This is going to be a slow recovery, no doubt about it. But as of 1:00 p.m. today, Bob ate a tiny mouthful of "bad" food--Friskies turkey and giblets. As I'm trying to switch both my cats to a raw protein diet, getting either of them to get used to healthy food, versus food with all the carbs in it, is quite challenging. Given that he loves his carbs and his bad food, anything is worth getting him to try and eat something sort of solid. Also, he has a raspy sound in his throat from all of his gagging, but his lungs sound clear so maybe this bugaboo called a pulmonary edema will not be a problem. The vet told me that there are about 4 hurdles that we have to get through with this kind of injury: the first 12 hours of the acute reaction to the chemical ingestion; getting him to eat solid food; getting the ulcers to start healing; getting past any neurological or respirtatory depression.
He has an ulcer on the tip of his tongue and more under his tongue and the back of his throat is miserable to look at. They assume the worst is down his esophagus, but they can't see to be certain. Hmm. I'm surprised they don't try to use a scope, but maybe they want to minimize injury to the throat given it's current condition. Last nite I was told he was trying to breathe through his nose and he was drooling less. They definitely don't want to put in a feeding tube with the chance he's got more burns down his gullet. He's on something called Sucrafate which I gather is like a healing paste that acts like a "band-aid."
My husband and I are absolutely shell-shocked that this poor little cat could get clobbered with such a freak accident right on the heels of his recuperating from his surgery. I have a St. Francis medal for pets, so I do appreciate the good works St. Francis has done for our companion animals and creatures less fortunate. I've been "praying" to anybody's god who will listen and also trying to remind myself that it's my desire and my want to keep Bob. If my selfishness is wrong and causing him to suffer I have to be willing to love him enough to let him go to St. Francis' garden. And Bob might not mind that so much so long as there are blades of wheat grass on which he can nibble. The beauty about animals is that they live and don't think about what happens afterwards--this is a human thing.
But I'll tell you all this: I am so idiotic about my cats that as dismaying as Bob's misfortunes are (and let's be honest--expensive), he's just a charismatic member of this family. I can't resist a cat named Bob Brown. We probably have met someone named Bob Brown, but not a cat. I read that the average cost to keep a cat for a lifetime of about 14 years is roughly $7500 for all the shots, exams, food, toys, cat litter and minor surgeries. We don't think about the expense to keep a pet when we get the kitten or puppy because the cost to care for them is incremental and happens over several years. Unfortunately for Bob, while he was relatively inexpensive to keep for the first 9 years (though I've only had him for 4.5 because he was rescue kitty, this last half is exhausting his bank account. I guess that's why I always set aside a little money in my pet fund so that expenses like this accident and the surgery could be anticipated. But I wouldn't expect most folks to contemplate such health issues.
Thank you all for letting me write. I guess you wouldn't have much choice if you accidently opened one of my emails to the list, LOL!
----- Original Message ----- From: "sisu" sisupygmies@yahoo.com To: "pat brown" nqsqurtz@mail.staffnet.com Cc: candichat@dolls.de Sent: Monday, March 08, 2004 12:57 PM Subject: Re: OT: Need to talk about my cat
Oh Pat!
I am so very sorry. This is horrible. Poor Bob, he has been through so much already. I hope he fights this battle for his life and wins. Have you heard any more from the vets about his condition? Please let us know as soon as you can.
Bruno (my mastiff) and I will pray to St. Francis for Bob's recovery. Hope you won't be offended but Bruno is Catholic so that's who he prays to when any 2 or 4legger is in need.
Fate has a way of exacting cruel judgements on us and I don't know why my poor little cat is the instrument--he never did anything to anybody except be a wonderful cat to me. Regards, pat Brown
My thoughts exactly when my vet told me my beloved Bruno was going to die from bone cancer. This dog is a 204# mastiff but one fo the most gentle creatures you could meet.
sisu and Bruno the 3legged bone cancer patient, still alive after a leg amputation and 4 months of chemotherapy
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