Oscar's at the emergency clinic overnight

On 2006-07-04, CatNipped penned:
Monique, a friendly lurker asked me to post this link for you and to
stress that you should give the dose in SMALL portions, giving Oscar
a chance to swallow. The entire dose at once can choke her, or be
"spit" out.

http://www.maxshouse.com/Medicating_Your_Cat.htm

Thanks for the reference. Lots of tips there. The full dose is
actually only 1 mL, with a tiny dropper, so I don't think she's
likely to choke. I think last night I ended up giving it to her in
two separate squirts. Most of it seemed to get in her, although I
wonder when I notice all of the little pink stains all over the
bathroom.

I notice neither of the pictures show squirting the thing into a cat
with an e collar. The hand positions they are showing will be
impossible =/

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote:
On 2006-07-04, badwilson penned:
Ugh, fibreglass. Yeah, that can get itchy. I'm glad that's all it
probably turned out to be though and Oscar didn't need surgery.
Purrs for you to figure something out with the basement.

I just wish I knew for sure. The vet said he looked at the debris
under the microscope, and it was the right size for fiberglass, but he
couldn't find any pictures of fiberglass under the microscope to
compare to.

This is beginning to sound more like forensics than veterinary
medicine, but I'm glad that Oscar's abscess is not an abscess.
Although I would have thought they would have been able to find that
out sooner. That clinic sounds odd.

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...
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!).

Oh dear. Purrs for Oscar's foot and your nerves. I read the update that
it may be fibreglass. I hope you can build some sort of wooden frame with
chickenwire on it to stop her getting to it.
A tiny sliver of glass under the skin is an extreme irritant and will soon
cause swelling and even pus to form. I know this because a) it has
happened to me and b) I once "operated" on a work colleague to get some out
of her finger.
This may sound very strange but Sarah came into work for a day or two with a
rapidly swelling forefinger. She asked the team their opinion and it was
"go to the doctor.." after we had all scrutinised it very carefully. We all
thought there was definitely "something in there that shouldn't be.*
She said she didn't want to see a doctor and would any of the team volunteer
to poke around a little to see if they could get whatever it was out?
Exit all of the others on sudden urgent duties in other rooms.
"Will you have a go?" she asked. I wasn't too keen really and after
explaining that this would hurt and she mustn't sue me if anything went
wrong ;-) I sterilised a large needle and set to work.
It really did hurt her, I could tell. She tried to be brave but I had to
dig right inside a very inflamed finger :-( and she couldn't help
whimpering.
To cut a long story short, (gross warning read no further if you are
squeamish (spoiler space)
..
..
..
..
..
..
..
Once I got deep enough, pus shot out and splattered the wall, behind it was
a very tiny piece of glass. She recalled having broken a tumbler a few days
before and picking the pieces up with her fingers.
We disinfected the wound and it healed up very quickly. It's that foreign
body that causes the problems. I had to have an operation on my finger a
few years ago to get a rose thorn out that had gone very deep and broken
off.

Doctor Tweed g

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
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

I have given Rusty liquid antibiotics and pills with a pill popper. The
liquid is much easeir.
I couldn't find a popper in town, and eventually bought one when I was
in California. It
is too long and hard to use. I've since have more success pilling Rusty
with a timble like
cat toothbrush on my finger to protect it. At first I was able to fool
Rusty into thinking its
just tooth brushing. He doesn not like it but will tolerate it. But he
got smart soon to know
a pill came with the tooth brush. Mixing the pill with his food didn't
work. I haven't tried mixing
it with his treats.

Purrs continuing going your way. Make sure you get enough sleep. You
need lots of energy
dealing with Oscar's problem.

Winnie


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

On 2006-07-04, Karen penned:

Where is the abcess at? Is it her paw? I sure hope she is feeling
better soon. Please keep us posted.

It turns out not to be an abcess at all, but yes, it's the pad of her
right hind paw. I think right. It's the one paw that is
peach-colored, rather than grey (blue), so at least it's easy to
identify. That and it's swollen and whatnot. Actually, I saw her at
the emergency vet's this morning, and her paw looked to be a much more
reasonable size. I didn't want to cause any trouble by trying to get
a good look at it, but the last time I saw it it was pretty puffy and
just looked wrong. The dimensions and shape were about right this
morning.

