Well, that was unexpected
It's just before 2am and I'm back from my first emergency vet visit.
After I'd gone to bed earlier I heard sounds of cat toy bells and thumping, with occasional kitten squeaks. This was nothing unusual, although the squeaks indicated that perhaps Boris Giles was finally handing out enough discipline to TribbleJ to get the message across that he'd had enough. The background noise continued for perhaps 15-20 minutes (I'm not sure, wasn't exactly clock watching) but when Husband turned out his light and I composed myself for sleep I heard the rattle of the vertical blinds join the other noises. It occurred to me that perhaps TribbleJ was caught up in the blinds, which had happened once or twice to other cats.
I really didn't want to get up, but I'm glad I did before things got too quiet. TribbleJ had managed to entangle himself in a complicated cat toy of bouncy wires, elastic bands and sundry padded bits and pieces. Furthermore he and the whole assembly were additionally entangled in the plastic ball-link chains at the base of the vertical blinds. What's left of them at least. He clearly needed rescuing, but early on in the process he managed to catch the curtain, and bring down the whole curtain rail plus fairy lights.
Click to viewThe toy in question.
TribbleJ was naturally panicking (the screams!), and I could see he was trapped by something wrapped tight around his foreleg. I called Husband for assistance and with a great deal of bloodshed on both our accounts and eventually wire cutters (scissors not being up to the job) we got TribbleJ free.
Right, assess injuries. No blood (not his, anyway), no obvious breaks, but also no particular flinching when I felt the leg. Paw pads felt a bit cold - not good, and no sign of back-of-paw reflex - very not good. (I don't know what it's called, but when you bend the paw and put the back of it against the ground the reflex is to straighten the paw and correct the position - failure is a sign of nerve damage.) Plenty of swelling, and an obviously shocked little kitten. Not weight bearing, but not holding up strongly either.
I can't say I acted with *complete* rationality at this point, but my baby was in pain and I didn't want him to wait 8 hours. I threw on some clothes (not suitable to qualify for a daylight trip to the shops) and took us off to the nearest 24 hour emergency vet clinic in Balcatta, fortunately only a 10 minute drive away. We've been here nearly 11 years and not needed it until now, but I've always made sure I knew where it was for just this occasion. I'm very glad I didn't need to go all the way to Murdoch and try to find the clinic there.
I was the only one there (I suspect I got the on-call staff out of bed) and after some shaky form-filling got to see a vet quite quickly. She was lovely and I felt confident with her. By this time TribbleJ had perked up a bit and was touching his paw to the ground occasionally. He also started showing the paw reflex, and his pads were a bit warmer. Clearly the blood was flowing again. If I'd maybe kept it together and just watched him for another half an hour at home I might not have rushed him in to emergency. Maybe. But he was in pain, and the vet gave him a 24 hour anti-inflammatory shot for that so I've no regrets. I've already got a Monday appointment with Dr Laura, so I said I'd follow up there, although I was encouraged to phone them any time if I was worried. Wot, me worry?
The bill was... considerable. Monday's appointment is also when I planned to sign him up for vet insurance. Such is life. Now we have a pre-existing condition to add to the paperwork, yay.
So we're home now, and TribbleJ is tucked away in the bathroom with heater running and plenty of soft bedding. Turnaround time for the whole trip was less than an hour, but I'm wide awake now (surprise surprise) so thought I'd debrief here. I should probably do something about all the scratches on me, too. Husband was covered in band aids when I got home. He'd certainly sported more blood than I, so I hope none of the cuts affect his playing.
Goodness, I hope we never have to deal with Boris Giles in similar circumstances - he could do serious damage to helpful humans.
ETA 6:20am: Sleep? Ha! Just checked in and TribbleJ is doing well. He's purry and smoochy but clearly favouring the hurt paw. He can flex his claws, but still holds it very floppily. We have run out of bandaids.