kittycat update

 
Jet: One day I cornered him in the bathroom, tossed a towel over him and picked him up. Then he was real docile, reminded me of how Roadie acts when he first starts coming in when the weather gets cold (every year it's the same). Figured out he's a male, probably older than his size indicates, and either neutered or just underdeveloped from malnutrition. Other than that he seemed healthy. This was... Hm. Sometime between the post where I said I hadn't got close enough to determine if it was male or female (Oct 1) and the post where I referred to him as "him." (October 8th)

Anastasia: Got her Immunoregulin shot ... the 4th in a series of 7, I think ... last Friday and seemed to slip downhill afterward. I had a busy week and though I was keeping an eye on her was really hoping she could wait till her Friday afternoon appointment to go get checked out.

My busy week: Monday, left home just before daylight and got home just before dark (school and then visiting my husband).

Tuesday: running so late I was taking the highway instead of the back roads -- and that's a good thing, or I'd probably still be sitting in an Amish buggy on my way home ;) -- < < that's totally a joke, I love the Amish, I love what I see of their way of life, but it would be impossible for me to go to school 50 miles from home if I lived that way. And I couldn't handle the religion aspect.

Anyway, Tuesday, 40 miles from home and 10 miles from school the car died. A classmate showed up and gave me a ride the rest of the way to school (good thing, since I'd forgot my cell phone at home), another classmate gave me a ride home, and the neighbor went with me to tow the car back to his house, so he could pull the motor apart to see what's wrong with it. Got home about dark.

Wednesday: just like Monday.

Thursday: clinicals, gone from 7AM to 7PM (had to run a few errands on the way home), and then went next door to eat lovely home made chili. I had two bowls and staggered home.

And now with Friday we're back to kittycat update. Friday morning Anastasia was too weak to stand and had laboured breathing; she took her clavamox but wouldn't eat anything else. I drove like a maniac (flashers on, passing on the shoulder, treating red lights like stop signs) and made it to the vet in half the time a normal drive takes. Ran in clutching her to me on a pillow, yelling, "help! I think I'm losing her!" and then she went into convulsions.

O2, blood draw, temp (down to 95F from a normal 99.5-101.5) laid on a heating pad and covered with a warm towel, saline drip, blood analyzed, glucose added to the saline and in 20 minutes she lifted her head to my voice, looked around like, "how did I get here!?" and improved for the rest of the day. Once she was well enough to be put in a cage (a holding cell?) with her pillow and her saline still attached, I went home.

Took a test online and turned in an assignment for my online class which started Monday, and just when I was about to take a break and watch a movie Jet came in, breathing so labored I could hear him two rooms away. I thought he had a fishbone or something stuck in his throat, panicked... cornered him in the garage and put him in the carrier ...now that took a lot less time to type than to do! I have bites on my right foot and ankle, bites on 6 fingers and deep scratches on both hands and arms. The reason I did not think it through, go back in the house and get a towel or even gloves is, as soon as I walked in the garage I noticed the two boxes of rat poison that had been sitting on a shelf several days ago were now laying on the workbench, torn open, with several of the packages chewed up. That, coupled with his breathing had me thinking this was an emergency situation and I had to catch him NOW.

So I got Jet to the vet just as they were closing up for lunch, and the last I've heard he was getting a vitamin K shot and had been given something to induce vomiting. I'll go there and check on both cats when I've finished typing this...

Soon as I got home and returned a phone call to Bob's aunt J revising plans for dinner (the plan had been for me to drive to the next town east and spend the evening at her daughter R's, where her son D is staying before he flies back home to the west coast tomorrow), thought, "NOW I'll sit down and watch that movie, before doing a little more studying," then the neighbor called, said he'd pulled the heads off my motor and would I drive them to the next town west (about an hour round trip) to a fellow who would do a compression check on them. When I got home from THAT trip I just had time to soak my poor cat-bit foot (which was getting really sore by now) for half an hour and then meet for dinner.

And now before I had a chance to hit [enter] to finalize this post, one of the vet techs phoned and said Anastasia can come home for the weekend. Yea! Bye...