Stormy's Surgical Adventure!

So last night I hear Stormy hacking, look over, and she's got about 1 foot of a 3 foot string hanging out of her mouth, all covered in slimy goo. I called the emergency number, cut off the bit sticking out, and she threw up again (this time no string) so they told me to bring her in. I got her to the clinic (she was acting normal now) and waited in the waiting room 4 hours. Then I waited in the exam room another hour.

The doctor came in, decided we need to do an X-Ray to see if there's any sign of damage to the intestine or not yet. At this point, she's had enough. She fights them so hard they have to use gas to sedate her (can't get near enough for needles) for the X-Ray.

The X-Ray shows a lot of gas bubbles throughout her intestines, some of which are normal, but that many indicates that the string has already begun to twist up and tie off parts of her intestine, thus trapping the gas. At this point, there's a slim chance she'll pass the string ok, and a very good chance that she won't. If she doesn't pass the string ok, a whole lotta very bad things can happen, all of which involve either extremely long-term recovery, or death. I decide to do the surgery ASAP, since there are no serious problems currently (no sign that the intestine has been breached yet) it seems like the smart thing to do.

At 2am they do the surgery, I'm at home trying to either pull an all-nighter, or set up enough alarm clocks to feel safe getting some sleep. I end up going for sleep. At 4am I get a call from the surgeon, everything went very well, the string was already bound up in the stomach and would definitly have caused one of the serious injury/death scenarios within 24-48 hours, but he was able to get it all out through just 1 incision in her stomach.

At 7am I go in to pick her up, and take her to the regalar vet to be watched for the rest of today, she's having trouble regulating her body temp but that is normal for a cat of her dainty size recovering from surgery (not enough fat on her for her to self-regulate). If all goes well, she'll be home tonight, and back to normal in a day or two. Stomach incisions heal ridiculously fast, and I've already seen signs that she's mentally as sharp as ever.

Total bill will run about $1200, maybe a little more depending on how much today's observation costs. She's lucky I've been saving up for the move to Seattle. And I'm lucky to have someone like Pat who's first reaction was to offer any/all assistance I should ever need to make sure the move happens anyway. Well, after he'd finished expressing proper concern and confidence that Stormy will be ok :)

I'll post more here as soon as I have news, including pics of Ornery once I get her home!




EDIT: Update: The vet she's with just called, they said she's a little dehydrated, they're continuing the pain medication therapy, and her temp is a little low. Bottom line, they can fix her, but she'll be staying with them at least until tomorrow morning. I'll go visit her after work tonight, see how she's doing, take some pics, etc. They also mentioned that she seems anorexic (being only 4lbs 13oz at a year and a half old) but I think that's bunk. Someday maybe I'll do the bloodwork to prove that there's nothing wrong, but not right this minute like they wanted (I think they're digging for money).