Saturday, May 8, 2010

24 hours in the animal madhouse


My Friday went something like this:

Day off work. Lily gagged a few times and threw up a tiny little bit of water during the day. So I am a little concerned.

1700 hours
Bring Franken-Kitty to the regular vet to get the drains taken out of his face. Ask the vet about Lily. Vet recommends trying her on some extra-bland food to see if that helps.

1900 hours
Feed Lily half a can of new food.

1930 hours
Lily starts retching and throws up her food in the back yard. I follow her around, trying to see what is going on. Is she pale? Is she breathing okay? Is she unsteady on her feet?

1935 hours
Turn around and see Monk finishing off his little after-dinner snack - the "Lily Smoothie." He must have been jealous because she had different food than he did. Either that or he was just trying to be helpful by cleaning it up for me.

2230 hours
Lily seemed fine after throwing up - good color, belly seems soft, no panting. So just kept an eye on her while she snoozes in the living room. She's licking her lips a lot and I hear gurgling stomach noises. Go over to pet her and she starts panting. She gets on her feet and starts to retch. She looks unsteady.

2235 hours
Get the shoes on and get her into the car. Drive to emergency vet.

2250 hours
Arrive at vet and Lily is panting and won't get out of the car. Get big, burly vet tech with a stretcher. I push her from behind and he scoops her up to put her on stretcher.

Okay, I'm getting bored with this whole time-line thing. The short version of the rest of the story was that I was up until 0400 hours.  That's 4:00 AM people.   They took X-rays and blood. Her blood work is fine. She is not bloating again (which can happen) but she is full of gas. They sent her home with two more medications.

I now feel like it was a little bit of an overreaction on my part (my bank account feels the same way.)  But I'd rather be safe.  Stomach surgery + vomiting = I'm going to worry.

Lily now has five different meds. It has become like one of those math logic problems:

If Lily has to take Pill A, 3 times a day, with no food or water 1 hour before or 1 hour after
AND
Pill B, 2 times a day, 10 minutes before any food
AND
Pills, C, D and E with food 2 times a day
AND
she's eating 1/2 can of special food, 6 times a day
AND
Franken-Kitty is wailing at the door every 5 minutes
AND
he needs liquid antibiotics 2 times a day which he hates...

At what hour of the day will Kathy break out the Mike's Hard Lemonade?
(Show your work.)

6 comments:

Bethany said...

Damn!
Go get a case of that stuff.
Holy Hell Kath.
Hang in there.
Your life is starting to sound like mine.

Ms. Moon said...

Happy Mother's Day! And yes- you are a mother. Lily's mother, among others. And what a good mother you are!

Suz said...

I would be doing the same thing
it's this thing called Love
have a drink for me

Anonymous said...

I was told there wouldn't be any math on your blog.

grasshopper said...

Sorry, Anon - we try to be well rounded here. Math, science, volunteer work, dog vomit - we have it all.

Dust off that abacus - next week we do quadratic equations by way of Citibank finance charges.

N2 said...

Goodness Gracious!
I just came over to say thanks for your Follow at ye blogge and Holy Hell was breakin loose over here.
I like to do math in my head but this one had my head spinning!! Sure hope the situation has improved. x0 N2