My kitty's home

[cjsmith]

My jackiecat is home. I picked her up around noon. She seems a bit annoyed by the spot where her IV went in, but otherwise she's perky and energetic.

The clinic reports that she didn't vomit at all while she was there, a very good sign, and she took a lot of fluids. I've got pills I'm supposed to give her (antibiotics) - I don't think there's any way something that size is going down her throat, but I'll give it a try.

Comments

[kimatha.livejournal.com]

That's good news! It is always frightening when kitties are sick. What was wrong with her?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Best I know: hairballs, wedged badly enough to make her vomit. The X-ray showed at least one, probably two, and possibly a third, in her intestines. A biggish chunk of her intestine was filled only with air, indicating food hadn't been coming down the pipe for a while.

Secondary effect of major dehydration from three sources: 1) from vomiting, 2) from blood loss because too much vomiting made her throat raw and bloody, 3) from the body's natural attempts to fill empty intestines with fluid when nothing's coming from upstream. The more hydrated she was, the better chance she'd have to pass the instestinal hairballs, because the tissue would be softer and more flexible. They gave her 24hours of IV fluids. That's apparently a much bigger hammer than a dose of subcutaneous fluids.

She hasn't passed anything, but she hasn't rejected food or thrown up, either. Signs are good that she'll get the hairballs out. The antibiotics are to help control the natural bacteria which are currently running wild.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

DJ had to have antibiotics after the tampon incident, too, in case unseen intestinal damage causes an infection.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got the impression that whenever the lining of either the esophagus or the colon is damaged, the bacteria go nuts eating blood. Jackie had blood at both ends so I get to risk my life feed her pills.

[platypus]

Eep! For what it's worth, I've read some advice that says squirting a small amount of water after the pill helps it go down (we have a needleless syringe for that kind of thing). Even so, we usually end up begging for liquid medication since she can't spit ALL of that out.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, the water idea echoes the advice of the vet student who handed me the meds. I have a little squirter a dentist gave me once, so if that's clean, it ought to help.

[datagoddess.livejournal.com]

I'm glad she's doing better. Do they have any clue what was wrong with her?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hairballs wedged in the intestine. I just typed up a bit more detail in my response to kimatha above.

She's not out of the woods yet because she hasn't passed the hairballs, but they say once she starts eating again, she probably will.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I'm glad to hear she's home and seeming better.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm immensely relieved, myself.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Yay, that's so much better than the third option. :)

[joedecker.livejournal.com]

Yay for Jackie at home!

[cassidyrose.livejournal.com]

Glad she is home and doing better.

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear she is home and it sounds like she is on the mend.

[deyo.livejournal.com]

Yay for happy cats! {hugs}

[dizzdvl.livejournal.com]

I couldn't manage to force Spike to take the pills so I got liquid antibiotics. We got into a routine where I would squirt it down her throat, she would hate on me, and then I would feed her something yummy.

Glad jackiecat is home!

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I'm so, so glad she's back and relatively better. Best of luck with the pills -- that can be such a trial. More *hugs* and kitty-purrs from Mira.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

I'm glad she is better.

I'm relieved!

[firecat]

Once she's better, if you don't yet feed her Petromalt, that might help in the future.