It's been a "Pussy" Day...

Oh Yes...it has been one of those days yesterday!

One of those Saturdays with your appointments carefully scheduled 30 mins apart...and then having emergencies coming one after the other.

But that's ok...that's why I am at the clinic for, right? What was worth blogging though is that I had 4 kitty cases, each interesting in its own way:

Mimi - 7 yr old black queen; cutest cross-eyed kitty ever; with several other jaw deformities. Product of an incestual mishap between brother and sister. Owners love her though; she's been around vet clinics here and most vets have called for euthanasia for the drastic liver tumour she has. Then last month,they brought me Mimi...severely distended abdomen; bloodwork and primary assessment showed that she was still compensating and maintaining and we all happily opted for chemotherapy + some hepatoprotectors..2 shots now and last time I saw her tumour had decreased in size but yesterday I received a panicked phone call from owner - Mimi had a bloated, hard abdomen and was not eating loads.Rushed her in, straight away and fortunately it was just a bloated stomach.But my prognosis still stays guarded for her.

By that time Frisquette was in the waiting room for staples removal from a nasty wound supposedly caused by a door slamming shut on the tail...but the extent and the location (very base of the tail and dorsal) seem to point out that this kitty had been hit with a stick or something. When it came 10 days ago, tail was limp and wound was purulent and maggot infested!Being hit was one thing but being left to that state was something else...and owner heard it from me! She promised me that the maid was gonna hear from her...Lol! As if the maid was responsible...
Anyways, yesterday Frisky presented with a clean wound and had regained 90% control of her tail. Good news then! I am so not into amputating tails!

Went out for the 10:00 dog vaccine appointment but owner was late and I took in a lady sitting quietly with a covered basket on her lap. I always like to play that guessing game : "Hmmmm...what is gonna come out of this basket/bag?" and I have been surprised several times!Iguana,Duck,Tortoise, Tenrec...I've had it all. This time it was a wide-eyed pussy, visibly in shock, that had been run over by a car. First thing that caught my attention was the blood tinted urine patch on the bedding sheets in the basket. Blood-tinged body fluids coming out of animals is always bad news and this one indicated bladder and possibly other internal organ damage! Quick assessment revealed simple diaphyseal fracture of right femur. Animal seemed fit enough to be anaeasthetised and here I was going into complicated emergency orthopaedic surgery...Experience has taught me that the sooner you go in and immobilise these broken bones, the quicker is recovery and less likely is permanent muscle and nerve damage.
In my early days, I would place comfort bandages, give pain killers and wait for swelling to regress before attempting any immobilisation...by which time, the broken bone fragments would be moving, cutting more muscle fibrils, damaging nerves and blood vessels. So I went in, dissecting between muscle groups, exteriorising bone fragments and kitty went home with a stainless pin holding bones in place. "Six-million Dollar Pussy" for those of you old enough to know the famous 70's series.Still have to see how this bleeding bladder reacts though.

Proper exhausted...considering that I work alone and that I have had a head-on start at 07:30 am with a complicated surgery on a 14 year old fighter kitty named Xena. Now that's a pussy with a story!Xena was bouncing around on the exam table, exploring everything, sniffing and swaying tail etc...nothing but normal happy kitty behaviour huh? Except that she had an enormous belly, the size of a football!! Never seen a kitty with such a huge belly and more so behaving so normally! As if that wasn't enough to make her special, listen to this now:
14yrs ago, the actual owner was studying in Montpellier, France, and during one of his strolls with friends he saw a man throw a bag in a river and run away...Driven by curiosity they pulled the bag out and found three kittens, 2 drowned already and one survivor...Baby Xena! So, she was brought back to Mauritius, went through hell at the local quarantine station and lived a happy life until 2 months ago her belly started to "grow"!
Once again, been around seeing different colleagues; was prescribed diuretics, antibiotics, antiinflammatories, vitamins...then when "something" started coming out her vagina, a colleague told them to go see me..Lol!I learnt all that during surgery...
Yes...you all must know me by now...Kitty with normal vitals, distended abdomen, pus coming out of her vagina...I would not waste time waiting for a miracle; I go in and find out what I can do to relieve that poor soul. I got the usual: "Try your best Doc, she is like a member of our family"...You bet she was...With such a history behind! But these comments always make me smile...as if, if it was a regular alley cat, I would not try my best!Lol!
So here I was, pulling out a gynormous pus-filled uterus from that abdomen before ligating and excising it all off.Hmmmm..I wonder why these vitamins and antiinflammatories were not working at all! lool!
Owner and Dad were both gloved and in surgery room so I handed the WISELY CLAMPED uterus in a tray to the dad who, as soon as I turned my back removed my clamps and handed them to me...The MESS!!!Pus all over the floor now...and not a few mls...a whole tray-load of it! While he cleaned the mess I went on closing abdomen and since owner was now "stable" enough I asked him how he came to me etc...After my colleague gave him my name, he said he...Googled me! Loool!Who on earth googles vets!??!Hahaha! But I was surprised to learn how much is out there on the web, apart from the journalistic crap on PAWS-L'eglise Chretienne-Monkeys.He loved the articles about doggies, about my fight to stop euthanasia by electrocution of strays etc..
Then I had to ask the crucial question: " Did you ever put your kitty on hormonal heat suppression?" The answer came as no surprise..."Yes". I don't know why these pills are still on the market, considering the amount of cats and dogs that end up with life threatening pyometra with them. In a nutshell...the hormone in them (progesterone)triggers cyst formation in the uterine walls and keep the cervix open...Gateway for bacteria to move up from the vagina into the uterus and fester on the fluids from these cysts. Owners see that as a quick fix; vets prefer to use these pills to keep the customers coming in regularly for them (as opposed to spaying one time).I saw his face, as he realised that he himself endangered the life of his precious kitty and had to say: "Of course, you did not know...but do tell other people about that...you might save a life"

Today, Xena came again for check up and I was happy to see her crisp and lively as ever and the ownwers relieved and smiling. For all those of you who were expecting something else from "It's been a Pussy day"...Tsk Tsk Tsk! I was just talking about a lot of felines and pus!

Not me!! Not Sam!! Loool! Dirty minds!