- Joined
- Dec 22, 2023
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Hi all again! Sorry for the long read, there's just a lot of context to explain...
So, it all started on the 23rd of December. I left my girl Pandora unattended for the first time since getting her spayed so I could de-stress and take a shower. When I got out, all seemed relatively well. It wasn't until that night (rolling into the early morning of the 24th) that I noticed she wasn't really eating in the way she usually does. She was eating one kibble off the floor at a time, and was repeatedly dropping pieces when she tried to chew them up. It was odd, and it alarmed me because I had seen that behavior before when she was a kitten and threw up a long piece of Easter grass (she had eaten the Easter grass at her previous home and threw it up the day I got her).
My suspicions turned out to be right because in the early morning of the 24th, she began throwing up a couple of times. On the last throwup, she spat up a chewed-to-pieces hair tie! I was terrified for her because I know how dangerous linear foreign bodies can be (I learned this the first time with the Easter grass incident), but I figured the ordeal was over. We both went to sleep.
The next day, I noticed she still wasn't interested in eating, drinking, or using the litterbox at all. She was still acting mostly like herself, but I had to really force it if I wanted her to eat. I had to hand-feed her one kibble at a time, and even then, she struggled. I couldn't take the fear and anxiety, so I borrowed some money from a friend to get her seen at a vet the next day.
So it's the 25th, and the vet examines her, and can tell she's a bit dehydrated. This is when I notice she's not acting like herself. Any other day, she'd run away and lash out at any stranger touching her. But she was so accepting of their handling, and I knew it was because she was a bit lethargic. After all, the last time I had seen her fully eat something the 22nd/23rd ish. The vet recommends an x-ray (which I can't afford - I go in there with literally $100 flat and I can't pay) in addition to giving her some sub-Q fluids and anti-nausea in the hopes she'll start eating and pass whatever it is that may be inside her. I explain my financial situation, and they let me have the sub-Q fluids and anti-nausea treatment as well as the exam for free, but no x-rays. We head home, hoping that will work.
The 26th rolls by and she is still not eating well and there's been no litterbox usage. She will eat if I make her, and eat little bits at a time, but as far as eating a full meal, she just turns up her nose. I spend a lot of that day crying and kind of preemptively mourning having to euthanize my baby, because I'm currently unemployed and living with my brother who already can't afford rent here (he makes about $1000 a month, and rent is $1000 a month, as well as helping me out while I'm currently looking for a job). We barely have $100 to spare every month for spending. I quite literally do not have the money in my bank account to get her x-rayed, let alone surgery if she needs it. And we have no friends or family in person who would help.
So now it's the 27th and I basically beg my friend who helped me the first time, to give just a little bit more money so I can take her to get x-rayed at a cheaper place than where I went the first time. He gives me about $200 and I find a vet that agrees to do an x-ray for that price. We go there, she gets x-rayed, and the vet concludes that while it doesn't appear there is any damage from any linear foreign bodies (thank the heavens!!!), and she doesn't look too bad, he does show me that one of her sides appears more dense than the other. As if there's some "pushing" going on in one side of her small intestines. He pretty much concludes that, yeah, he's going to want us to do an exploratory surgery. He agrees to let me get that done for $900. He also instructs me to feed her Miralax and I get that the next day and give it to her. I also begin feeding her pumpkin - a lot of pumpkin.
The 28th, I spend the entire day crowdfunding, calling shelters and rescues and financial aids, and I get rejected every time. Every financial aid I find wants "proof of hardship" that I can't provide and there's no time to provide it anyway, my baby might be dying! I try my best to keep making calls and practically begging anyone who will listen to help, but then I notice something... she starts eating more. She's still not eating from her bowl like normal, but she has a markedly increased appetite and is becoming playful again. She's also starting to act like her old self - running to my heels when I have a can of wet food in hand when before she was disinterested. It seems like she's getting better and better every hour, eating more and more until I notice she starts eating from her bowl again! She also hasn't vomitted once since I took her to that very first vet. The only problem is she's still going back and forth to the litterbox repeatedly, attempting to poop but failing.
