Month: August 2014

Things have been pretty great lately!  Kender got her stitches out last Thursday (5 days ago).  I went against “doctor’s orders” and took her cone off then, too.  My vet was on vacation and the other was in surgery when we went in, so the one vet I don’t like/trust looked at her incision before the techs removed her stitches.  She wanted me to keep her cone on because it was a little scabby still.  But you could tell by looking at it that the scabs were ready to come off.  They were mostly just held on by being stuck in the surrounding fur.  Plus she was starting to act really depressed the few days before getting the stitches out and hardly eating.  I think being cooped up AND not being able to groom herself was taking a toll on her.  So off went the cone and boy was she happy about it!  I put some coconut oil on the scabby parts a couple times a day to help.  Kender took care of them just fine.  There was only one spot that looked a little red underneath when the scab came off, but it wasn’t raw or bleeding or anything…just red.

The next day I let her into the backyard for a while.  Talk about a happy kitty!!  All she did was lay on the “sidewalk” in our side yard, soaking up the sun.  But she was chirping away and rolling around so happily before settling into a spot for a bit.  And I only checked on her every 5-10 mins to make sure she was safe.  I don’t know what I’m worried about, but feel the need to check on her to make sure she’s okay.  The dog will go peek around the corner at her every now and then too 😉  Good boy!  Now she cries pitifully at the back door a few times a day, begging to go out!

She claws her way up on the couch no problem now.  She hasn’t gotten back on the beds since that first time I posted about it.  But she didn’t get on the beds that often before either.  I made some makeshift steps up to where I had her food pre-amputation.  I have no idea if she’s getting up there to eat or not, though.  It’s lower than the couch, so she should be able to get there.  But just to be safe, I set her up there a couple times a day.  And when I find her napping in her recovery room, I’ll put the food in there and shut the door for an hour or so.  I can’t leave her food down with it open or the dog helps himself to a tasty treat!  Hopefully I’ll catch her eating in the other spot someday soon so I won’t have to worry about that anymore!

One thing I’m not crazy about, is she’s starting peeing on things again :/  She had that problem a few years ago.  After every possible solution I looked up failed and the vet made sure it wasn’t caused by health issues, we ended up putting her on Prozac for a while.  And it worked!  Then we weaned her off the Prozac and the only time it would become an issue would be the few times I neglected to clean the litter box for too long.  I’ve been even more diligent about the litter box since her surgery, scooping at least twice a day, so I don’t think that’s the problem now.  She’s also used the main, covered litter box a few times that I’ve seen for myself.  She’s peeing on anything left on the floor of the bathroom, which is right across the hall from the litter box.  So it can’t be that she doesn’t want to walk all the distance to the litter box…it would be the same distance to the bathroom as to the litter box.  I think it’s likely more psychological at this point.  In the meantime, I’m being extra diligent about nothing being on the floor in there.  I hope she doesn’t start doing it elsewhere if she can’t find anything to pee on in there.  Aside from how frustrating it is under normal circumstances, it frightens me if she ends up needing chemo, since the drugs pass through urine in the first 24-48 hours after treatment.  I have 2 small children and can’t have her peeing chemo drugs all over the house!  I should have the results from the immunohistochemical staining this week to confirm a diagnosis…trying to remain hopeful that amputation alone was sufficient treatment for whatever she has!!

I let Kender out of the room for most of today, still keeping the bedroom doors shut so she didn’t go hide under a bed.  But then I went in with my oldest for bedtime tonight.  A couple minutes later, as we’re settling in to read, Kender comes in and starts looking up at the bed.  I thought about just picking her up and putting her up there, then remembered that I’m trying to not be so overprotective!  Considered looking for something to make steps up, but figured she wasn’t going to wait for that.  She did a sort of practice jump…I could tell she wasn’t really trying…and we gave her a little encouragement.  She eyed it for a few more seconds, then up she came!  She mostly used her front claws to pull herself up, but she was doing that a little bit even before her surgery!

I had my phone there with me…why didn’t I think to catch it all on video?!  Darn it!!  But instead, here’s a cute pic of her all snuggled up in bed with my daughter (and all of her kitties…and Minnie hehe).

And as a side note, her fur has really started coming back in the last few days!  Hooray!

I was thinking it would be best for Kender to stay in the spare room until her stitches come out and her cone comes off.  But what do I know?  Throughout her recovery, she’s shown me how overprotective I am and have no idea what I’m doing haha

Over the last couple of days she’s tried (and sometimes succeeded) to escape the room.  Depending on conditions, I started letting her stay out for a while.  But need to make sure she can’t get injured by the other animals or the kids.  Also that she doesn’t let herself get stuck somewhere with her cone.

