My Dummo Cat
Nov. 2nd, 2020 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lydamorehouseFirst of all, Blessed Samhain to those who celebrate it.
Image: Me with my pandemic hair, showing off a pumpkin carving.
My Halloween was fairly uneventful. Since we decided to not hand out candy, we did our ritual and Mason and I played a bit of a video game and that was that.
Sunday morning, Mason had a deadline for an early action college which he got together in time, we hit the send together--the common app has a button called "celebrate" which allows you to sit there for a moment and watch confetti burst behind the YOU FINISHED screen. Not gonna lie, we pressed that button at least three times.
And, then things conspired to put me in a really crappy mood... not the least of which was discovering that our void cat, Willow, had swallowed a needle.
First: SHE IS OKAY. We got her to the emergency vet in time, she did manage to puncture her esophagus but they removed the needle (and thread still attached) with only the barest need for an incision.
The whole story of my idiot cat will appear beneath the cut.
After having gone to Target, finishing the common app, etc., I went downstairs to check on laundry and such and saw that Willow was just sitting on the downstairs chair where she'd been ALL day.
And my brain suddenly went: This isn't right. Something's wrong.
The night before, Saturday night, Mason and I had been playing a video game around 10pm and she'd been snuffling around like she does. I heard her hork on something but there's so much thread and stuff from the loom around, I assumed that she had tried to eat string but spit it out. She didn't make any other noises and so, I didn't even really look at her, my attention on Mason and the video game.
But, obviously the memory of the 'hork' sound last night triggered me to asked her, "Willow, you okay?" and she shot me a 'no, I am miserable' glare, but otherwise didn't seem in distress. I might have just shrugged and walked away but I cooed, "Aw, honey, don't be like that" and came over to give scritches. When I did the under the chin scratch, I COULD FEEL SOMETHING SHARP POKING IN HER THROAT.
All day long Buttercup had been frantically meeping at me. He is an anxious boy regularly, so I just thought he was also having a bad day (or reacting to mine), but suddenly feeling that thing caught in Willow's throat I was like OH SHIT, he's been telling me about this all day!
I ran upstairs and called our vet. I knew they would be closed but I wanted to go to whatever emergency place they recommended, and after some panicked dyslexic moments of writing numbers down wrong, I got a hold of the University of MN's emergency vet clinic. The family came down while I was on the phone and I told them I was afraid Willow had something caught in her throat. We boxed her up and headed out.
Mason came along so I could navigate (I'd never been to that clinic before and needed to use GPS) and he could talk to the triage nurse. Apparently the nurse even asked if it could be a needle (since this not uncommon) and Mason was like, "We don't know, but it COULD be. Yes, there's a possibility it is."
I was very worried that since Willow was breathing okay, we'd have a LOOONG wait to even get to see someone.
We initially thought she might have swallowed a nail because after we left, Shawn went downstairs and saw that someone had actually managed to pull the stuffing out of one of our ratty chairs that we use to watch/play video games in, and found evidence of staples and upholstery nails. She called us with that update while we were waiting to get in at the vet (they had us sit in our car in numbered stalls in the parking lot.)
When an office worker/vet student? came out to have us sign waivers and whatnot, I said, "We now think it might be a nail she has caught in her throat." The desk worker/student asked "Were you able to tell the triage nurse that?" I said, "No, my wife just saw evidence at the scene of the crime that makes us think so." That immediately prompted the office worker/vet student to say, "Okay, let me take her in right now, just in case the doctor wants to see her right away. If they decide she's stable, I'll bring her back here to your car so she can wait with you."
I nodded, but told Mason after Willow was gone, "I bet 'possible nail' will jump us up on the triage queue." After ten minutes and no Willow return, he said, "You were right."
