Tuesday, I realized that after Elwood had used the litter box, he was walking around making sad little “Ow, that hurt” noises, and I glanced in the litter box and then at his behind, saw that things were not as they should be, and called Fred. I convinced him to make an appointment for Elwood with the vet later in the day, and then I thought that maybe I was jumping the gun (we tend to rush off to the vet at a moment’s notice for issues that will resolve themselves if given a little time. We’re not as bad as we used to (ie, the time we took Spot to the emergency vet because he “didn’t look right”, but we still need to learn to wait and see a little more, I think) so I told him not to make the appointment. We decided we’d continue putting powdered Slippery Elm bark on Elwood’s food and hemorrhoid cream on his behind (yes, it’s perfectly safe to put hemorrhoid cream on your cat’s behind) and see what happened.
Then around 4:00 in the afternoon, he went to the litter box, and then afterward I wiped his butt with a baby wipe, and he screamed. I insisted Fred come inside and call the local vet, the one who’s about three minutes up the road. He called, but the vet had left for the day. I decided to call the vet in Ardmore, the one who does all the Challenger’s House cats and who I like so much (the only reason we don’t always take all the cats to her is because it’s a half-hour drive one way and that drive can put a hole in your day), told the woman who answered the phone that I could be there in half an hour if they could fit me in, she told me to come on up, and I headed up there.
I don’t know that Elwood’s ever been anywhere without his brother. Fred said Jake was very vocal for several minutes after I left with Elwood, and Elwood seemed deeply confused on the drive to the vet.
We got there, and they took Elwood off to get a fecal sample. That poor boy screamed like nobody’s business, and I heard the nurse say that she hadn’t really gotten anything and she was going to try again, and apparently she lifted his tail and he screamed again.
“I’m not even touching him!” I heard her say.
She brought him back into the exam room where I was waiting, and he huddled up against me, and he gave her the DIRTIEST look I’ve ever seen from a kitten. I felt bad for him, but that look was SUCH a Mister Boogers look that it made me laugh out loud.
They checked the fecal sample while the vet came in and looked him over, and in the end she prescribed Panacur and a prescription cat food for a little while.
When I asked what I could put on his poor swollen behind, she suggested one thing I’d never heard of (and don’t have on the premises), and then said that hemorrhoid cream works just as well.
We’ll see how that goes. I can tell you that Jake and Elwood were SUPER happy to see each other when I walked through the door. It was almost cinematic, the way they ran toward each other and then Jake bit Elwood on the neck.
I took Bill, Hoyt, and Lafayette to the vet yesterday morning and left them, and then went back in the evening, arriving there about 5:15 with Sam in tow. When I walked in, they told me that one of the kittens had been operated on and was up and about, and a second kitten was currently on the table. They took Sam from me and carried him into the operating room so the vet could get a look at him, and she said he was doing just fine.
(Yay!)
I sat in the waiting room with Sam on my lap, and the other lady sitting in there, a big dog sitting next to her, said “I don’t come in here very often, but every time I do, you’re here!”
I laughed.
She said, “You must be in here every day!”
I said, “Not really, though sometimes it feels like it!” We talked for a minute about Challenger’s House before the nurse called her and her dog back, and in retrospect I should have given her the Love & Hisses url, maybe she would have liked reading about my babies!
The cat who was on the operating table turned out to be Bill. I’m sure the surgery for him took longer than she expected. I’ve probably mentioned before that Bill’s eyes are pretty bad (he and Terry are the worst). I sat in the waiting room with Sam, and eventually they brought Hoyt (who’d been done) and Lafayette (who hadn’t) out in their carrier.
“That little brown tabby was yelling his head off when he came out from under,” the vet tech told me. “He didn’t want to be held, didn’t want to eat – he didn’t quiet down until we put his brother in with him!”
That’s Hoyt, the big mouth. I was surprised to see that both of Hoyt’s eyes had been operated on. I was under the impression that he had one normal eye and one bad eye, but I guess she found a spot on the “normal” eye.
Eventually, Bill’s surgery was over, and they waited for him to wake up. When he did, he came up swinging. They wrapped him up and cuddled him, and he growled and yelled. Eventually they put him in his carrier and put the carrier on the drier (where it’s warmer), and he calmed down. They brought him out – he was still pretty shaky – and told me if I was comfortable taking him home in that condition (the vet thought he’d be fine), I could take him.
He was super groggy, but purred when I petted him, so I got his medication and loaded both carriers in the car (I put Sam in with Hoyt and Lafayette) and headed for home.
Lafayette’s going back on Friday to have his eyes done. I’m hoping to get Sookie and Terry in next week.
So we got home and big-mouth Hoyt wanted OUT of that carrier, so I let him out to eat and drink and use the litter box and sniff at his brothers and sister. Bill had no interest in going anywhere, so I left him in his carrier and put him in a corner of my room for a few hours.
At bedtime, I let him out of his carrier, but he was not interested in eating or drinking or using the litter box, just sat there and looked groggy. I snuggled him for a good long time, and then put him in a fluffy bed in the bathroom (where there’s a litter box, water, and food) with Hoyt, checked on them a few times through the night, and this morning he was a little more with it.
Hoyt, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to know that he’s had anything done at all. He’s like Sam was, racing around, playing, eating like nobody’s business.
Bill was using the litter box when we went in, and he came right over to have his snack with everyone else. He’s getting around well, but oh do his eyes look sore. He fought having his medicine, but before I left the room I saw him jump on a toy.
I don’t have pictures of Bill and Hoyt yet, but I’ll be sure to snap a few today and post them tomorrow. I’m relieved at how well they’re doing, and that I got the thumbs-up from the vet for Sam, too. With three kittens done, we’re halfway there – and after Lafayette’s eyes are done tomorrow, we’ll be 2/3 of the way there!
She’s just a sleepy, sleepy girl, our Sookie.
Terry with his paws in the AIR, like he just don’t CARE.
That’s Bill in the back, the day before surgery. Sam in the middle, Sookie in the front. They were napping and I rudely woke them up by walking into the room.
“Helloooooooo, good-lookin’!”
I put these mirrors up last week, and the kittens are enthralled.
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Previously
2008: The quintessential Zoe look.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: No entry.