This morning she started meowing at the door shortly after she realized we were up.  She didn’t want my company…she just wanted out!  So I shut the bedroom doors (don’t want her under the beds or trying to jump onto them) and let her come out.  She seems to be very pleased about that!  She hasn’t even growled at Dalamar (our other cat) the whole time!  Even when he came over to sniff right in her face.  They have a love/hate sort of relationship 😉  He loves to antagonize her, and she hates it haha…they’ve agreed to coexist for their own sakes and occasionally (rarely) show affection for one another.

She spent most of her time in the dining room because she likes sunbathing there.  This afternoon I realized she wasn’t in there anymore and went looking for her.  Imagine my surprise when I found her on the couch!  She likely had help from the throw pillow on the floor and blanket hanging off the edge (thanks to the kids).  I guess a messy house can be useful at times 😛  Eventually, I had to move her back to the room so I could make dinner without worrying about the 1.5 year old hurting her…she’s still working on gentle hands.  Kender escaped afterwards though when the oldest checked on her and didn’t close the door well.  I discovered she was out by finding her back on the couch 😉  I’m a little bummed I missed her getting up there both times.

 

She’s doing so great!  I’m sure she’s capable of way more than I realize at this point.  It’ll be so great to get her stitches out in 3 days and ditch the cone for good.  Then she can really start getting back to “normal” life…with a little help getting to a few places she wants to go.

Wow…a week already?!  How can it feel like yesterday and forever ago that she had her surgery?  She’s doing so great, especially for an older kitty!  Kender’s age (14 years) was my biggest concern for her when learning she needed her leg amputated.  But she handled the surgery just fine and is doing well in recovery, too!  Yesterday, she started laying on her amputated side.  She still isn’t super active, but she wasn’t before either.  Kender has been a super lazy cat for years.  Plus, she’s in a boring room so there isn’t a whole lot for her to do anyway.  She tries to follow me out of the room about half the time and will sometimes try to get out if the door is left open while I’m in there.  Today, for the first time, she started meowing at the door after we left this morning.  🙁

Her walking has really improved over the last couple of days.  We had to vacuum her room today because she’s gotten litter all over the place.  I brought Kender out to the living room with me while hubby, Matt, vacuumed so as to not stress her out with the noise.  She seemed so happy about that, wandering around.  Of course, I was paranoid she was going to trip over one of the gazillion toys strewn about, but she did fine!  If we didn’t have two young kids, a dog and another cat to worry about bothering her, I’d let her come out now.  I really think it’s in her best interest to stay segregated until the stitches come out and the cone comes off though.

Since she seems pretty bored, we decided to get her a couple of toys at the store today.  Kender has never really been into toys, except as a kitten.  But the few she occasionally paid attention to in the past were those with feathers.  So we got her a stuffed bird with a feather tail and one of those obnoxious chirp sound things in it.  My daughter picked out one with a bunch of obnoxiously colored feathers on a string and a stick to play with her with.  She was more interested in that than the bird, but even still she only swatted at it a few times and tried to bite it.  I think she’s frustrated that the cone gets in the way 🙁  Maybe she’ll warm up to them over the next couple of days.

So, you’d think I would have learned from Fang’s experience, but it really didn’t seem like it would be THAT bad.  However, removing a fentanyl patch from your cat is not going to win you any points in their book, even if the area was shaved before applying it!  The vet said it needed to come off 5 days after surgery, but since we live so far away she would leave it up to me if I wanted to bring her in for removal or do it myself.  I figured Kender would rather stay home than be put in her crate and drove clear across town and back just to get it taken off.  I wasn’t too crazy about the idea either.  She let me know how to dispose of it safely (in a sealed bag, placed in the garbage outside where the kids or other pets had no way of accidentally getting hold of it) and that I needed to clean the sticky residue off as best I could after removing it.  Well even with the area shaved, some of the sticky bandage around the patch still got on her fur.  Even before I got to that point, she was unhappy with the odd sensation of unwrapping that super sticky stuff.  When I reached the last layer, I rubbed a bunch of coconut oil at the edges as I pulled it away from her skin/fur to help loosen the adhesive.  She was growling and kicking her leg the whole time…NOT a happy cat.  She actually ripped the last of it off herself but yanking her leg away from me.  Then I had to “torture” her more by rubbing a bunch of coconut oil on the area with a washcloth to help remove the rest of the adhesive.  By the end of it, she had coconut oil all over herself and I’m not sure if I got all the stickies off or not.  So I’ll check in the morning and if not, I’ll head to Walgreens for some medical adhesive remover (I had no idea this was a thing before reading about patch removal).

This morning, she had her cone pushed most of the way back.  While all of her stitches are still intact, I can tell she got at the one furthest back/closest to her tail.  I bought one of the inflatable donut types today, but can’t find her collar anywhere to use with it!  Had the idea to use some gauze tied around in place of the collar, but would risk waking the baby to go get it.  But then I remembered the soft cones I saw today at the pet store had 4 rigid supports spaced evenly around them and got the (hopefully) genius idea to just make my own sturdy supports to attach to Kender’s soft cone so that she can no longer fold it down.  Waiting for hubby to get home from work for his assistance with it and will let you know how it turns out!