The doctors called almost immediately after that and started saying that they'd like to a couple of x-rays, but they're expensive so... and I was like, "Don't talk money right now. If your recommendation is one x-ray of the throat and then a full body one to make sue she didn't swallow other things, just do it. I give you blanket permission to do what is needed to save her, including major surgery--just go. I'll pay.." The doctor was.... clearly shocked? Like, yes, it's good to check, but this is not radiation therapy for an elderly cat cancer, where you're like it might work, might not... Just get the thing out! Come on! There's something in her throat: Go!!
Turns out, after the x-rays, they knew it was just one sewing needle and that they only had to do minor surgery. The needle was positioned in a way that they basically gave her a tiny tracheotomy and pulled it out, thread and all.
They had us go home once they knew what they were going to do, so we could eat dinner. This way, too, they could hold on to her post-minor surgery and monitor her for bleeding or other complications as long as they needed. .I ended up picking her up around 6 pm (this all started around 2 pm) and she was pretty loopy still, but obviously hungry and happy to be home. We have to keep her on soft food and antibiotics for two weeks, but holy shit, what the fuck.
Who eats needles?? Does Willow have some kind of past life as a DOG???
And, then, as I said on FB, she found an outside leaf stick on the floor and immediately tried to eat that. When I took it away from her, I said, "Are you suicidal!? Gimme that!"
IT'S LIKE WE HAVE A TODDLER AGAIN.
We have since hidden all the needles and other sharp objects and... yeah, she seems to be doing fine? She has an allergy to sutures that I forgot to tell the vet about in last night's panic, but all that seems to mean is that the wound is puckering a little and is itchy. I might ask my regular vet is there's anti-itch cream for cats that would be safe to put on it. Last thing we want is for her to pull that out... and, oh my god, if any cat could, it would be Willow. We spent so much time after her spay running around yelling, "WILLOW NO, DON'T LICK THAT! You're not supposed to play rough....AHHHHH, WILLOW!"
The more I write about this, the more I am convinced she was, in fact, a dog in her past life.
But, here she is, just five minutes ago, still somewhat cross-eyed playing her favorite "mouse under the rug" game.
Image: Groggy Willow at play.
Image: Me with my pandemic hair, showing off a pumpkin carving.
My Halloween was fairly uneventful. Since we decided to not hand out candy, we did our ritual and Mason and I played a bit of a video game and that was that.
Sunday morning, Mason had a deadline for an early action college which he got together in time, we hit the send together--the common app has a button called "celebrate" which allows you to sit there for a moment and watch confetti burst behind the YOU FINISHED screen. Not gonna lie, we pressed that button at least three times.
And, then things conspired to put me in a really crappy mood... not the least of which was discovering that our void cat, Willow, had swallowed a needle.
First: SHE IS OKAY. We got her to the emergency vet in time, she did manage to puncture her esophagus but they removed the needle (and thread still attached) with only the barest need for an incision.
The whole story of my idiot cat will appear beneath the cut.
After having gone to Target, finishing the common app, etc., I went downstairs to check on laundry and such and saw that Willow was just sitting on the downstairs chair where she'd been ALL day.
And my brain suddenly went: This isn't right. Something's wrong.
The night before, Saturday night, Mason and I had been playing a video game around 10pm and she'd been snuffling around like she does. I heard her hork on something but there's so much thread and stuff from the loom around, I assumed that she had tried to eat string but spit it out. She didn't make any other noises and so, I didn't even really look at her, my attention on Mason and the video game.
But, obviously the memory of the 'hork' sound last night triggered me to asked her, "Willow, you okay?" and she shot me a 'no, I am miserable' glare, but otherwise didn't seem in distress. I might have just shrugged and walked away but I cooed, "Aw, honey, don't be like that" and came over to give scritches. When I did the under the chin scratch, I COULD FEEL SOMETHING SHARP POKING IN HER THROAT.
All day long Buttercup had been frantically meeping at me. He is an anxious boy regularly, so I just thought he was also having a bad day (or reacting to mine), but suddenly feeling that thing caught in Willow's throat I was like OH SHIT, he's been telling me about this all day!
