Yep. I did. The title says it all. It works, too! Either that, or we were just lucky.
Here’s what happened:
Our daughter had cleaned the litterboxes late Saturday night. There was an empty Tidy Cats Litter bin that she hadn’t put out in the trash tote, yet.
It was sitting in the hallway.
Apparently, at some point, between 1am and 6am, Squeaks (Our 3 year old) had gotten into it, and somehow, the lid was closed. Probably one of the other cats, trying to do her in. Never know. I live with 'em. I know how they are.
Our daughter watched as one of our rescue kittens, Teyla (who just went to the vet this morning, to be spayed), in the hallway, running to her and back to the empty bin, repeatedly.
Our daughter opened and looked into the bin, and Squeaks was in there. She thought she was dead, and then she proceeded to have a wicked serious meltdown.
She came into the dining room with the bin, with Squeaks still in it.
I took Squeaks out, and gave her to my husband.
She was limp, unresponsive, had lost control of her bowels and bladder, and was covered in urine. Her eyes were mostly open, pupils were dilated, her tongue was sticking out, and her tongue and gums were a ghastly white. She was not breathing.
So, while my husband was holding her, I gave her mouth-to-nose/mouth…I think three times, and she blinked once, and meowed, faintly. We kept briskly rubbing her abdomen, and she finally came back to us. We really thought she was dead, but since she was so limp, I figured she hadn’t been dead for long, not that it mattered. I wasn’t about to lose her, if I could help it! I had to try.
So, we called our vet, and after asking us a bazillion questions, he said that she should be ok, since her breathing wasn’t labored (Anymore. It was at first, when she first ‘came back’.), and she was up and walking (wobbly and very slowly), and there’s no need to bring her in. The only things to look for were if she was bumping into things (which she wasn’t), diarrhea, etc.
He said that if any of those things start happening, to call him, and he would want us to bring her in, but it sounded to him like we did ok, don’t restrict her, and let her do as she pleases, but to keep a sharp eye on her…and she should be fine.
Our vet called me back, just to check on her, and as of a few hours later, she was absolutely very nearly back to normal. She got a bite to eat, and was up and walking, jumping on and off stuff, playing, and cleaning herself up.
She seemed just a bit tired, is all.
It ended well. We’re really happy about that, and I thought I’d share it with you.
So, keep in mind, if anything like this ever happens to your pet, TRY giving the mouth-to-mouth/nose. Just in case. It might work. The ONLY reason I thought of doing it, was because one of my favorite drag racers, Cory McClenathan did the same thing to save his dog a few years ago. They talked to him about it in an interview before a race right after it happened. I thank Cory for that one!
I just want to let you all know that you should PLEASE make sure you don’t have anything laying around that your pet could get into and suffocate! I guess those lids on the cat litter bins really do close tightly enough to suffocate a cat. I’d never realized that.
After it was all said and done, I realized that I really needed to brush my teeth.
A few times. Not to mention the mouthwash.
You just don’t think about what you do when someone/something you love is fighting for their life. You just do what you can, without thinking anything at all.
