Violet
Violet started retaining fluid in her abdomen after her trip to the vet last week or so, whenever it was. Then, Thursday night she was in a lot of pain. So, Friday morning I took her to the vet for a walk-in before I went to work. They drew blood and drew some of the fluid out of her abdomen to test it. The vet thought she might have FIP (feline infectious perionitis) which would be very bad as it is incurable and highly dangerous.
The good news is that the test came back negative for the perionitis and the vet said that the fluid contained a lot of sceptic bacteria. I told them about Violet's history, with having the inflamed uterus, and they said that was likely to be the cause of her abdominal troubles. They think the uterus ruptured. So, went into surgery late Friday night to be spayed (have the uterus removed) and to have the scepsis fluid drained. and to see what if anything else may be causing her to have all that fluid in her abdomen. They planned on doing some exploratory surgery. Basically, she had about a pound of fluid weight gain in the past two weeks.
She's very lucky to be alive. When she went in for surgery, it was to drain the fluid and remove her uterus for spaying. When the vet got in there though, he found out that her entire uterus was full of tumors and pus and had swollen up to about fifty times its normal size.
Comparitively -- a healthy feline uterus is about the size of a 50-cent piece. Healthy fallopian tubes are about the circumference of a string of yarn... Violet's uterus was about the size of Philly's computer speaker and her fallopian tubes were about the size of large garden hoses. She looks really skinny now.
The surgery went well. She's a tough kitty. The vet was either overly-realist, or just sort of pessimistic. He called me after the surgery (around 2 am Friday night) to tell me what he had found and what he had done. I asked if I'd be able to take Violet home tomorrow (Saturday) and he said, "No, absolutely not. She might not even make it through tonight." I knew better, but I'll tell about that a bit later :)
So I called the vet again in the morning when I woke up (also Saturday) I asked how Violet was doing, and the lady vet who was there told me she was doing really well. She was awake, eating, drinking (she commented that Violet had a really hearty appetite) that she'd had a bowel movement, was cleaning herself, all sorts of things. I asked if I could see her that morning before I went to work, and she said "Of course." So Philly and I went there and she was all lovey and whiney and wanted to go home. But aside from the stitches and her being hooked to an IV in her front leg, you wouldn't know she'd just had major surgery. So I went to work. They told me I could call back after 6pm when Violet's surgeon/vet got in and ask him about her going home, but that vet -the lady- thought there'd be no trouble with it since Violet was doing so well! :)
I called again around 4pm to check on her, she was still doing really well - health wise - and the vet told me she'd sort of become a 'holy terror' to the staff. She'd be all loving and sweet till she realized they weren't going to let her out of the cage or off the IV, then she'd turn into fussy-devil-cat. I said, "Yup...that's Violet."
The vet called Philly's house a little after six and said that she'd be fine to go home tonight. He was also really surprised how well she was recovering -- given her age and what all she'd had done and everything. Again -- not a big surprise to me ::wink::
Anyway, she's home now, had an appointment on Monday just to get checked out and make sure she's still doing alright and that there isn't a problem with the stitches or anything. She's having another recheck appointment tomorrow and to get more antibiotics - the vet wants her on them for another week to kill off the infection totally. Then at the end of this month, she has another appointment to get the stitches out. She's been eating and drinking and going to the litter box with no problems. Jasmine has wanted to play with her, but Violet isn't allowed to run, jump, climb, etc for the next week.
She's on two different antibiotics -- one pill and one liquid -- neither of which are easy to give to her cause I have to be careful of her stitches when she's fighting me.
This surgery saved her life. The vet said she'd have had no chance without it and probably would have died within a couple of days. Philly's parents paid for it so I'll be paying them back with all my paychecks probably for about the next year. It was really expensive. If they hadn't paid for it... well, there was only one other option with two ways of dealing with it if you know what I mean. I'm unbelievably grateful, to them and to Bast.
Violet's recovery has been miraculous... I worked for her from the time she went into surgery till I fell asleep and the vet called to tell me how it went and what he found. But I'd fallen asleep with no worries. :)
The good news is that the test came back negative for the perionitis and the vet said that the fluid contained a lot of sceptic bacteria. I told them about Violet's history, with having the inflamed uterus, and they said that was likely to be the cause of her abdominal troubles. They think the uterus ruptured. So, went into surgery late Friday night to be spayed (have the uterus removed) and to have the scepsis fluid drained. and to see what if anything else may be causing her to have all that fluid in her abdomen. They planned on doing some exploratory surgery. Basically, she had about a pound of fluid weight gain in the past two weeks.
She's very lucky to be alive. When she went in for surgery, it was to drain the fluid and remove her uterus for spaying. When the vet got in there though, he found out that her entire uterus was full of tumors and pus and had swollen up to about fifty times its normal size.
Comparitively -- a healthy feline uterus is about the size of a 50-cent piece. Healthy fallopian tubes are about the circumference of a string of yarn... Violet's uterus was about the size of Philly's computer speaker and her fallopian tubes were about the size of large garden hoses. She looks really skinny now.
The surgery went well. She's a tough kitty. The vet was either overly-realist, or just sort of pessimistic. He called me after the surgery (around 2 am Friday night) to tell me what he had found and what he had done. I asked if I'd be able to take Violet home tomorrow (Saturday) and he said, "No, absolutely not. She might not even make it through tonight." I knew better, but I'll tell about that a bit later :)
So I called the vet again in the morning when I woke up (also Saturday) I asked how Violet was doing, and the lady vet who was there told me she was doing really well. She was awake, eating, drinking (she commented that Violet had a really hearty appetite) that she'd had a bowel movement, was cleaning herself, all sorts of things. I asked if I could see her that morning before I went to work, and she said "Of course." So Philly and I went there and she was all lovey and whiney and wanted to go home. But aside from the stitches and her being hooked to an IV in her front leg, you wouldn't know she'd just had major surgery. So I went to work. They told me I could call back after 6pm when Violet's surgeon/vet got in and ask him about her going home, but that vet -the lady- thought there'd be no trouble with it since Violet was doing so well! :)
I called again around 4pm to check on her, she was still doing really well - health wise - and the vet told me she'd sort of become a 'holy terror' to the staff. She'd be all loving and sweet till she realized they weren't going to let her out of the cage or off the IV, then she'd turn into fussy-devil-cat. I said, "Yup...that's Violet."
The vet called Philly's house a little after six and said that she'd be fine to go home tonight. He was also really surprised how well she was recovering -- given her age and what all she'd had done and everything. Again -- not a big surprise to me ::wink::
Anyway, she's home now, had an appointment on Monday just to get checked out and make sure she's still doing alright and that there isn't a problem with the stitches or anything. She's having another recheck appointment tomorrow and to get more antibiotics - the vet wants her on them for another week to kill off the infection totally. Then at the end of this month, she has another appointment to get the stitches out. She's been eating and drinking and going to the litter box with no problems. Jasmine has wanted to play with her, but Violet isn't allowed to run, jump, climb, etc for the next week.
She's on two different antibiotics -- one pill and one liquid -- neither of which are easy to give to her cause I have to be careful of her stitches when she's fighting me.
This surgery saved her life. The vet said she'd have had no chance without it and probably would have died within a couple of days. Philly's parents paid for it so I'll be paying them back with all my paychecks probably for about the next year. It was really expensive. If they hadn't paid for it... well, there was only one other option with two ways of dealing with it if you know what I mean. I'm unbelievably grateful, to them and to Bast.
Violet's recovery has been miraculous... I worked for her from the time she went into surgery till I fell asleep and the vet called to tell me how it went and what he found. But I'd fallen asleep with no worries. :)