Sorry for the poor introduction and since this is my first post here I will ask my question here. I hope you all do not mind.
Hello, my name is Chad and I am going to give you the story of our little Tammy. Currently my wife really hates me and I will get to that later in the story. Our little Tammy is about 9 months old and she is a spirited and peaceful little creature. One who loves to run and play, tackle the dog, and climb trees so she can peer out through the woods as a feline who is on the prowl. We live in a wooded area with many trees and Tammy would climb them often and she was great that she would always stay safe close to the house. Pic below shows one of many times I caught her before s
On Saturday 3/22/14 was one of many times Tammy would run to the door and talk to us about letting her out. So with the trips I was making in and out while attending the grill she found her chance to escape. No big deal as she usually wants back in within 10 minutes anyway. So we eat and a few minutes later we pop the door open and she came running back in like normal. About an hour goes by and the wife goes in search of her in the house. When she finds her in the corner of the room hovering over a pair of boots the wife proceeds to pick her up. A blood curling scream came from little Tammy. So I came over to investigate and could not see anything visibly wrong with her. She favored her hind end so we thought it would be best to run her up to the Emergency Vet for further inspection.
This is where the emotional roller coaster would start. With an X-Ray we found Tammy had somehow broke her tail at the base. The vet stated there was not much they could do and sent her home with a 3 day pain killer. On Sunday we happen to notice that she had not used her litter tray at all so on Monday morning we go to our regular vet. Now things were getting a lot more serious.
They would keep her until Friday and we found out that they were manually expressing her bladder, giving her stool softeners, and enimas. The wife and I decided Friday that we would like to bring her home to her natural environment and try expressing her ourselves. Tammy was quite happy to back home and besides a tail that drug she was her normal self. Chasing the dog, jumping up and down on the furniture, and sleeping between our legs at night in bed.
Saturday morning came and it was our turn to try to express her. The wife tried 1st with not much luck so I decided I would try. I did get a dribble but not much. The vet did say because of the swelling she was getting much more difficult to express. We had hoped that since she was back home she might try using her litter pan. She would go over to it and paw through the litter then just walk back out. A couple hours passed and we would try again but no luck. So Saturday afternoon we were back at the vet again. This time they would install a catheter and keep her on the stool softener.
While talking with the vet they stated if we could afford it we should take her to the Metro Hospital and talk with a Neurologist and consider a MRI. So on Monday I transferred her from the local vet to the Metro. Another night she would stay in their care and it would not be till Tuesday I would here the results from the Neurologist.
The phone call and had come and it was a quite a somber one. The Neurologist stated that where the breakage was she had severed the nerve endings and she showed no sign of any rectal sensation. Couple that with the urinary tract and broken tail. The chances of her ever recovering were almost zero and to truly find out it would take up to 6 months. If anything would have been promising she would have had some bowel or urinary function within a week and our little Tammy had none. I had asked about getting a port placed in her so we could suck the urine out and give her some time to heal but again the Neurologist stated that with UTI’s with in doing such would be problematic and it would also lead to infection in the kidneys. Even then she stated that she has no bowel movement and it would be best to put her down.
This was devastating, beyond devastating to us, and a tragedy that a freak accident could happen. Our only guess is that she must of fell from a tree. This was a situation where we were willing to spend any amount of money to give our Tammy a chance at life. She was simply too young to be let go and everything else seemed fine with her. She was eating like a horse, loving, and purring. Ughhhh!
So with that phone conversation I stated I would be down to pick our Tammy up at 3pm and schedule with our local vet for euthanasia. Oh how the lump in the throat and the tears started to fall. I couldn’t help but think we were letting her down and had failed her.
It had been a long cold winter and Tuesday April 1st would be a day of sunny and 70 degrees. We wanted our Tammy back home to enjoy a couple hours of the warm spring air. As soon as I exited the truck at home I sprung the cat bag open and Tammy leaped out and on the prowl. Again acting like nothing was a matter with her. At one point she sprung a rabbit and almost caught him. I was amazed at this considering all that she had been through. I had to remember though that the Morphine in her was helping to ease the pain in her hind end. A thing that you could not visually see and had to take with a grain of salt.
As time came closer to the dreaded 7:30 vet appointment the tears were flowing. The wife begged to keep me from taking her, pleading one more day. As much as I wanted to I knew it had to be done sooner than later. It had been 5 days since any bowel movement and we pulled the catheter before she left Metro so she could play one more time with us. I fed her anything she wanted, she drank plenty of water but again would only scrape the litter box that evening. We prayed for her to show us some kind of sign that the back end might work. None had come.
At the vets office that evening they all told me I was doing the right thing considering the injury she had. They knew her well from the last week while she was there.
It does not make it any easier to accept. I was sure to be the last person she would see and hope she had some comfort in knowing I was right beside her. I brought her back home with plans to bury her today on our land. Now the wife really hates me as she thinks I took our Tammy away. I can accept the fact that what I did was in the best decision but the wife does not see it that way.
So what I ask is this. Share your thoughts or experiences of how maybe I can get the wife to accept this and not hate me. I feel lower than dirt right now and I too look toward my wife for some compassion to get through this.
