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Purrs for Natasha
Sat, 04 Mar 2006 20:33:39 -0500 rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
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Jeanne Hedge...
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FOOD WARNING! This subject of this message may turn you off your food,
so don't read while eating! Natasha gave me a bit of a fright Friday night. Around dinner time I came across evidence she'd thrown up food a couple times earlier (no idea how much earlier). Through the next few hours she also threw up clear liquid, sometimes with a little froth. To me this meant she had a hairball she was having trouble getting up, as this has been the case in the past. The fright came when I realized that not only was she drooling quite a bit, she was also having full body contractions every couple minutes while trying to have a BM but wasn't getting anywhere with that. polonca12000...
I tried to help her relax, thinking that might ease things along, but no luck. And so after a couple more hours of this, and me thinking she might hurt herself with all the straining, and a short phone conversation with TED, we made a nighttime visit to his office. He took one look, grabbed the gloves and the K-Y jelly, and inserted one finger. I don't think I've ever seen such a large ball of fecal material emerge from such a small creature - quite literally a "stopper". The vet said that a younger cat would have probably eventually passed it, but given her relative strength due to her age it wasn't too likely she'd have done it on her own. So Natasha got an enema to clear her out (she had a couple other large-ish plugs in the pipeline that he had to extract manually), fluids for dehydration, a shot of something for any nausea (the vet said he didn't know that she had that, but it was likely because he'd certainly be after throwing up that much!), and something else to help soften anything else remaining. Then he cleaned her up (a nice guy!), and then listened to her heart (concerned about any strain from the straining). He said that things sounded good, then gave her a pat and added "poor little thing, you just wore yourself out, didn't you?" Today Natasha has been pretty much hanging around in her bed, snoozing off and on. She hasn't had much interest in food, but has been drinking and paid a couple visits to the litter box. I suspect she's got some very sore muscles today! So a few spare purrs for Natasha to feel better soon! (or at least *eat* something in the next 24 hours or so!) Marina...
Adrian...
Jeanne Hedge, as directed by Natasha ============ polonca12000...
mlbriggs...
glsummer...
Sam...
Karen...
polonca12000...
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