stiltfox: seananmcguire: Yesterday, following another decline in the night and an emergency x-ray, T
stiltfox:seananmcguire:Yesterday, following another decline in the night and an emergency x-ray, Thomas was admitted to the emergency veterinary surgical clinic, where an ultrasound confirmed that a foreign mass was completely blocking his lower intestine, rendering him unable to defecate or absorb nutrients from any food he managed to consume. When he did drink, the liquid couldn’t get through his digestive system to be processed into urine, and was backing up and causing him extreme discomfort, which is why he’d stopped drinking. He was severely dehydrated, and had lost a total of nine pounds.All of this was considered BEST CASE SCENARIO in terms of how quickly we caught it and started reacting, by the way. When a cat–even a very healthy, vigorous cat–begins to crash, they can crash extremely fast, and very conclusively.The doctor took us into a room, and said, with that face that means “this is where I see a lot of good pets die,” that the surgery would be very expensive, with no guarantees. I said fine. She said, “no, I have to tell you this, you can’t just agree,” and informed me that the estimate for the surgery and aftercare would be in the neighborhood of $8,000. And that’s after the $1,500 or so we’d already spent on x-rays and fluids and medication and anything the vets told us to try because please don’t let my baby die. So yeah, there were some sharp breaths.And I handed her my credit card and told her to save my cat. Because that is what had to be done.Thomas went into surgery last night, and came out about forty-five minutes later. There was no necrosis; they were able to remove the obstruction (an impacted hairball) and sew him back up without complications. He isn’t out of the woods yet, but given that yesterday morning, the vet was telling me that it might be time to start managing my expectations regarding his survival, I will take it.I am so grateful right now for everyone who bought my books in 2016, or supported my Patreon, or in any way made it possible for me to save my cat. I thought my mother–who raised three daughters on welfare, who made some veterinary care choices behind closed doors that I will never, ever ask her about–was going to cry, because for her, “$8,000″ is the moment where she would have had to say “that is groceries for a year, I am so sorry, I can’t.” And thanks to everyone out there, I could. I could save him. Or at least I could try.It will be a little while before we know anything. I have hope again. (I also have a PayPal, because holy shit, $8,000 is a lot of money: if you’d like to throw a few bucks my way, it’s at [email protected]. If you can’t, that’s fine too. Look at my boy. He has a chance again. That’s better than money.)My poor, sweet, good boy. I am praying, so hard, that he comes home.Guys, this is my favorite author, and her cats are her world. I’ve fallen in love with these furbeasts through stories and pictures. $8k is a LOT of money, and authors don’t make much.Buy books. Donate a dollar or two. We love cats. We can do this.Seanan McGuire is one my all-time favorite authors. If you’re not already reading her books, now would be a fantastic time to start. -- source link
#animal injury#veterinary stuff#signal boost