UPDATE:  Cone modifications seem to be a success so far!  Used some hard plastic straws from old sippy cups on either side of the cone.  Still comfy, but can’t be pushed back.  Hooray!

Normally, I’d feel like a weirdo getting so excited about this, but I know you fellow tripawd pawrents will understand.  This morning there was poop in the litter box!  Her first one since surgery!  (Sorry, Sally…no pics haha)

We took the crate down this morning so now she has the whole room to roam around in.  I put a box with a blanket in there in case she wants to hide.  Then put a couple other things for her to lay on around the room.  She never once tried to get out of the crate, but she’s already tried to make a break for it out of the room twice today!

This morning, she was actually sitting up normally!  Before she would have her front paws up to support her, but keep her hip kind of rolled to the good side.  She seems to be doing a lot better at walking around, although she still sometimes struggles to get up and get her back leg underneath herself.

This afternoon, I checked on her and she’d gotten part of her cone folded over!  Thankfully it was on the side opposite her stitches.  But of course, I’m super paranoid now that she’s going to get the whole thing folded down when I’m not around.  Hopefully, she behaves herself.  But I won’t hold my breath.

 

I didn’t give Kender any Buprenex last night since she seemed to be doing well all day with only her fentanyl patch, but I think that may have been a mistake.  This morning she wasn’t even trying to get up to walk…she just dragged herself with her front legs.  So I gave her a dose this morning.  When I spent time with her this afternoon, she was more mobile.

I took her out of the crate while I supervised her.  She seemed to be happy about that and walked around a little, but mostly just wanted pets.  Tomorrow I will for sure take the crate out and let her have some more freedom.

She seems to be getting back to her old self a little more.  She’s always had a crazy thwappy tail, but she hasn’t thwapped it around after her surgery until today.  Normally, it’s kind of annoying…but it was nice to see today!

Today was a pretty good day!  Kender still isn’t moving around a whole lot, but I think that’s better for her so early on.  She’s getting lots of healing rest.  I might get rid of the crate tomorrow and just give her free reign of the room. Her pain seems to be controlled really well with the fentanyl patch.  The first night home the vet suggested giving her the Buprenex also to make sure she wasn’t in pain and then to watch for signs of pain after that.  She has seemed ok, but I’ve been giving her a dose before I go to bed at night to be sure she isn’t in pain during the night when there’s no one to notice.

She’s eating lots of dry food now and totally ignored the wet stuff I brought her today.  Drinking a good amount of water too.  She’s such a weird cat…never really been into cat treats and will very rarely eat any sort of people food that most cats would like (fish, chicken, etc.)  I guess that’s better for her at this point…I have to spoil her with pets instead of fattening treats 😉

She tracked litter all over her main blanket.  When I moved her to the other one to shake it out, she immediately got up to walk back to me for more pets haha  I got a quick video of part of it and uploaded it to my fb.  But I can’t figure out how to embed it in the post like I can with my pictures, but you can click here to view it.  She also tried climbing into my lap last night, but got confused when it came to getting her back foot up on me.

While I was in petting her tonight, I folded her cone down.  After about 10-15 mins she very sneakily reached around and started licking at her stitches!  I stopped her right away, which she was quite cranky about, and put her cone back up.  But she was determined and reached right back around and started trying to lick through her cone.  Silly kitty!  Then she tried to trick me into thinking she was trying to groom her tail.  Folded her cone back down a tiny bit so she could and she went straight back to the stitches…and gave me another grumpy growl when I stopped her.  Sorry Kender…it’s better than getting stitches redone at the emergency clinic tonight!  I hope she isn’t sneaky enough to get her cone folded down when I’m not around to notice.

Today was our first day post amputation.  And I’m happy to say there isn’t a whole lot to report 😀 No news is good news, right?

When I checked on Kender this morning, her blanket was dry and there was pee in her little box.  Hooray!  No more accidents.

She wasn’t much interested in her dry food and only ate a few pieces.  I usually never buy wet food, but got her some as a special treat.  She scarfed some up when I took it to her this morning.  She wasn’t quite as interested this afternoon or tonight, but she did eat some.

She’s always happy to get pets whenever I go in to check on her.  She even enjoyed pets from the kiddos 😉  My oldest (almost 6) is concerned about her and wants to check on her 24/7.  I have to keep reminding her that the best thing for Kender right now is lots of rest, so we need to leave her alone most of the time.

I expanded her enclosure tonight also so that she has more room to try moving around in.  I plan to get rid of it in the next couple of days, but we’ll she how she’s doing when the time comes.  Her incision looks great to me!  The little pooch in her belly below her incision looks a little bigger to me today.  I know those fluid type pockets are normal after surgery, so I’m not concerned at this point.  Will be sure to keep an eye on it to be safe, though.