- Joined
- Sep 24, 2016
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Hi all, I've recently been dealing with a rather heart-breaking situation with my precious kitty.
I rescued her in June from a rapidly filling storm overflow, when I took her to the vet they told me she had a diaphragmatic hernia and would need surgery or she would die. Long story short, I got her to a specialist pronto and she made it through that surgery with flying colors and recovered miraculously.
On Monday I dropped her off at the vet for a spay surgery, being sure they had all her previous records and knew she had had major surgery already in her life, when they put her under, on the anesthesia machine, the valve which controls the pressure in their body was closed, a human error which has cost my kitty dearly, and as soon as they flipped her over to begin she went into cardiac arrest. She weighs about 5lbs and is 5-6 months old. They were able to bring her back with CPR and after about 10-15 minutes they were able to extabate her because she was safely breathing on her own. She spent that night and Tuesday in an oxygen cage. By Tuesday afternoon she was able to hold herself upright and was beginning to try and walk around but had very poor balance, though I spent most of the day at the vet sitting with her and holding her and she mostly slept on me. She was peeing and taking IV fluids still at this point and eating happily from a syringe. Wednesday brought more improvements in balance and she started responding to sounds and recognizing when we would talk to her and eating wet food on her own from a bowl. It was clear by this point that she could not see. Her pupillary responses are normal and there is no evidence of damage at the backs of her eyes. Is it possible her sight could ever come back? Does anyone know how long it might take if it is temporary?
I brought her home from the vet finally last night(Friday) and she was very restless and agitated all night, sleeping for an hour or two at a time before getting up and stumbling and bumping around the room while meowing. I've spent all of today(Saturday) with her and she seems more relaxed than last night but will still get disoriented and walk around too fast and bump into things and meow. She also starts meowing when I start to pet her, even if she knows I am there. She continues to exhibit more and more cat like behavior though, today I saw her several times, grooming herself, or trying to, her balance is still a little spotty. She is happy to eat whenever I feed her but doesn't seem interested in drinking and walks right through her water bowl(she will flick her paws after this). Any suggestions on how to get her to drink? She was drinking just fine at the vet and peeing consistently, now she is home and I have not found that she has peed or pooped anywhere in the room she is in, litter box or otherwise. I am trying everything I can to make things more comfortable for her(i.e. several different comfortable spots on the floor for her to curl up on, nothing left out that could trip her up, water, food, and litter readily available, music when I am not in the room with her). I know it has only been 4 days since her arrest and that these kinds of injuries can take months to heal and recover.
I am desperate for any advice or knowledge anyone can provide. I just want my baby girl to feel safe and happy again. 3</3
Sunbathing on my lap at the vet during visitation
I rescued her in June from a rapidly filling storm overflow, when I took her to the vet they told me she had a diaphragmatic hernia and would need surgery or she would die. Long story short, I got her to a specialist pronto and she made it through that surgery with flying colors and recovered miraculously.
On Monday I dropped her off at the vet for a spay surgery, being sure they had all her previous records and knew she had had major surgery already in her life, when they put her under, on the anesthesia machine, the valve which controls the pressure in their body was closed, a human error which has cost my kitty dearly, and as soon as they flipped her over to begin she went into cardiac arrest. She weighs about 5lbs and is 5-6 months old. They were able to bring her back with CPR and after about 10-15 minutes they were able to extabate her because she was safely breathing on her own. She spent that night and Tuesday in an oxygen cage. By Tuesday afternoon she was able to hold herself upright and was beginning to try and walk around but had very poor balance, though I spent most of the day at the vet sitting with her and holding her and she mostly slept on me. She was peeing and taking IV fluids still at this point and eating happily from a syringe. Wednesday brought more improvements in balance and she started responding to sounds and recognizing when we would talk to her and eating wet food on her own from a bowl. It was clear by this point that she could not see. Her pupillary responses are normal and there is no evidence of damage at the backs of her eyes. Is it possible her sight could ever come back? Does anyone know how long it might take if it is temporary?
I brought her home from the vet finally last night(Friday) and she was very restless and agitated all night, sleeping for an hour or two at a time before getting up and stumbling and bumping around the room while meowing. I've spent all of today(Saturday) with her and she seems more relaxed than last night but will still get disoriented and walk around too fast and bump into things and meow. She also starts meowing when I start to pet her, even if she knows I am there. She continues to exhibit more and more cat like behavior though, today I saw her several times, grooming herself, or trying to, her balance is still a little spotty. She is happy to eat whenever I feed her but doesn't seem interested in drinking and walks right through her water bowl(she will flick her paws after this). Any suggestions on how to get her to drink? She was drinking just fine at the vet and peeing consistently, now she is home and I have not found that she has peed or pooped anywhere in the room she is in, litter box or otherwise. I am trying everything I can to make things more comfortable for her(i.e. several different comfortable spots on the floor for her to curl up on, nothing left out that could trip her up, water, food, and litter readily available, music when I am not in the room with her). I know it has only been 4 days since her arrest and that these kinds of injuries can take months to heal and recover.
I am desperate for any advice or knowledge anyone can provide. I just want my baby girl to feel safe and happy again. 3</3
Sunbathing on my lap at the vet during visitation
Adding my prayers and vibes for Tiny's healing. That being said, I have four Blind semi-feral cats in my yard and you would be amazed at how well they do. they enjoy everything the other kitties do and even though they are outside kitties, they have developed their other senses so that it is hard to tell that they are blind. If I could bring them inside, I would give them a controlled, unchanging environment (every thing in the same place all the time). However, they do very well at maneuvering their territory. The toys are very popular with them - they especially love the feather teaser from Cat&Co (sold at Kmart) that makes a "giggly" noise as it goes through the air. My blind kitties even catch mice!!!
