Cat update
Well, those of you who talked to me yesterday already know that I got some pretty scary news. When I took Rascal to the vet, I was sort of expecting to be told that it wasn't anything serious, cats get sick sometimes, etc. Instead the vet pointed out that she was jaundiced--obvious after he told me, but how often do you look at a cat's skin underneath her fur or inside her ears? He said the cause was most likely to be either a disease or parasite destroying the red blood cells in her bloodstream or a malfunctioning in her liver. He said if it was a parasite, the only treatments available didn't work very well, and most cats died. He said the situation was a little better if it was her liver, so that's what I was hoping for, but it was pretty grave news either way, and I was pretty upset.
This morning he called to say that they got the blood work results, and they were fine, leading him to believe it was a liver problem. He said he'd like to do an exploratory surgery and take a biopsy of her liver to figure out what the problem was, and I said okay. This afternoon he called and said that after he put Rascal under and got started, it was really obvious what the problem was. She has an infection between her gall bladder and small intestine that was causing swelling and shutting off the opening between the two. The bile from the gall bladder couldn't get into the small intestines and started clogging up the area, and then it started backing up into the liver and shutting it down.
The upshot of it is, the vet cleaned all that out, and now her liver should be fine. She can't eat or drink for at least a day while the cut the vet had to make in her intestine heals, but after that they're going to start her on antibiodics, and she should be able to come home in a few days.
I'm so relieved. Rascal is the sweetest cat, and I'm really looking forward to having her in North Carolina. Poor thing, she's going to look even more pitiful now. She's up to two surgery scars, a missing leg, and a handful of broken teeth. Possibly a tube between her gall bladder and small intestine as well--I didn't catch whether the vet was putting that in to clean it out or to leave it in.
I think it's awesome that you're going to be a vet, Jessi.
This morning he called to say that they got the blood work results, and they were fine, leading him to believe it was a liver problem. He said he'd like to do an exploratory surgery and take a biopsy of her liver to figure out what the problem was, and I said okay. This afternoon he called and said that after he put Rascal under and got started, it was really obvious what the problem was. She has an infection between her gall bladder and small intestine that was causing swelling and shutting off the opening between the two. The bile from the gall bladder couldn't get into the small intestines and started clogging up the area, and then it started backing up into the liver and shutting it down.
The upshot of it is, the vet cleaned all that out, and now her liver should be fine. She can't eat or drink for at least a day while the cut the vet had to make in her intestine heals, but after that they're going to start her on antibiodics, and she should be able to come home in a few days.
I'm so relieved. Rascal is the sweetest cat, and I'm really looking forward to having her in North Carolina. Poor thing, she's going to look even more pitiful now. She's up to two surgery scars, a missing leg, and a handful of broken teeth. Possibly a tube between her gall bladder and small intestine as well--I didn't catch whether the vet was putting that in to clean it out or to leave it in.
I think it's awesome that you're going to be a vet, Jessi.