under the microscope and couldn't swear it
was fiberglass, but apparently that's the right size and there *is*
exposed insulation in the basement. I knew I should really do
something about that, but ... I never did.

Certainly I can't let her be in the basement anymore, not until I find
a way to block off the crawlspace or something. I need to figure out
if I can make the bedroom safe for a terrified cat with an e collar,
or if I need to put her in a bathroom.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-07-04, Helen Wheels penned:

I don't think you ought to blame yourself - abscesses can be well
hidden and they can indeed turn nasty quickly whatever you do. OK,
maybe the first vet shouldn't have missed it, but as we all know,
our furry owners can be very good at hiding anything physically
wrong. You certainly did the right thing by Oscar.

No worries -- I wasn't blaming myself for the abscess, which it turns
out didn't exist after all. There was a funky smell -- my regular vet
and I discussed it and thought it might be expressed anal glands --
and I guess that along with other factors made him think the paw was
worse than it actually was. But he pricked it and there was no pus
whatsoever.

The fiberglass that may have caused this irritation, which could very
well have come from the basement -- that I blame myself for.

Purrs for Oscar to be feeling better soon. And for you to get some
decent rest.

Thank you. I've just emailed my team letting them know I plan to stay
home and watch Oscar Weds. I just don't feel comfortable at this
point leaving her home alone without a chance to observe her.

God I wish DH were back. He offered to come home ... but I don't want
to do that to him. He's visiting his family, and his aunt flew there
to spend time with everyone. Still ... I don't know.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-07-04, penned:

Poor Oscar. What is with abscesses this month...Oscar, Vino, Biskit
too! With Biskit (and it was a relatively bad abscess), the vet
hardly touched it except to clean it a bit, gave us antibiotic and
sent us on our way. One time Bosley had one, different vet, they
kept him overnight, sedated him to completely debride it, gave hime
antibiotics, sent him home the next day. Don't know what the
difference was. Bozzie's actually didn't look as bad to me as
Biskit's. Maybe it's just vet preference of treatment. Oscar will
get well, though and be good as new soon. Try not to get too upset.
I imagine it's harder on you than her. Purrs for uneventful and
fast healing.

Thank you. Oscar seems pretty good at the vet's, but I think she's
still woozy from the sedative. It turns out it wasn't an abscess,
after all, but it may have been (inconclusive) fiberglass from our
basement. Ugh. I will need to talk to DH about what we should do --
I would hate to restrict her from ever entering the basement (it's her
safe place, plus right now that's where her litter boxes are), but
it's hard to imagine successfully boarding up or otherwise blocking
off all the exposed insulation.

I'm just not really sure what we will need to do to make sure this
never happens again. But maybe some sleep will help me figure that
out.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On 2006-07-04, Winnie penned:

So sorry to hear that. I know it is difficult, but please try to
relax a bit and get some rest, espeically since today is a holiday.
Sounded like you didn't get much sleep. Please watch out you don't
get stressed out that you get a tummy flareup. Oscar is in good
hands now. When Rusty was in the emergency clinic for a weekend
because of a urinary blockage, the vet called to update me.

I really like this emergency vet. He seems very good.

What a rough job. When I came in this morning, a couple had brought
their dog, who apparently was trampled by a deer in their yard (they
live in the foothills). There wasn't much they could do but give him
the final gift of release. It puts things in perspective for me. I
know Oscar will be okay; I just need to take good care of this paw,
and somehow get the antibiotics in her and some kind of cream on her
pad twice a day. Steroid I think he said. They will get her started
today, so by tomorrow morning hopefully she will be somewhat used to
it. The vet said they will train me in cat-wrestling before I leave.
He agreed that liquid form would probably work better than a pill
popper -- at least some will get in.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca

On Tue, 4 Jul 2006 08:30:25 -0600, "Monique Y. Mudama"
wrote:

I talked to the vet this morning. Apparently he decided last night,
when he finally got enough time to look at it properly, that it was
*not* an abscess. So he did clean the wound, but no
surgery/anesthesia required. That drastically reduced the cost, which
means that I can use the extra from my deposit to pay for ... leaving
her at the clinic today.

I'll probably need to pick her up tomorrow morning. I can't afford to
leave her there at $200 a day, but at least I know she'll be in an
enclosed area.

The vet's best lead is that there's some fiberglass that caused enough
irritation that Oscar started licking. The licking appears to be most
of the damage right now. The treatment for that is to leave the paw
exposed and wait for the irritant to work its way out, which means ...
e collar for Oscar. There's no way to get around it.

He looked at the irritant under the microscope and couldn't swear it
was fiberglass, but apparently that's the right size and there *is*
exposed insulation in the basement. I knew I should really do
something about that, but ... I never did.

Certainly I can't let her be in the basement anymore, not until I find
a way to block off the crawlspace or something. I need to figure out
if I can make the bedroom safe for a terrified cat with an e collar,
or if I need to put her in a bathroom.

I can certainly sympathize with poor Oscar. I have gotten fiberglass
fragments in my skin before; it itches madly, and there is nothing you
can do but wait for it to work its way out of the skin. Fortunately,
it generally doesn't penetrate very deeply, so the itching will
probably be gone within two or three days at the most.

--
John F. Eldredge --
PGP key available from http://pgp.mit.edu
"Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better
than not to think at all." -- Hypatia of Alexandria

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
On 2006-07-04, Winnie penned:

So sorry to hear that. I know it is difficult, but please try to
relax a bit and get some rest, espeically since today is a holiday.
Sounded like you didn't get much sleep. Please watch out you don't
get stressed out that you get a tummy flareup. Oscar is in good
hands now. When Rusty was in the emergency clinic for a weekend
because of a urinary blockage, the vet called to update me.

I really like this emergency vet. He seems very good.

What a rough job. When I came in this morning, a couple had brought
their dog, who apparently was trampled by a deer in their yard (they
live in the foothills). There wasn't much they could do but give him
the final gift of release. It puts things in perspective for me. I
know Oscar will be okay; I just need to take good care of this paw,
and somehow get the antibiotics in her and some kind of cream on her
pad twice a day. Steroid I think he said. They will get her started
today, so by tomorrow morning hopefully she will be somewhat used to
it. The vet said they will train me in cat-wrestling before I leave.
He agreed that liquid form would probably work better than a pill
popper -- at least some will get in.

Jessie is the hardest of my four to give medicine to, but I always choose
liquid for her because I found the trick to it. Always put the medicine in
the cheek on the outside of the teeth (towards the back of her mouth in the
cheek pouch. This way it doesn't gag them and it seems to slip down their
throat before they are able to spit it out.

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/



--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

pictures: http://www.bounceswoosh.org/rpca