Forgot to mention and it’s too hard to edit a long post on iPhone.
It is not uncommon for them to keep a PU surgery cat an extra day or two, it all depends on how well he’s healing, his bloodwork and how his urine looks. Remember he’s not just healing from surgery but also from the obstruction and everything that goes with that. You can plan to send a patient home on a certain day but if he isn’t making the progress you would like it would be better to keep him hospitalized instead of sending him home and risking reobstruction or other complications.
Not sending him home this morning sounds pretty standard–keeping a patient who has had surgery more serious than a routine spay/neuter/dental 24 hours post-op is a good standard of care that gives you time to recheck labs, monitor incisions, and more fully evaluate the pet’s level of pain control. Also, if Horton had an IV pain/sedative drip after his surgery (some vets do that after a pu), they need time to wean him off the drip and make sure the meds for home are going to get the job done. I would be much, much more concerned if they let him go home this morning, as that would mean they weren’t making sure he could maintain his urine output and kidney/liver/electrolyte values without the iv fluids. The delay just means they’re making sure your cat is actually going to be okay when you get him home, and that’s a Good Thing.
I know it’s frustrating to not be able to get all the answers you want right away, but one thing you have to keep in mind about calling to check on your pet is that the odds are against the person answering the phone being the person who is actually taking care of that particular animal. In a clinic with actual receptionists, it’s a guarantee because the receptionists don’t do any animal care work at all. And the people who have been taking care of your pet are typically busy taking care of various pets–in surgery, seeing appointments, talking to other owners who want updates, that sort of thing–and don’t always have time to talk to you right at that exact moment. They really ought to call you back when they get free, but sometimes things don’t quite work out like that for a variety of reasons.
And for future reference, nobody is going to take a stable animal into unscheduled surgery first thing on a Monday morning. On top of the regularly scheduled appointments and surgeries that it’s too short notice to move for anything less than a full-on catastrophe, that time is typically chock full of walk-ins–things that have been a little sick all weekend but not bad enough to go to the emergency room, things that have been sick enough for the er but the owners didn’t take 'em for whatever reason, rechecks from the er, all that sort of stuff. Typically things like pu’s and fracture repairs get done right after lunch, because it gives you enough time to do pre-op labs and call people to reschedule stuff but still gives you plenty of time to monitor the animal’s recovery before closing time. Plus, if the schedule is really tight, you can order in pizza and cut through lunch if you need to. The delay in Horton’s surgery yesterday is SOP, and that should absolutely have been clearly communicated to you yesterday. I’m willing to give them a pass on everything else, but them not telling you that “we’ll take him in as soon as we can” means “we’ll take him in as soon as we can work him into the schedule, which will be right after lunch” is simply not acceptable.
I am too. Hugs to Antigen and Horton! I’ve never had a cat with crystals, but my allimportantmostwonderfulcatintheworld had a benign growth on her neck that resulted in her having one of her jugular veins removed! :eek: Very scary (and expensive) but so worth it and now we back to normal. Fingers crossed that it will work out for Horton too.
I hope he’s home by now. I know how worrying it can be.
I feed my three separately. I had a cat that was getting seriously overweight on dry cat food. She’d actually gorge herself on it until she vomited. She was getting so big she couldn’t clean herself and she developed bladder infections because bacteria was getting into her bladder. I switched her to grain-free canned food only ad she has lost weight. She actually has a waist now, and so far, no more bladder infections.
I feed canned food twice a day, and separate my three into different closed rooms. This works well with my little pig boy who eats fast and will gobble up any other cat’s food after he eats his, and I absolutely know when one of my cats stops eating. It is a bit more inconvenient, and they do get a little insistent if I want to sleep in, but they are polite most of the time.
He hates his collar and for the first hour he was only walking in reverse, trying to back out of it.