Thanks for reading
Chad
Tammy we love you
Hello, my name is Chad and I am going to give you the story of our little Tammy. Currently my wife really hates me and I will get to that later in the story. Our little Tammy is about 9 months old and she is a spirited and peaceful little creature. One who loves to run and play, tackle the dog, and climb trees so she can peer out through the woods as a feline who is on the prowl. We live in a wooded area with many trees and Tammy would climb them often and she was great that she would always stay safe close to the house. Pic below shows one of many times I caught her before s
On Saturday 3/22/14 was one of many times Tammy would run to the door and talk to us about letting her out. So with the trips I was making in and out while attending the grill she found her chance to escape. No big deal as she usually wants back in within 10 minutes anyway. So we eat and a few minutes later we pop the door open and she came running back in like normal. About an hour goes by and the wife goes in search of her in the house. When she finds her in the corner of the room hovering over a pair of boots the wife proceeds to pick her up. A blood curling scream came from little Tammy. So I came over to investigate and could not see anything visibly wrong with her. She favored her hind end so we thought it would be best to run her up to the Emergency Vet for further inspection.
This is where the emotional roller coaster would start. With an X-Ray we found Tammy had somehow broke her tail at the base. The vet stated there was not much they could do and sent her home with a 3 day pain killer. On Sunday we happen to notice that she had not used her litter tray at all so on Monday morning we go to our regular vet. Now things were getting a lot more serious.
They would keep her until Friday and we found out that they were manually expressing her bladder, giving her stool softeners, and enimas. The wife and I decided Friday that we would like to bring her home to her natural environment and try expressing her ourselves. Tammy was quite happy to back home and besides a tail that drug she was her normal self. Chasing the dog, jumping up and down on the furniture, and sleeping between our legs at night in bed.
Saturday morning came and it was our turn to try to express her. The wife tried 1st with not much luck so I decided I would try. I did get a dribble but not much. The vet did say because of the swelling she was getting much more difficult to express. We had hoped that since she was back home she might try using her litter pan. She would go over to it and paw through the litter then just walk back out. A couple hours passed and we would try again but no luck. So Saturday afternoon we were back at the vet again. This time they would install a catheter and keep her on the stool softener.
While talking with the vet they stated if we could afford it we should take her to the Metro Hospital and talk with a Neurologist and consider a MRI. So on Monday I transferred her from the local vet to the Metro. Another night she would stay in their care and it would not be till Tuesday I would here the results from the Neurologist.
The phone call and had come and it was a quite a somber one. The Neurologist stated that where the breakage was she had severed the nerve endings and she showed no sign of any rectal sensation. Couple that with the urinary tract and broken tail. The chances of her ever recovering were almost zero and to truly find out it would take up to 6 months. If anything would have been promising she would have had some bowel or urinary function within a week and our little Tammy had none. I had asked about getting a port placed in her so we could suck the urine out and give her some time to heal but again the Neurologist stated that with UTI’s with in doing such would be problematic and it would also lead to infection in the kidneys. Even then she stated that she has no bowel movement and it would be best to put her down.
This was devastating, beyond devastating to us, and a tragedy that a freak accident could happen. Our only guess is that she must of fell from a tree. This was a situation where we were willing to spend any amount of money to give our Tammy a chance at life. She was simply too young to be let go and everything else seemed fine with her. She was eating like a horse, loving, and purring. Ughhhh!
So with that phone conversation I stated I would be down to pick our Tammy up at 3pm and schedule with our local vet for euthanasia. Oh how the lump in the throat and the tears started to fall. I couldn’t help but think we were letting her down and had failed her.
It had been a long cold winter and Tuesday April 1st would be a day of sunny and 70 degrees. We wanted our Tammy back home to enjoy a couple hours of the warm spring air. As soon as I exited the truck at home I sprung the cat bag open and Tammy leaped out and on the prowl. Again acting like nothing was a matter with her. At one point she sprung a rabbit and almost caught him. I was amazed at this considering all that she had been through. I had to remember though that the Morphine in her was helping to ease the pain in her hind end. A thing that you could not visually see and had to take with a grain of salt.
As time came closer to the dreaded 7:30 vet appointment the tears were flowing. The wife begged to keep me from taking her, pleading one more day. As much as I wanted to I knew it had to be done sooner than later. It had been 5 days since any bowel movement and we pulled the catheter before she left Metro so she could play one more time with us. I fed her anything she wanted, she drank plenty of water but again would only scrape the litter box that evening. We prayed for her to show us some kind of sign that the back end might work. None had come.
At the vets office that evening they all told me I was doing the right thing considering the injury she had. They knew her well from the last week while she was there.
It does not make it any easier to accept. I was sure to be the last person she would see and hope she had some comfort in knowing I was right beside her. I brought her back home with plans to bury her today on our land. Now the wife really hates me as she thinks I took our Tammy away. I can accept the fact that what I did was in the best decision but the wife does not see it that way.
So what I ask is this. Share your thoughts or experiences of how maybe I can get the wife to accept this and not hate me. I feel lower than dirt right now and I too look toward my wife for some compassion to get through this.
Thanks for reading
Chad
Tammy we love you