Thursday 17 February 2011

Sick cat stress

 Warning - entirely cat related post
Me and my teddybear
What a week.
I've been dealing with a sick cat this week and it's really taken its toll. From staying up through most of the night on Sunday as I was so worried about him, to spending a stressful hour at the vet on Monday (happy Valentines day!), we then spent several hours wringing our hands waiting for blood test results after a trip to the emergency vet on Tuesday around midnight.
What?!
With a £160 charge before you even get through the door of the emergency vet, all I can say is 'thank God for pet insurance'. He's been in the vet's on a drip for 2 nights now and had every test you can imagine, including an ultrasound scan! The charges shot past £1200 last night and I honestly don't know what we would have done if we weren't insured.
If you have a pet and you don't have cover PLEASE get some. We're paying about £8 a month, so the cost has already more than paid for itself.
He does love to sleep
It looks as though he has an inflamed pancreas, so he should get better soon. He's still not well, though, and is having a feeding tube inserted so that we can get some food into him. All that said, he may be able to come home today and we can look after him ourselves, though the prospect of having to tube feed him is rather daunting.

Pet owners and animal lovers won't need any explanation of how I'm feeling right now, and non-animal lovers won't understand it even if I give one. Suffice it to say I've barely slept since Saturday night and am spending my days worrying about him.
How did you get so dirty?

Socks is a rescue cat and we've spent the best portion of his 18 months with us getting him to relax and trust us. He spent the first 3 months or so behind the sofa and was scared of everything and everyone. He's still a skittish cat but has recently relented to being picked up and stopped running away when the front door opens. I'm seriously worried about what this stay in the vets is going to do to him mentally.
I'm sure once we get him home things will improve, but right now I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by it all.

I am planning a couple of happy posts soon (and my apologies at the morose tone to this one), one being a general 'cheer us all up' post and the other being my first giveaway (welcome to my 100th and 101st followers!). Stay tuned!

13 comments:

  1. Oh I do hope the poor fellow is better soon - best wishes. xx

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  2. Poor poorly pushka!

    You may well find that this is the making of him when it comes to coming home. He will be SO grateful to be out of the vets and back to somewhere that he recognises - you may find you see a marked experience in his scardey cat behaviour. (i can completely sympathise - I have a scardy rescue too. I have had him since a kitten and he still bolts his food and looks at me as if to say "who the HELL are you!?!?" Silly fluffer)

    Hope he is home soon :)

    ps) loving the new template. I really must get myself something more jazzy :)

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  3. The poor dear, I hope he makes a swift recovery (and you can get a decent nights sleep) xx

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  4. I hope your poor mog feels better soon, and that you're able to relax again. (I have a one-eyed secondhand cat myself.)

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  5. Pets our are babies, how could we not worry ourselves sick over them. Hope he gets better soon and that you can take some time to take care of yourself.

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  6. Sending my best wishes for your poor kitty! One of ine was sick this week, and I know the worry that sets in.
    I hope he'll soon be home & back on track.

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  7. He does look a bit under the weather...good luck

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  8. Hope he is better soon! I have two resuce cats, both still nervy, and after years of putting up with me I'm not suprised!!!

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  9. The poor wee thing! I know exactly what you're going through and thank goodness for pet insurance. I do hope he gets well soon. I'm sure he'll be very happy to be home.

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  10. I do feel for you. The hardest thing is that sometimes, as a cat owner, we realize that even though money can buy every procedure known to man, that that doesn't mean that it is right or loving to extend a cats life by all possible means.

    We have rescue cats too. They are never quite alright, the poor mites, and some have a harder time than others. The only humane thing in some cases is to let them 'go' as every disturbing event (with visits to the vet scoring very high on the Most Stressful Things for a Skittish Cat) the poor souls just get more and more nervy.

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  11. Poor little one! I totally understand how worried you must be. Hope (for both your sakes) he'll recover soon!

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  12. What a cutie...I do hope he'll be O.K. I am now thinking that I definately SHOULD get pet insurance! I too have rescue cats. My little one came to me very mentally damaged, and last week, after 2 1/2 years of TLC, she purred for the first time, yay! x

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