Sunday, September 28, 2014

Jack and Eli and the horrible no good day

Drunk Eli
 Last Wednesday my two eldest boys went to the vet to have their teeth cleaned.  Eli's mouth looked bad, but I had a feeling it was fairly structurally sound.  There was one spot where he cried out when I tried to clean it, but on the whole he looked good - well when I say looked good, I mean covered in tartar and really needing a dental, but I wasn't worried.

Jack on the other hand..

Jack.  What can I say about my sweet sweet, obnoxiously adorable loving boy who likes to lick my nose and rest his head on mine when I wake up in the morning... lets just put it this way, he is delicate.

When brushing their teeth I have noticed that one of his lower canines had a pretty big caries in it. I really really hated the idea of his losing a canine, but I figure it had to be bothering him.  So caught up in the mess that was his urinating in the house then the thyroid, I had been putting it off for a while. It didn't help that I had a very hard time finding a veterinarian I was willing to put my trust in enough to go back to more than once.

So off I went on Wednesday morning with my two boys.. Jack travels very well in the car.. Eli - not so much.

The plan was to drop them off and then pick them up and take Fleurp in to make sure her seasonal late spring anemia has cleared up.  I got a call half way through the day. Eli had one tooth removed. Jack had five.



I really hate the idea that his teeth were that bad and I didn't know it. He lost all the remaining teeth on his lower right side as well as his canine and one from the left.  I asked about antibiotics and they said he didn't need any. They were given a extended release buprenex that lasted for three days.  Both came home drunk out of their minds. Poor Eli's eyes were so dilated all you could see were black.

Jack tends to get very restless on buprenex, and this was no exception.  He wandered around aimlessly never able to get comfortable. I was afraid to pill him, so I tried to hide his thyroid pill in some baby food. Eli, being a very affectionate drunk, came over to see what was going on. I offered him a little baby food too, and he took one lick and then headbutted the rest so the food was all over him. He then rubbed his head all over Jack and the two of them were covered.

So Thursday they were still loopy, not walking as straight as they normally would, but eating. Jack still hadn't groomed all of the food off himself, and when I got home at the end of the day his mouth seemed like he had been drooling. Eli was now back to his normal self, but my sensitive boy Jack was not. He still seemed restless and drunk. I just assumed he needed more time, so I gave him his thyroid pill in more baby food and went to bed.

Friday.. Jack still seemed off. He was happy to see us, purred affectionately when we patted him, but he was staying very close to the living room and had not yet come to sleep in the bed since the surgery. He also seemed to have had a little diarrhea, which I emailed the vet to report. I tried patting his chest and ended up touching his chin and he flinched pretty badly.

Saturday. Now it is obvious that Jack's mouth is bothering him. It looks like he might have been drooling, or something is going on because the fur around his face is off. He is very interested in the treats I gave him when I pilled him, and he is still interested in everything and affectionate, but still 'stuck' in the living room/kitchen (we have one great room with living room/dining room/kitchen) That afternoon I examine him a little closer and smell something foul in his mouth, and it looked like there was a line of white on top of where his teeth should have been. I saw it when he had the teeth removed, and that was not there. Since I have antibiotics, I decided to give them to him since he had just had five teeth removed, I figure it could not hurt. However, to make it easier on him since I also had a thyroid pill and some more buprenex to give him I grabbed a bag of pill pockets and put the thinnest amount possible around the pill to cover it to entice Jack to eat it. And eat it he did.. and he loved it and asked for more.

I am an idiot.

Because this morning Jack is doing the pee pee dance. Figuring the small amount of glucose/carbs/plants/magickillerjuju that set him off this time couldn't be that bad, I gave him some l-methionine to acidify his urine to break up and crystals that might be there and soothe his bladder and some corn silk to help soothe his bladder as well as his thyroid and his clavamox and some more buprenex.  He continued to dance about, unable to settle.  The question was was he not settling because he was having a urinary issue (not possible I tried to convince myself, there was not nearly enough there to set him off) or because he was uncomfortable about his teeth / the buprenex which tends to make him very restless.  About 15 minutes later he settled down and laid down and seemed to be trying to go to sleep, so I left him for a while.  I wanted to give him some time to let the supplements and medications do their job.  Since he was reluctant to eat his supplements as well as treats offered, I gave him some fluids.  He was not happy about getting them and I only got about half what I would have liked into him. (Interesting aside, he ran way when I said 'Okay, we are done' but I hadn't yet taken the needle out of him. It flung out of him and hit me in the thigh making me bleed quite profusely before I had even realized what had happened)

By 2 PM he wasn't getting better and was laying on his side with his leg up in the air - his sign for his belly hurts - so we packed him up and went to the only emergency clinic in the area that hasn't ticked me off..  (this one was quite lovely and at this point has a five star rating from me) and low and behold he is blocked.. and they want to give him a catheter to help him.  We waited around for the procedure and the vet came out and said he did very well and they flushed a lot of crystals out of him and his bladder was quite spasmodic. So we left, and now I'm home, Jackless..