I slept in the spare bedroom with him and he was very affectionate and very frustrated that he couldn’t bonk his head up against stuff orsuckle on his teddy bear because of the collar. He jumped on and off the bed a lot, which I hated because I wanted him to just sleep, but he’s like that. He peed a couple of times and it was successful, but he bleeds after each try. Woke up this morning to a few big blood spots on the carpet and sheets, and we brought him back to the vet because we were worried he was loosening his stitches with butt-scooting. The surgeon who did the surgery saw us, and checked him out, and said he looks fantastic, and the bleeding is normal and not as bad as it looks. We’ll keep him in a bathroom while we’re not home so he can’t scrape his bum on the carpets.
He can’t figure out how to eat and drink quite yet so I’m spoon feeding him and giving him water with a fat syringe for now. I’m allowed to take the collar off for supervised feeding time, which I’ll try tonight.
I have pics of the convalescent kitty, give me time to upload them and I’ll try and post tonight.
I recommend ruthlessly leaving the collar on him for as long as the vet says, even if he seems to be suffering – in the past, we’ve relented and taken it off early, only to have the wound re-open and scarring ensue. I won’t be doing* that* again.
<whew> Glad to hear he’s on the mend. Sailboat is right. Be vigilant with the collar until the wound heals or you’ll be doing another mad dash to the vet.
Don’t worry, I’m leaving it on. I took it off, with the vet’s permission, for a few minutes today to let him eat and drink normally. But I stayed right there and kept him from licking his wounds. He hates the collar and I do feel terrible when I have to put it back on, but I know it’s for his own good.
Hopefully he sleeps better tonight. He kept jumping on the bed (the man and I slept in the spare bedroom to keep an eye and ear on him) and trying to head-butt us for love, resulting in a collar smashed up against my face multiple times in the night. Gave us a preview of life with babies… except maybe for the collar part. Definitely the no-sleep part, though.
Ooh, he does not look happy at all in that pic. Poor lil’ guy, he doesn’t know that this really truly is for his own good.
When my Cloud blocked up, the vet clinic informed me one morning that he had removed his catheter overnight. Having once had a catheter following major surgery (as a kid, it was put in once I was under so at least I don’t remember that part), and remembering how much it stung when that sucker was removed, I could only look at him in awe.
Last night about 2am he suddenly started growling and yowling and not letting me touch him at all. He was shaking and in obvious pain, so off to the emergency vet we went again. He had re-blocked completely and couldn’t pass urine at all, so they had to draw it out with a syringe. They took 85cc’s out of the little guy, no wonder he was uncomfortable. Their opinion was that it was likely scarring from the procedure, and not a stone or crystals, but they were not comfortable trying to cath him since he’s so tiny and the surgery vet’s office is open today so I could take him there when they opened.
Brought him in and they said he’s not blocked because his bladder is not distended. Um… the emerg vet just drained it around 3:30am! And my man saw him straining to pee around 6 this morning, too, with no results. They’re keeping Horton for observation today, for at least as long as it takes to see him pee. They are also calling the vet who did the surgery (she’s off today) and we think she’s the type who will want to come in and see her patient. We hope so, anyway.
When they kept him at the vet’s all day yesterday, they were able to express his bladder by squeezing and they got a clear stream, so there’s no blockage. The consensus among the vets was that inflammation is keeping him jammed up, so we have a new anti-inflammatory to give him. Also, because it hurts when he pees, and he’s had so much activity going on in that area of his body, they said there’s likely an anxiety element. It hurts to pee, so he doesn’t want to pee.
When we brought him home, he was acting normal and playful and purry but he would not pee. No pee all day and all night. We slept in shifts so we wouldn’t miss anything. Around 6am I woke up to him growling and yowling again, so my man went to get the carrier and call the emerg vet. While he was gone, Horton started to scratch at the litter box and turn around in it a few times, and he finally, finally squatted down and tried. Took him over a minute to get a stream going, but he peed!
Damn, touch and go - that’s far too many trips to the emergency vet to have to make :(.
But good on you for your excellent vigilance and congrats on the eventual urination. By the way I have to agree with the consensus - a very handsome fellow :).
