awwww

when it rains, it freakin pours

I brought the four kittens that were ready to be adopted back to the shelter today. It hurt that I couldn't be there. K offered to stay late so I could come in and say goodbye again, but unfortunately I couldn't.

See... I also had to bring Emerald in this morning. She has been coughing for a few weeks now, and it is starting to sound worse. I figured before I went on vacation I'd get her checked out. Well, she has fluid in the lungs - the doctor things it might be pneumonia. Although her heart is a little out of whack, and her lymph nodes seem a bit enlarged, so this also might be the beginning of the end. (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO) So she is on baytril (antibiotic) and lasix (for her heart aka to help drain the fluid out of her lungs) He wants to recheck her in two weeks. (when I say beginning of the end, I'm not talking something imminent)

Em was supposed to spend the next week with my mother, but I was concerned how she would deal with the three pills a day she has to have. I am beyond fortunate to have a woman at work who also has five cats who knows my pain at this, and she has offered to take Em to her house for me. Her bedroom is off limits to her cats, so Em has a place to go. I'm torn up about leaving her, but I know that if she can't be in my care, my co-worker is the next best thing.

I also have a new foster here for the night. A little peanut of a thing that came into the clinic today with seizures. They weren't sure what was wrong for a while. His blood sugars were too low to register and he was severely dehydrated. It turns out that for some reason he went into kidney failure, and that shot his blood pressure up so high it detached his retinas, and burned up all his glucose, thus resulting in everything else. We have given him fluids and A/D, and he has perked up 100%. He's still not perfect, and by no means out of the woods, he is here in my bathroom at the moment hopefully sleeping away. I'm giving him food and fluids every hour or so. We'll see what happens in the AM. I'll have to take a picture of him... although he's a mess from all the food. I'd give him a bath, but he has a catheter in him.

no spay for tweedle

Well, they didn't spay Twee today either. They felt it would be better to give her more time and the tech on duty wasn't comfortable giving her gas after what happened. I can't blame her. So I'll send the troops all back together on Tuesday, and have to trust the shelter to find them good homes.

I helped the staff at the clinic give birth to puppies today. We had a bulldog go into labor at least a week early. There were six puppies all together, three made it.

Ollie seems to have a URI now. *sigh* I'm trying to decide if I should medicate him or just let it be.

Emotional rollercoster

Well.. Ollie is back to his old self. We had poop the other day (he kept getting constipated) and no vomit now for several days. I had to wonder if it wasn't the herb I was giving him to make him less grumpy. I had increased his dose to what the vet had recommended originally. I had been giving him one a week simply because I had been forgetting about it, but I had gone to once a day until pretty much the day he started vomiting. Regardless, I doubt I'll be giving him any more of those on the remote chance it was that.

So good news there.

More good news was Tweedle had put on enough weight to be spayed. I had brought them all in because the surgery was light today. However....

Bad news was she had a reaction to the anesthesia that they used, and they couldn't spay her. They started reversing it when I noticed that something was going on, so I stepped in to find out. She was breathing rather heavily, and that is a sign that fluid is building up in the lungs. All of a sudden she seemed to stop breathing. I asked the surgeon if she had, and he felt her heart and said it was beating just fine - but I know it can after the lungs give out. He then put on his stethoscope and asked the tech to pump some oxygen. I then said I had to go, and headed back up front. I told a co-worker that Tweedle was having a bad reaction. I had another one die on the table before, so she asked if it was the same kind of reaction. I said it looked like it, so she went out back to check. While she was gone, I heard a major kitten scream. Tweed is very very vocal when you are making her do something she doesn't want to do, so I had hoped it was her. My co-worker came up front a few moments later and told me she was fine. They had taken an x-ray to make sure her lungs would be okay, and she woke up half way through, having hallucinations. I so wonder what kitties hallucinate about.

so good news is she's fine. Bad news is she isn't spayed. Good news is they can do it tomorrow. Bad news is she's still got a problem with the anesthesia, so whoever adopts her has to be very careful. Good news is I can bring them in on Saturday and do their adoptions myself. Bad news is there is no guarantee that they will be adopted on Saturday.

Yes.. I am exhausted.. :)

So.. now what do we do.

Okay.. so Eli was fine. He MIGHT have a urinary issue, but I don't see any other signs, so I'm not going to worry about that right now. Ollie, however, is a totally different story. He spent Friday, and he didn't eat at all, but he did move his bowels, and the barium came out. This means he is not totally blocked. One vet is thinking irritable bowel or a food allergy. I don't like either of those. Another is thinking pancreatitis (I can't believe I spelled that right). This I don't mind so much, but again, I don't like the options (ESPECIALLY since I'm supposed to be leaving town on the first) The third thought is that there is a reason his intestines aren't moving - because they aren't. The barium showed the intestines were smooth. When they move food down, they pinch up to push it through. The question would be is it mechanical (aka something he ate that is blocking the solid food) or neurological. I don't like the neurological options either. So sadly I'm hoping he's eaten something he shouldn't have. The doctors are thinking they should do an exploratory tomorrow. He's home tonight to see if he will eat and move things through tonight - since he won't eat at the clinic. He has lost about half a pound during all of this and has been on fluids for about 24 hours now.

I could deal with this SOOO much better if I just knew what was going on.