I have work in the office on Monday, and he will still be at the eclinic until then anyway, but I have a feeling I am going to take a few days off from work. This past week was rough on me to begin with - not sleeping well at all for some reason (it started on Monday) and then knowing my boy was not feeling well didn't help, and now this.  It will be good, because I would like to work on my fundraiser. I want Jack to have I131 treatment for his thyroid condition, and we have had a number of expenses one after the other pile up, and now this.. I'm not broke and we can cover them all but my reserve is getting thin and I worry about what will happen if something else comes up.. I figure if I can provide something that you would like to pay for and it makes you happy, I'll feel good about asking for money from you.  I have a number of cat related items that are just taking up space in my house, and I was thinking of making some cat toys that you might be interested in. I know fundraising is difficult right now, especially going into the holiday season, but hopefully something good can come out of this for everyone :)

My plan (oh like those ever work out for me) is to have Jack have his treatment over Halloween while I am away at Barkworld in GA. I will feel MUCH better about leaving the house for an extended period of time if Jack is in a vet's care, but it is coming up fast and I still need to get my ducks in a row..   Well at this point I have two of my cats in a row...


  1. Yikes! That is a lot going on.
    We purr Jack will be well soon and back home.
    We also purr those ducks co-operate with you ;)
    Purrs Georgia and Julie,
    Treasure and JJ

  2. So much all at once. We gots our paws crossed....

  3. Poor Jack...poor you. We sure hope he feels better soon.

  4. Wow, and I thought I was overwhelmed! Hope that Jack is right as rain soon and that your time at Barkworld is rejuvenating and fun!

  5. I'm sending lots of purrs to Jack. Poor guy - he really does have a delicate system. :-(

  6. Sending huge purrs and prayers Jack's way, hoping that the sweetie feels better quickly and all is resolved with his urinary system and that the healing of his dental goes well. Good thoughts and purrs to you Connie.

  7. We're purring that Jack feels better soon. What a sensitive system he has! We agree that Jack having his I-131 while you're away at Barkworld is a good idea. That way he's in a vet's care and you don't have to be Jackless for days.

    Before you finalize I-131 plans, ask what their protocol is if he gets blocked while in radiation isolation. The specialist I used for Rhett (ten years ago now, so take this with a grain of thought) had a protocol that if anything happened to cats while under I-131 quarantine, there was no medical intervention because their staff could not be irradiated by the cats for an extended time. I had to sign a document that I understood this fact as part of intake. That was why Rhett couldn't get a second I-131 round. The technology sounds like it has advanced a lot since then, though, so this may not be the case any more.

    1. thank you for mentioning it.. it is good to know going into it some different types of questions to ask..

    2. Oh that disturbs me - there are also protocols for handling patients who have been irradiated! Marty does it with humans all the time! aaargh.... HOWEVER, that vet might not have had a partnership in place - because I *can* see where a radiation therapist and a traditional e-surgeon would have completely different skill sets. And the Rad Tx would need to make himself available to consult with the e-surgeon to explain the safety protocols they'd need to put in place beyond standard surgical procedures (not that many, honestly, it's very doable). ::rant over::

    3. I've decided to take him to Angel that treats based on a scan and not on the weight of the cat or who gives a standard dose. They are also one of the few clinics that can handle cats with more than one medical issue.

  8. OH I feel terrible for both you and Jack. Not a lot worse than having your baby sick and in pain.

  9. I'm sorry this is happening. Thinking of you.

  10. Poor kitty. He's just having a hard time being a kitty. I hope he feels better soon.

  11. Sending purrs and prayers to you and Jack. So sorry you all are having to go through this.

  12. we are sending our best purrs for speedy healing.

    Emma and Buster

  13. Poor guy (and you too)! Sending happy and healing purrs!


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