Misha has an infection in her spay incision. She's at the vet's office right now. High fever, green

The vet just called.

She said Misha is doing well. She's eating and drinking and her fever is still gone. She said they flushed out her incision and restitched it all up. She said she checked on Misha last night, and this morning, and will do once again this evening. She said she is still oozing a little bit, but she is getting better. She said Misha cannot have any excitement for a good while and to keep her in a room to herself, away from our other 2 cats. Misha was schedule for a vaccine tomorrow, something that was scheduled weeks ago, but she said they won't be vaccinating her while she is still recovering.

She confirmed Misha is the ONLY animal there. I knew it since this animal hospital is in a very rural area. She said I can come get her after 9:30am tomorrow, but she must be kept in a quiet room for the entire next week. I told her that would not be a problem at all. We talked about the infection, and she said truly it could take only a couple of quick licks to the incision site to start an infection like this. She said it doesn't take much.

This vet could not have been nicer. This office has 2 locations, one vet at each one, and I have always liked this vet's personality better. She's younger and has a lighter personality that I respond better too. The other vet that I saw yesterday is kind of rough around the edges. Ive always appreciated doctors who have a good "beside manner", especially when someone I love is sick. I can put up with rough around the edges when nothing is at stake, like a typical yearly checkup, but if I'm dealing with something serious, I want some compassion and empathy from the provider. Anyway, I'm so glad that she was the one taking care of Misha. I think I'm going to start going to this location from now on. It's farther away than the satellite location Ive been going to, but it's worth it..

Oh, I know what she said, she said Misha's layer of skin under the incision is fully intact and it wouldn't have been if she had peritonitis. She stressed that this is a very important finding and is something that has been in Misha's favor, in terms of her recovery all along, and not dealing with something a lot more serious.

I am so grateful to all of you for your support and understanding. Your posts were a source of comfort this weekend.

stephanietx said:

 
Awwww....I'm so sorry you're going through all this with your baby.  I'm sure you're lonely and concerned for her.  Most vets will either check their patients frequently over the weekend or the vet techs will rotate shifts, in my experience.  I'm glad they're going to flush out the surgery/incision site.  The good news is that her fever is gone!  Prayers for you and your kitty.

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Thanks, Stephanie. I appreciate the prayers and good thoughts. Thank you for responding.

That is wonderful news! I am so happy for you. Your vet is very conscientious and is doing a very caring job for you. It is wonderful you have her to watch Misha. No fever, and no peritonitis. That couldn't be better.

Misha is back home!  Hooray!

Her incision looks so much better, and I don't see any oozing at all.  She's up in my bedroom, where she's going to be staying for the next week,  laying on a new bed spread I got for her to lay on. She's wearing her e collar too, which she has to wear til next Monday.

I was so shocked and amazed that the vet office charged me NOTHING for her weekend there at the hospital; not for a single thing, not for their care of her, nor for the room and board, food, nor the amoxicillin they gave her. I thanked the receptionist profusely and she said they don't do that very often, but they did this as a courtesy since Misha's infection was a rare situation. I wonder if they feel partially responsible? I don't know. Well, anyway, they were made aware of how grateful I am.

She gets her staples removed next Monday, and her vaccine on that day as well.

I'm so glad she's home! When they handed her to me, she was so happy. I guess she missed me as much as I missed her.  I laugh when people say cats don't show emotion. Our cats loves us every bit as much as dogs love their owners.

so glad Misha is home! Just read your thread=I am SURE you are happy! I am glad they didn't charge you for this. Hang onto this vet. That is a GOOD vet!

That's wonderful! I am so happy for you and Misha. I hope it will be smooth sailing from now on and Misha heals uneventfully. That was a very nice vet; he or she must have felt somewhat responsible. In any case, they did the responsible thing in not charging you. 

And I agree with you - our cats love us and recognize us immediately, just like dogs.

Latest update on Misha:

Hi. I took Misha to the vet this morning to have her staples removed. The vet carried her out of the room and sort of held Misha on her shoulder, and Misha laid her head right down on her as they walked out the door. The vet turned back to me and said Misha is an absolute doll. I guess they don't get many animals that are so relaxed with them from the get go. They were gone maybe 5-7 minutes.

