Poor Gracie Marie.
It seemed that the sneezy bit was better and last week she was eating a bit more , not her normal hoovering everything in sight but better..until Friday night.
I thought that I had noticed that her lower jaw looked wrong..swollen so I grabbed her which is no big deal because she is not a squirmer at all and had her Daddy come and look at her . She looked like she just felt puny so we watched her that night and on into the day . When I got home from the store , I had been thinking about it so I made an appt for the following Saturday with Dr. Tom over at Parker Road Animal Hospital.
Sunday John came over while Gordy was playing golf for a few hours. He'd been cooped up in his apt. for over 2 1/2 weeks post surgery so he had a ragging case of cabin fever. As we sat on the deck with beverages, he watched her and tried to the usual spin the kitty which normally she initiates but not this time. First clue. He said that she just looked like she felt puny and we looked at each other and thought " Aw shit."
He was free this week other than a dental checkup yesterday so we decided that I would change the appt and John would run her up to the vet today.
This is how much my brother loves his Gracie. He said that he wanted Gordy to clean the box last night and for me to leave a clean zip lock on the guest bath counter so that he could take a fresh stool sample. He also said that he needed to sniff the box for urine odor ..absence of odor indicates kidney issues. On the way to work Gordy told me that he updated the notes that I had typed up yesterday to indicate that she had not in fact had a bowel movement since Friday night but had piddled. My only response was " So...you were going to tell me this WHEN !!!!????!!!???? "
Anyway.............
Thank you St. Francis that we didn't wait.
Dr. Simon indicated that she would not have lasted very long without treatment and lasting to Saturday was out of the question .
She has a complete colon blockage so she has been sedated for an emetic and sub q fluids with antibiotics. She is also getting a full blood panel to check for hyperthyroidism and tachycardia. John and I agreed that with sedation that she needed to stay overnight and not be home alone. Tomorrow her recovery process will be better and the sedation will have had a chance to run its course.
The abscess came out of no where it seemed but with a Maine Coon 's long hair it is hard to tell. She has lost a bit of weight, not much but at 15 ( ! ) ..any weight loss can be an issue.
I suspect that when we get her home , she will no longer be allowed any dry Iams kibble or Temptations treats. For the most part her diet is wet and we can and have been advised to supplement her meals with fish oil to avoid any future hairball issues.
Thats the thing..of all the cats that we have had, she is the one that has been the least prone to hairball issues at all.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the blood panel comes back within acceptable norms and that the tachycardia is an aberration of this current crisis.
More as it develops.
Her Mama.
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