She seems pretty good at the vet's, nice and quiet. I brought her a
licky sock (she has a collection of the socks with treads on the
bottom -- originally they were mine for, you know, wearing, but she
took them over and now they're too fuzzy from being licked to wear,
anyway) and a little catnip pillow that I got her years ago. Of
course it's completely devoid of catnip at this point, but she will
roll on it and purr and drool as if it had catnip, anyway. Her first
ever catnip toy; maybe that's why. Anyway, when I visited with her
this morning, they had pinned a towel over her cage to give her a
little bit of peace. I don't know if that's SOP, but it's definitely
a nice touch.

We're in kind of a unique situation; because today is a holiday, Oscar
can be watched by the emergency staff all day until 8am tomorrow.
Then I will need to pick her up. Alternately, I could possibly make
some arrangement between the emergency staff and the vet specialists
who work there during the day, but no one seems to be quite sure how
that works, either financially or otherwise. So, the plus is, there
will be people there all the time, and they already plan to monitor
her in case she needs subQ fluids etc. The minus is, I'm paying
emergency hospitalization fees, and it's not clear what the
arrangement would be if I left her there past tomorrow morning. It's
not even clear that the specialists would look in on her vs. just
ignore her. I'll be paying over $200 to keep her an additional 24
hours with the emergency staff, till Weds. As it turns out, because
the original estimate included surgery which didn't happen, my initial
deposit will cover all of that. I'd love to claim I'm blind to cost,
but I can't keep up $200/day for a week. I mean, I could, but I don't
think it's worth it.

It's not clear, though, that they will continue to sedate her, and
there's an awful lot of yowling, whining, etc at an emergency clinic,
where only the hard cases are going to be there. Well, actually,
there's a little bit of yowling and whining and lots of tense silence.
Certainly strange and scary smells, though.

I suppose I could transfer her to my regular vet Weds morning, but
they don't have staff overnight. I don't even know what their kennel
arrangement might be. Maybe I can find out Weds if I can keep
her there during the days, for observation. Hmmm. Maybe I could even
have them do the morning and evening treatments, so I just let her out
at home. Just the e collar to deal with then. Hmmmmmm.

I'm waffling -- I do have the home number, or access to it, of our
vet. She's the sister of a friend's friend (or, alternately, the
sister of my ex boss, or the sister of two of my ex hockey team
mates). But I would hate to call her at home on a holiday if it's not
really necessary. I don't think I actually have a good reason to call
her, particularly -- I just want reassurance.

This experience is definitely putting me in touch with my inner
scripting. My big terror is that if I make her stay in an e collar
and medicate her etc, she will never love me or trust me again.
Probably ridiculous. I'm also afraid that the e collar will make her
skittish and scared again. DH says we need to deal with the paw
first, then if we need to we will have plenty of time to rebuild
trust. But still. We've come so far.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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

On 2006-07-04, Takayuki penned:
wrote:
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.

She's okay now? Maybe one factor is that abscesses can be hard to
find on cats, so they get overlooked. I imagined you might have had
even more trouble finding it if Biskit didn't happen to have a lion
cut.

I wonder how well we can evaluate a "bad" case as laypeople ... maybe
it wasn't as bad as it looked.

Not that it's the same thing, but, a sprained wrist may not even look
injured, whereas a several-inch patch of lacerations looks really bad.
But I know which one I would rather have.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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

On 2006-07-04, Jo Firey penned:

"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote in message
...

It depends on how deep the wound is and where it is. I could treat
about 2/3 of Jake's myself, the vet did the rest. And a degree of
sedation is easier on the cat normally rather than having to fight
them. I agree with you that after checking on her, I might be
inclined to leave her for a few days. Especially since she is
determined to fight you. Though $120 a day seems pretty high for
aftercare.

Revised estimate, more like $220. It's because it's an emergency
clinic, and I suspect the cost is partly prohibitive to make sure that
they have enough facilities for the urgent emergency cases as they
come in. But because it's an emergency clinic, staff is on hand all
night, at least until Weds morning.

The vet agreed with me that getting Oscar started on the ointment and
the antibiotic, and keeping her confined, is probably a good thing for
her healing, so I've decided to keep her there till Weds morning.
Then stay with her at home Weds. I may try to find out if I can leave
her at my regular vet's during the day for supervision.