The vet came back in with Misha and wow, Misha was pretty wound up and couldn't wait to get out of the woman's arms. I said how did Misha do and she said Misha did great until we got to the last staple, and that's where Misha had had enough. She said it was understandable though because the staple was sort of twisted underneath and was trickier to remove than the other staples. She even brought the staple to me while I was at the reception desk, to show me how screwed up it looked. That must have hurt like heck to have it removed. I knew something had to have happened, because Misha was very unhappy.

Misha also had a ton of scabs around the staples, so they had to soak the scabs to remove them prior to taking the staples out. All Misha has left now are some red dots where the staple holes had been.The vet said I  should put some Neosporin on them for a few days, and for Misha to wear the e collar for 2-3 more days until they fully heal.

So that's it for now. Misha is so used to wearing the e collar that it doesn't seem to bother her at all, which is good.

I am so glad it all worked out, and Misha is happy and healthy and home with you. Hope the future bodes well for her.

Thank you so much!

Poor Misha and all she's been through, and you, too!  So glad she's on the mend and will be cone-free soon!

Uggh!

I'm steaming mad over this.       

I noticed today when I was putting Neosporin on Misha that a clump of her fur at the bottom point of her incision was stuck together with a huge scab. Her fur was so clumped together it felt like it was glued that way. I did some more investigating, even though Misha was starting to get impatient and starting to meow.  Right then I saw that there was a staple left in her incision!  And what I was seeing was a scab that developed right over it.

The vet yesterday told me she removed all the scabs and stitches. Yea right. How could anyone be so irresponsible!  I know mistakes happen in life and that people aren't perfect. I get that, and I am sympathetic to it. But the vet only had to remove 5 staples to begin with.

Now i no longer doubt the true cause of Misha's abscess. There is a lack of competency going on here, and my kitten has had to suffer immeasurably because of it. To their credit, I called them right away and they got her right in. They took Misha in the back, leaving me in the reception area. They brought her out 5-6 minutes later and said that they removed the scab, and that the staple was actually attached to the scab, not her skin. I did not argue with them. What was the point. I KNOW it was still in her incision, because I lifted up the scabby fur and saw it with my own eyes.

Good grief. I feel like I'm in some endless unfortunate loop with Misha's spay from 15 days ago.

I am so sorry to hear about this.. on top of an infection... I would be hopping mad!!

Is there another vet, locally? I would definitely switch from this one, completely...even the entire office...

Wow. I'm so sorry that you're going through this. Poor Misha. Does she seem to be feeling any better? 

I agree with finding another vet. This was unacceptable and you have every right to be mad as heck. It's a good thing that you kept an eye on the incision. 

I hope Misha is OK. Please give her a hug for me. Poor little girl. 

I agree with everybody. Don't EVER go back to that vet. You're a trouper for watching out for your kitty so well.

There is no excuse for what happened to Misha. Half the vets out there graduated at the bottom half of their class, and you got one of them.

Thank you everyone, for your replies and for your support of Misha. She is doing great. I put Neosporin on her tonight, and I put her on my bed for the night in my and my husband's room. She'll be sleeping in there and my husband and I will be sleeping on the living room couch. We want Misha to have a quiet room tonight to recuperate from all that she's been though.

What gets me so mad is that had I not found the staple, and then gone ahead and removed Misha's cone, she would have no doubt, knowing that she felt something on her that should not be there, licked that staple and grabbed it with her teeth, thus pulling it out and possibly swallowing it. Swallowing a sharp object like that could have choked her to death, or punctured her bowel, or punctured another vital organ.

The vet that pulled the stitches out was not the regular vet. She was on-call for my vet who was on vacation this week. This on-call vet actually runs, with her husband, the local emergency vet hospital. Its a highly regarded facility, which is why it stuns me to no end that this happened on HER watch.

The vet office today was so unbelievably flippant towards me about it that I honestly wanted to smack someone. My poor kitten has been through hell and back and all they could offer me was not an apology, not a my gosh Misha has been through so much, but a defensive comment about the staple being on TOP of the skin, not in the incision.

Uugh, I'm getting mad all over again just thinking about it.