I ran upstairs and called our vet. I knew they would be closed but I wanted to go to whatever emergency place they recommended, and after some panicked dyslexic moments of writing numbers down wrong, I got a hold of the University of MN's emergency vet clinic. The family came down while I was on the phone and I told them I was afraid Willow had something caught in her throat. We boxed her up and headed out.
Mason came along so I could navigate (I'd never been to that clinic before and needed to use GPS) and he could talk to the triage nurse. Apparently the nurse even asked if it could be a needle (since this not uncommon) and Mason was like, "We don't know, but it COULD be. Yes, there's a possibility it is."
I was very worried that since Willow was breathing okay, we'd have a LOOONG wait to even get to see someone.
We initially thought she might have swallowed a nail because after we left, Shawn went downstairs and saw that someone had actually managed to pull the stuffing out of one of our ratty chairs that we use to watch/play video games in, and found evidence of staples and upholstery nails. She called us with that update while we were waiting to get in at the vet (they had us sit in our car in numbered stalls in the parking lot.)
When an office worker/vet student? came out to have us sign waivers and whatnot, I said, "We now think it might be a nail she has caught in her throat." The desk worker/student asked "Were you able to tell the triage nurse that?" I said, "No, my wife just saw evidence at the scene of the crime that makes us think so." That immediately prompted the office worker/vet student to say, "Okay, let me take her in right now, just in case the doctor wants to see her right away. If they decide she's stable, I'll bring her back here to your car so she can wait with you."
I nodded, but told Mason after Willow was gone, "I bet 'possible nail' will jump us up on the triage queue." After ten minutes and no Willow return, he said, "You were right."
The doctors called almost immediately after that and started saying that they'd like to a couple of x-rays, but they're expensive so... and I was like, "Don't talk money right now. If your recommendation is one x-ray of the throat and then a full body one to make sue she didn't swallow other things, just do it. I give you blanket permission to do what is needed to save her, including major surgery--just go. I'll pay.." The doctor was.... clearly shocked? Like, yes, it's good to check, but this is not radiation therapy for an elderly cat cancer, where you're like it might work, might not... Just get the thing out! Come on! There's something in her throat: Go!!
Turns out, after the x-rays, they knew it was just one sewing needle and that they only had to do minor surgery. The needle was positioned in a way that they basically gave her a tiny tracheotomy and pulled it out, thread and all.
They had us go home once they knew what they were going to do, so we could eat dinner. This way, too, they could hold on to her post-minor surgery and monitor her for bleeding or other complications as long as they needed. .I ended up picking her up around 6 pm (this all started around 2 pm) and she was pretty loopy still, but obviously hungry and happy to be home. We have to keep her on soft food and antibiotics for two weeks, but holy shit, what the fuck.
Who eats needles?? Does Willow have some kind of past life as a DOG???
And, then, as I said on FB, she found an outside leaf stick on the floor and immediately tried to eat that. When I took it away from her, I said, "Are you suicidal!? Gimme that!"
IT'S LIKE WE HAVE A TODDLER AGAIN.
We have since hidden all the needles and other sharp objects and... yeah, she seems to be doing fine? She has an allergy to sutures that I forgot to tell the vet about in last night's panic, but all that seems to mean is that the wound is puckering a little and is itchy. I might ask my regular vet is there's anti-itch cream for cats that would be safe to put on it. Last thing we want is for her to pull that out... and, oh my god, if any cat could, it would be Willow. We spent so much time after her spay running around yelling, "WILLOW NO, DON'T LICK THAT! You're not supposed to play rough....AHHHHH, WILLOW!"
The more I write about this, the more I am convinced she was, in fact, a dog in her past life.
But, here she is, just five minutes ago, still somewhat cross-eyed playing her favorite "mouse under the rug" game.
Image: Groggy Willow at play.