On the morning of the 29th, she finally poops. It's two large soft poops that don't have blood in them, but no object in them either. The x-rays showed that there was fecal matter present, so I'm not sure if this is the digested food passing through or the poop that was already inside of her the day she was x-rayed. Either way, I'm happy about it. At least for 5 minutes...
Immediately after pooping, she gets tired. Like, super tired. She goes under my bed to her hiding place, and whenever she does come out, she looks like she has no energy. She also started dry heaving (though no vomit came out). I suspect the dry heaving and sudden nausea might be due to my overfeeding her pumpkin and going a little too hard on the Miralax dosage (I gave her 1 full teaspoon, and then 1 half teaspoon 12 hours later. I think that may have been too much...) Besides her being a bit tired, though, I notice she's still eating and drinking like normal. She has resumed almost all of her old activities, like jumping up to the sink to drink her water.
Now today, the 29th, she seems to have most of her energy back, and is still acting normal, knock on wood! She's eating out of her bowl, she's drinking at the sink like she always does, and she's even playful. She's still going back and forth from the litterbox, but she seems relatively in good spirits. The only weird behavior she's exhibiting at this point is she keeps "stretching" her arms out to the walls and scratching them very frequently. She always used to do this on occasion, but she's doing it very often now and that's a bit strange.
What I needed advice on was: What should I do now? I called the vet and explained the situation, how she's acting like herself and eating and drinking, but still struggling to poop. She suggested I get her x-rayed again, but the trouble is I have no more money left. And any money I did have, I would want to save it towards getting her surgery if that becomes necessary. I'm torn, and don't know what to do. Should I keep waiting it out? Should I try to beg for the money to get another x-ray even if that hurts my chances of affording surgery? Should I just save up for the surgery and do that?
Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long but this has been an absolutely exhausting rollercoaster for me and I'm at a complete loss as to where to go from here...
Oh, and I forgot to mention: The vet is pretty sure whatever is in her (if anything) is not string or hair tie - he says he palpated it and that it seems like a small object, possibly a fabric of some kind. So thank goodness I'm not worried about linear foreign body anymore.
So, it all started on the 23rd of December. I left my girl Pandora unattended for the first time since getting her spayed so I could de-stress and take a shower. When I got out, all seemed relatively well. It wasn't until that night (rolling into the early morning of the 24th) that I noticed she wasn't really eating in the way she usually does. She was eating one kibble off the floor at a time, and was repeatedly dropping pieces when she tried to chew them up. It was odd, and it alarmed me because I had seen that behavior before when she was a kitten and threw up a long piece of Easter grass (she had eaten the Easter grass at her previous home and threw it up the day I got her).
My suspicions turned out to be right because in the early morning of the 24th, she began throwing up a couple of times. On the last throwup, she spat up a chewed-to-pieces hair tie! I was terrified for her because I know how dangerous linear foreign bodies can be (I learned this the first time with the Easter grass incident), but I figured the ordeal was over. We both went to sleep.
The next day, I noticed she still wasn't interested in eating, drinking, or using the litterbox at all. She was still acting mostly like herself, but I had to really force it if I wanted her to eat. I had to hand-feed her one kibble at a time, and even then, she struggled. I couldn't take the fear and anxiety, so I borrowed some money from a friend to get her seen at a vet the next day.
So it's the 25th, and the vet examines her, and can tell she's a bit dehydrated. This is when I notice she's not acting like herself. Any other day, she'd run away and lash out at any stranger touching her. But she was so accepting of their handling, and I knew it was because she was a bit lethargic. After all, the last time I had seen her fully eat something the 22nd/23rd ish. The vet recommends an x-ray (which I can't afford - I go in there with literally $100 flat and I can't pay) in addition to giving her some sub-Q fluids and anti-nausea in the hopes she'll start eating and pass whatever it is that may be inside her. I explain my financial situation, and they let me have the sub-Q fluids and anti-nausea treatment as well as the exam for free, but no x-rays. We head home, hoping that will work.
