clocketpatch (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
clocketpatch) wrote2011-10-21 12:31 am
clocketpatch) wrote2011-10-21 12:31 am
Bob Barker was right...
I feel like an absolute idiot. The highest class of idiot. I've been crying all day and feeling generally miserable, which I honestly deserve. But maybe something can be salvaged from this if I can information share and prevent this from happening to other people.
So, I've got three kitties. Two are little girl kitties. They were never spayed for various reasons. Anyways, little girl kitties are now 7 and 8 years old respectively. You might have guessed where this is going. If you are you are much smarter than me.
The little girl kitties came from a friend's accidental litters. They may well have ended up at the pound if I hadn't taken them - I know that many kittens from those litters did. They have had food and catnip mice and lots of belly rubs. They've never been outside. Since boy cat is neutered and they never seemed overly bothered by their heat cycles it just didn't seem like a thing to do... Then there were financial issues and not being at home and it all sounds valid.
Except it totally wasn't. None of it.
So, I finish school and I come home to job search. One day, off hand, my mother tells me that one of the kitties was sick "but she's better now". After much wheedling I found out that my little calico baby had been spotting blood all over about a month before I came home. She didn't call me or the vet because... I don't know? Anyway, I brought her (the cat, not my mother) to the vet who found nothing wrong with her but suggested that she should be getting spayed. I agreed with this. She needed her shots first (yes, I am a bad pet owner. I know this at the moment.) and would be ready for her operation two weeks after.
Yesterday she went in. She was happy and curled up with the other kitties and I felt bad about ambushing her with the carrier. She played with her catnip mouse for a bit and went in. Then she mewled at me and peed all over the carrier. She looked good in the vet office. They did bloodwork on her since she's an older cat and it came back okay.
This morning the vet called and said that she'd had pyometra the whole time and her uterus was hugely swollen and it had been caught just in time. I'd never heard of this before. If I had, these little girls would have been fixed a long time ago.
After some research I'm terrified for my little girl, but relieved that she's alive. I hope she's still alive tomorrow. And I'm terrified for my other female kitty because I'm leaving in two weeks and there isn't time for me to get her checked out. Apparently any unspayed cat is at risk and the risks only go up as they get older. My mother is now convinced that the problem was caused by the spaying operation - not that it was a pre-existing problem which was caught, hopefully in time. I'm not going to disclose the cost of all of this, mostly because I don't know it yet, but also because it flat out doesn't matter. I'm hoping I'll be able to leave my mom with a cheque and have the other little girl sorted while I'm gone, and hopefully it will be just a routine spay for her. Note that my mother grew up in the country and doesn't really get the whole vet thing. The cats are generally well looked after and she does bring the older male cat to the vet regularly for his assortment of old man cat problems. Neither of us realized that this could happen.
Bottom line: get your pets fixed.
Also, please give good thoughts to Pebbles.
So, I've got three kitties. Two are little girl kitties. They were never spayed for various reasons. Anyways, little girl kitties are now 7 and 8 years old respectively. You might have guessed where this is going. If you are you are much smarter than me.
The little girl kitties came from a friend's accidental litters. They may well have ended up at the pound if I hadn't taken them - I know that many kittens from those litters did. They have had food and catnip mice and lots of belly rubs. They've never been outside. Since boy cat is neutered and they never seemed overly bothered by their heat cycles it just didn't seem like a thing to do... Then there were financial issues and not being at home and it all sounds valid.
Except it totally wasn't. None of it.
So, I finish school and I come home to job search. One day, off hand, my mother tells me that one of the kitties was sick "but she's better now". After much wheedling I found out that my little calico baby had been spotting blood all over about a month before I came home. She didn't call me or the vet because... I don't know? Anyway, I brought her (the cat, not my mother) to the vet who found nothing wrong with her but suggested that she should be getting spayed. I agreed with this. She needed her shots first (yes, I am a bad pet owner. I know this at the moment.) and would be ready for her operation two weeks after.
Yesterday she went in. She was happy and curled up with the other kitties and I felt bad about ambushing her with the carrier. She played with her catnip mouse for a bit and went in. Then she mewled at me and peed all over the carrier. She looked good in the vet office. They did bloodwork on her since she's an older cat and it came back okay.
This morning the vet called and said that she'd had pyometra the whole time and her uterus was hugely swollen and it had been caught just in time. I'd never heard of this before. If I had, these little girls would have been fixed a long time ago.
After some research I'm terrified for my little girl, but relieved that she's alive. I hope she's still alive tomorrow. And I'm terrified for my other female kitty because I'm leaving in two weeks and there isn't time for me to get her checked out. Apparently any unspayed cat is at risk and the risks only go up as they get older. My mother is now convinced that the problem was caused by the spaying operation - not that it was a pre-existing problem which was caught, hopefully in time. I'm not going to disclose the cost of all of this, mostly because I don't know it yet, but also because it flat out doesn't matter. I'm hoping I'll be able to leave my mom with a cheque and have the other little girl sorted while I'm gone, and hopefully it will be just a routine spay for her. Note that my mother grew up in the country and doesn't really get the whole vet thing. The cats are generally well looked after and she does bring the older male cat to the vet regularly for his assortment of old man cat problems. Neither of us realized that this could happen.
Bottom line: get your pets fixed.
Also, please give good thoughts to Pebbles.
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I won't do something stupid and pointless like telling you not to cry or feel guilty — I'd be crying too, I suspect, and feeling rotten.
Still, if you can, remember that you didn't cause this, nor did you do anything that many other very good and loving pet people haven't done before you. And although it's horrid and frustrating to acknowledge it, if you don't have the cash to pay for medical procedures, that's the bottom line: no money, no procedure, and that's definitely not your fault.
What's more, you are taking steps to help her, and you love her very much. I'll keep your pretty little lady in my thoughts tonight along with you, my dear.
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I'm glad they seemed to have caught it in time and hope she recovers well
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♥
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The important thing is that you've caught it on time and she's going to be fine. Really.
And OMG she's gorgeous!