Purrs of course on the way. For the both of you. Jo

Thank you.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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

On 2006-07-04, Winnie penned:

I have given Rusty liquid antibiotics and pills with a pill popper.
The liquid is much easeir. I couldn't find a popper in town, and
eventually bought one when I was in California. It is too long and
hard to use. I've since have more success pilling Rusty with a
timble like cat toothbrush on my finger to protect it. At first I
was able to fool Rusty into thinking its just tooth brushing. He
doesn not like it but will tolerate it. But he got smart soon to
know a pill came with the tooth brush. Mixing the pill with his food
didn't work. I haven't tried mixing it with his treats.

Oscar takes the time to inspect even food that she knows she likes. I
can't imagine trying to mix pills in food.

Purrs continuing going your way. Make sure you get enough sleep. You
need lots of energy dealing with Oscar's problem.

I did get to sleep after I came home from the vet's (about 8:30 this
morning) and slept until I got a phone call from DH around 11, I
guess. I feel much better now, although that may be because I bawled
to DH about how it's all my fault. He was not at all appreciative or
supportive of that, but it felt good to cry. I've been on the verge
of crying for a while now, but didn't want to do it while I was
driving back and forth (four trips just to the emergency clinic so
far, first to bring Oscar, second to bring her toys, third to see her
in the morning, fourth to bring her amoxicillin to the clinic).

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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

On 2006-07-04, Takayuki penned:
"Monique Y. Mudama" wrote:

I just wish I knew for sure. The vet said he looked at the debris
under the microscope, and it was the right size for fiberglass, but
he couldn't find any pictures of fiberglass under the microscope to
compare to.

This is beginning to sound more like forensics than veterinary
medicine, but I'm glad that Oscar's abscess is not an abscess.
Although I would have thought they would have been able to find that
out sooner. That clinic sounds odd.

Did I mention there were TV cameras everywhere and they asked me which
was my good side? =P

Just kidding.

My vet didn't think it was an abscess. The emergency vet had several
critical care patients that evening, so he really only got a quick
look at it, which revealed a very swollen paw. He smelled something
foul, which I guess I didn't mention to them, but anyway that was as
near as I and my regular vet could figure it from anal glands
expressed due to stress. So he smelled something foul and saw the
swelling, and he figured that could only be Bad News. Once he got her
prepped and could look at it a little more carefully, he wasn't so
sure, so he lanced the pad -- no pus. Because there wasn't any at
all, he is pretty sure there's no abscess.

I'm glad they prepared for the worst and it turned out to be less
severe. It probably got her treated more quickly, too.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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

On 2006-07-04, Christina Websell penned:


Oh dear. Purrs for Oscar's foot and your nerves. I read the update that
it may be fibreglass. I hope you can build some sort of wooden frame with
chickenwire on it to stop her getting to it.

Thank you. I am still considering options. I don't see any reason
not to cover that area with plastic just like the rest of the
basement walls. My bet is that this never came up for the previous
owners because they had a dog, who couldn't get up into the crawl
space.

I am of two minds about just blocking the area off entirely. On one
hand, it's kind of a creepy dark place, and it's hard to get her out
of there if she decides she wants to be there. On the other hand, she
really likes being able to hide back there when she's scared (ie, the
cleaners are here using the Sucky Monster); it's most definitely and
uncontestedly *her* territory.

I'm also concerned that if I block it off, I will make it human proof
but not cat proof, leading to all sorts of further problems.

A tiny sliver of glass under the skin is an extreme irritant and will soon
cause swelling and even pus to form. I know this because a) it has
happened to me and b) I once "operated" on a work colleague to get some out
of her finger.

I would think that almost any irritant can cause that reaction. Maybe
the glass is worse because it's too slick to be carried out easily?

I have had gravel embedded in my skin before (so many times!), but
it's never gotten infected. It seems like the gravel just eventually
wore away.

To cut a long story short, (gross warning read no further if you are
squeamish (spoiler space)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Once I got deep enough, pus shot out and splattered the wall, behind it was
a very tiny piece of glass. She recalled having broken a tumbler a few days
before and picking the pieces up with her fingers.
We disinfected the wound and it healed up very quickly. It's that foreign
body that causes the problems. I had to have an operation on my finger a
few years ago to get a rose thorn out that had gone very deep and broken
off.

It takes more than that to gross me out! (Although for some reason it
bothers me much more with an animal.) It must have been such a relief
to get the pressure released.

When I was a kid, I remember mom dropped a glass jar on her hand. The
nail got purple. Eventually a family friend heated a needle and
lanced the nail. Blood shot straight up, like a fountain. Mom said
it felt *so* much better afterwards. I don't even think she lost the
nail.

--
monique, who spoils Oscar unmercifully

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