The 26th rolls by and she is still not eating well and there's been no litterbox usage. She will eat if I make her, and eat little bits at a time, but as far as eating a full meal, she just turns up her nose. I spend a lot of that day crying and kind of preemptively mourning having to euthanize my baby, because I'm currently unemployed and living with my brother who already can't afford rent here (he makes about $1000 a month, and rent is $1000 a month, as well as helping me out while I'm currently looking for a job). We barely have $100 to spare every month for spending. I quite literally do not have the money in my bank account to get her x-rayed, let alone surgery if she needs it. And we have no friends or family in person who would help.
So now it's the 27th and I basically beg my friend who helped me the first time, to give just a little bit more money so I can take her to get x-rayed at a cheaper place than where I went the first time. He gives me about $200 and I find a vet that agrees to do an x-ray for that price. We go there, she gets x-rayed, and the vet concludes that while it doesn't appear there is any damage from any linear foreign bodies (thank the heavens!!!), and she doesn't look too bad, he does show me that one of her sides appears more dense than the other. As if there's some "pushing" going on in one side of her small intestines. He pretty much concludes that, yeah, he's going to want us to do an exploratory surgery. He agrees to let me get that done for $900. He also instructs me to feed her Miralax and I get that the next day and give it to her. I also begin feeding her pumpkin - a lot of pumpkin.
The 28th, I spend the entire day crowdfunding, calling shelters and rescues and financial aids, and I get rejected every time. Every financial aid I find wants "proof of hardship" that I can't provide and there's no time to provide it anyway, my baby might be dying! I try my best to keep making calls and practically begging anyone who will listen to help, but then I notice something... she starts eating more. She's still not eating from her bowl like normal, but she has a markedly increased appetite and is becoming playful again. She's also starting to act like her old self - running to my heels when I have a can of wet food in hand when before she was disinterested. It seems like she's getting better and better every hour, eating more and more until I notice she starts eating from her bowl again! She also hasn't vomitted once since I took her to that very first vet. The only problem is she's still going back and forth to the litterbox repeatedly, attempting to poop but failing.
On the morning of the 29th, she finally poops. It's two large soft poops that don't have blood in them, but no object in them either. The x-rays showed that there was fecal matter present, so I'm not sure if this is the digested food passing through or the poop that was already inside of her the day she was x-rayed. Either way, I'm happy about it. At least for 5 minutes...
Immediately after pooping, she gets tired. Like, super tired. She goes under my bed to her hiding place, and whenever she does come out, she looks like she has no energy. She also started dry heaving (though no vomit came out). I suspect the dry heaving and sudden nausea might be due to my overfeeding her pumpkin and going a little too hard on the Miralax dosage (I gave her 1 full teaspoon, and then 1 half teaspoon 12 hours later. I think that may have been too much...) Besides her being a bit tired, though, I notice she's still eating and drinking like normal. She has resumed almost all of her old activities, like jumping up to the sink to drink her water.
Now today, the 29th, she seems to have most of her energy back, and is still acting normal, knock on wood! She's eating out of her bowl, she's drinking at the sink like she always does, and she's even playful. She's still going back and forth from the litterbox, but she seems relatively in good spirits. The only weird behavior she's exhibiting at this point is she keeps "stretching" her arms out to the walls and scratching them very frequently. She always used to do this on occasion, but she's doing it very often now and that's a bit strange.
What I needed advice on was: What should I do now? I called the vet and explained the situation, how she's acting like herself and eating and drinking, but still struggling to poop. She suggested I get her x-rayed again, but the trouble is I have no more money left. And any money I did have, I would want to save it towards getting her surgery if that becomes necessary. I'm torn, and don't know what to do. Should I keep waiting it out? Should I try to beg for the money to get another x-ray even if that hurts my chances of affording surgery? Should I just save up for the surgery and do that?
Thanks for reading, sorry it was so long but this has been an absolutely exhausting rollercoaster for me and I'm at a complete loss as to where to go from here...
Oh, and I forgot to mention: The vet is pretty sure whatever is in her (if anything) is not string or hair tie - he says he palpated it and that it seems like a small object, possibly a fabric of some kind. So thank goodness I'm not worried about linear foreign body anymore.
Just know you arent alone....
