*Gross Alert*
Morna has been coughing occasionally for a few days and vomited Sunday night. Twice. While I was cleaning up one pile of vomit, Touka was eating the other. Naturally I yelled “No!“ and made a lot of gross-out sounds, but Touka ate the one faster than I could clean up the other. Even grosser, as I rushed to the garbage bin with a paper towel full of vomitus, I noticed something odd sticking out of it. It looked like a thin plastic wire. Upon closer inspection I realized it was alive, and had lots of company.
Morna’s stomach is apparently full of toxacara - roundworm. And if they hadn’t been spread to Touka yet, they certainly have been now. Chances are she’d picked them up already though, because sometimes Morna uses Touka’s litter box and then Touka plays with the poop or even eats it! Plus she’s Morna’s personal wet-nap; licks her butt after she potties.
Fortuitously, Touka had a vet appointment scheduled for early the following morning. And rather than toss the paper towel into the garbage, and with it a whole family of roundworms, I put it in a sealed container, so the toxacara familius went to the vet too. Touka got her rabies vaccine and an oral dose of gooey stuff that should start killing any roundworms.
The vet made an appointment to see Morna this morning. We’ll be going there in about an hour. I feel so bad for her, she’s probably had this problem for a long while - considering she was rescued from an abandoned house full of homeless animals and vermin, she was probably infected before I got her.
Both of them will have two follow up doses of de-wormer, all to be scheduled for the same 2-week intervals, all around mom’s busy appointment schedule and all on my days off.
Mom will eventually have surgery to repair bladder and vaginal prolapses. Doc said the prolapse is very severe and at this point surgery is the only relief. She’s at risk for post-surgical embolism, so Doc referred her to a surgeon in Sacramento who specializes in high-risk patients. We’ll be traveling down there for initial consultation, an exam, tests, and finally surgery - it’s about 80 miles distance. She has hundreds of tiny cracks in her vertebrae, so she doesn’t travel well for long distances. She’s going to be in a lot of pain. And she came very near dying of pulmonary embolism the last time she had surgery, about 15 years ago, so we’re pretty anxious about it. But she’s really suffering with this problem, it’s really bad and it’s causing other problems that will worsen without surgery, so she’s ready to go for it.
One bright spot; mom and I had our massages yesterday afternoon. We’ve been going every 2 weeks, then we go to lunch afterward and maybe pop into one of the dozens of antique or thrift shops. She loves those mother-daughter days. And she gets quite uppity about being a lady who can afford regular massage appointments - always “happens” to mention it, maybe a little loudly, while we’re in the restaurants and shops.
“Do you see a masseuse?” she’ll ask perfect strangers, “Oh, you should, it’s just wonderful. We go regularly.”
Ya gotta love ‘er.
Morna’s stomach is apparently full of toxacara - roundworm. And if they hadn’t been spread to Touka yet, they certainly have been now. Chances are she’d picked them up already though, because sometimes Morna uses Touka’s litter box and then Touka plays with the poop or even eats it! Plus she’s Morna’s personal wet-nap; licks her butt after she potties.
Fortuitously, Touka had a vet appointment scheduled for early the following morning. And rather than toss the paper towel into the garbage, and with it a whole family of roundworms, I put it in a sealed container, so the toxacara familius went to the vet too. Touka got her rabies vaccine and an oral dose of gooey stuff that should start killing any roundworms.
The vet made an appointment to see Morna this morning. We’ll be going there in about an hour. I feel so bad for her, she’s probably had this problem for a long while - considering she was rescued from an abandoned house full of homeless animals and vermin, she was probably infected before I got her.
Both of them will have two follow up doses of de-wormer, all to be scheduled for the same 2-week intervals, all around mom’s busy appointment schedule and all on my days off.
Mom will eventually have surgery to repair bladder and vaginal prolapses. Doc said the prolapse is very severe and at this point surgery is the only relief. She’s at risk for post-surgical embolism, so Doc referred her to a surgeon in Sacramento who specializes in high-risk patients. We’ll be traveling down there for initial consultation, an exam, tests, and finally surgery - it’s about 80 miles distance. She has hundreds of tiny cracks in her vertebrae, so she doesn’t travel well for long distances. She’s going to be in a lot of pain. And she came very near dying of pulmonary embolism the last time she had surgery, about 15 years ago, so we’re pretty anxious about it. But she’s really suffering with this problem, it’s really bad and it’s causing other problems that will worsen without surgery, so she’s ready to go for it.
One bright spot; mom and I had our massages yesterday afternoon. We’ve been going every 2 weeks, then we go to lunch afterward and maybe pop into one of the dozens of antique or thrift shops. She loves those mother-daughter days. And she gets quite uppity about being a lady who can afford regular massage appointments - always “happens” to mention it, maybe a little loudly, while we’re in the restaurants and shops.
“Do you see a masseuse?” she’ll ask perfect strangers, “Oh, you should, it’s just wonderful. We go regularly.”
Ya gotta love ‘er.