I haven’t posted on this part of the forum before but It’s been a really rough couple of weeks I’m feeling rather delicate and I guess I’m hoping for a bit of a hand hold, some reassurance, positive outcomes some useful suggestions? I’m sorry its very long winded but hopefully not hard to read / follow.
My beautiful boy is such a gentle soul, a registered therapy cat and previously has worked as a blood donor because he’s just so chill.
Just over 6 weeks ago he was sadly hit by a car, he made it back home but suffered a broken pelvis & broken jaw. The vets wired his jaw and said his pelvis seemed fairly stable so they felt it would heal fine on 6 weeks of crate rest.
Just under 2 weeks into crate rest it became apparent that he wasn’t coping so well with confinement, he was over grooming his tail making it patchy and developing sore spots that were bleeding. I called the vets and they advised to increase his gabapentin from 2 to 3 times a day. This seemed to help and at his check up a few days later the sore bits had scabbed over indicating he was leaving them alone and they agree he can also have 5-10 minutes a day out of his crate provided I can ensure he doesn’t jump onto anything to try and help. As time went on this behaviour started again and I asked about alternative drugs but was constantly told there wasn’t really anything, that gabapentin was the go to in cats for anxiety and sedation and he was already on a high dose. So I just made sure he wasn’t pestering it when I was at home. Eventually he just had one sore bit the others had healed so I’d just clean it with hibi. With just a couple of days to go until ‘freedom’ it only looked like a graze, not deep so I wasn’t concerned just counting down to release day knowing it would then just scab up nicely and heal. Enrichment options have been limited because not only do we need to be careful about movement but he was also on a liquid diet and a lot of cat enrichment seems to centre around play & food! I was spraying Feliway on his bed and playing him classical music. The vets had no better suggestions.
Last Thurs (The day before he was due back at the vets for repeat x-rays & wire removal), I get a call at work from my teenage son telling me that half the cats tail is missing, theres quite a bit of blood and he thinks he can see bone. I literally grabbed my car keys and ran out of work to go get him and get him straight to the vets. He has quite literally chewed off 50% of his tail! Outcome is he’s going to need most of the remainder of his tail amputating, but its ok because off crate rest it’ll be all good! Only a few hours later I get a call off the vet telling me that his jaw is ok, wire is out but sadly his pelvis is quite displaced and has not healed as well as hoped at this point but the orthopaedic vets says its not at a point where they feel surgical intervention is the only option but he will need at least another 4 weeks crate rest. She wants to know whether we think we can get him happily & safely through another 4-6 weeks crate rest, if yes she’ll happily do the amputation but if not do we euthanise instead? Knowing he was literally on the operating table and she needed an answer ‘right now’ was stressful, I didn’t have time to really go away and think it through properly. The vet said she could give him additional sedatives to help keep him calm and now he can eat I felt enrichment opportunities had increased some so I told her to go ahead and do the amputation.
I borrowed a bigger crate to give him more room, I ordered and installed a scratch mat which they said would be ok. I got licki mat, a treat dispenser and a catnip lick. Everything was just so all consuming and once I finally managed to stop crying and flapping and just stop to take a breath I just had this awful gut feeling that I’d made the wrong choice for him but its too late now, so I’m determined we are going to get through this.
He comes home that evening and I’m told he’ll need to wear a cone. I pop him in the crate and pop the cone on. He does not like the cone and goes ballistic throwing himself around the crate, falling over, trying to pull it off with his front paws, kick it off with his back. I panic he’s going to do himself more damage. I take off the cone and pop on his lead and harness and he instantly settles. I give him a sedative (trazodone), I give him some Dreamies and some food which he lies down to eat. I decide to put us a movie on to watch whilst we wait for the drugs to kick in hoping we can then get his cone on without drama. He lies next to me and settles. 5 minutes later out of the blue its like he’s been electrocuted, he goes from lying to literally all four feet off the ground, he lands and jumps back, so I take hold of his harness asking him whats up when he launches into an attack on me. I couldn’t get him off and had to scruff him to get him to release and get him back into his crate. Theres (my) blood everywhere, I go scrub my wounds with hibi then go back to the crate to remove his harness and put his cone back on and he just lies down and goes to sleep!
I spend the next afternoon (Sat) in A&E because some of my bites are deep, very painful and they look like they could be becoming infected. They give me a 3 day course of 2 different antibiotics (one of which is in the same family as one I don’t tolerate well but they tell me it isn’t). They give me a tetanus jab (with diphtheria and polio thrown in) so then my other arm bloody hurt too, and sent me on my way. My boss is great and says I can take emergency annual leave for Mon & Tues to help with my hand and get me through to our post op follow up.
Sunday cat starts with diarrhea, possibly because of new meds but he doesn’t want me going near his tail / back end and I’m wary now injured so that made cleaning him up a challenge!
Monday night I start to become pretty unwell, until this point I’ve been sleeping on my super uncomfortable sofa so I can keep a close eye and be able to get to him quickly if needed. This has done me and my bad back no favours, so him having mostly just slept I decide the drugs are working and I should actually go to bed. I have a camera on him that pings my phone if he moves so I can check if I need to go down. I had an awful night and morning, cat was due at the vets in the afternoon and I had to get my mum to take us as I felt so unwell. Not sure if I’m ill because of antibiotics or infection, vet says she would get seen again asap so the Dr agrees to fit me in as urgent in an hour, my mum takes me, cats stump is healing well so far, she gives probiotics and wants him back next week. Apparently the only other antibiotics listed for cat bite use are another one that are related to ones I don’t tolerate well but haven’t had before so we’ll see. I’m told I don’t have a temp so I’m not dying! I’m told they are supposed to make you ill, its not an adverse reaction but a known effect because they wipe out good bacteria too and to go drink a bloody probiotic! If I get worse / develop a fever (pretty sure I had one monday night) or the red spread towards my elbow go to A&E for IV antibiotics where I can then moan about getting diarrhea too!
Get to this morning I end up calling in sick and am told this will now be a trigger point for absence and this afternoon cat is less sleepy than he has been, he has has worked out he can manage to get to his stump even with the cone on so I have even less peace of mind and feel even less like I can leave him in-supervised. He won’t stop pacing and crying he’s been at it for about 2 hours. His treat dispenser kept him happy for all of 5 mins, my crawling in the crate and sitting with him giving him fuss kept him happy for 5 minutes. I feel so unwell and on top of all my symptoms I now have thrush and a painful lump in my throat when I swallow. I just want to lie down and be able to relax or to curl up and die. I’ve just given cat his trazodone (he can only have one dose every 24 hours) hoping it kicks in soon!
On top of all this I’ve pretty much maxed out my credit card on his care and apparently ran a red light rushing him to the vets that I’m being done for and my son is struggling with his health (whole other thread on that).
I’m normally very much a ‘you just need to suck it up and crack on’ & ‘no point crying over spilt milk’ kind of person and take things as they come / in their stride but I’ve gotta say that since the tail incident last Thurs my mental health is literally through the floor, I can’t stop crying, I can’t stop thinking maybe I made the wrong choice but at the same time I don’t want to lose him, we’ve come such a long way! If I felt up to going back to work physically mentally I’m literally terrified of leaving cat unattended where I can intervene when he gets to his stump or try distract him a bit. Just the thought of is terrifyingly gut wrenching, has me in tears and making me think I’ll throw up, I’ve literally sat crying my eyes out whilst writing this. Whilst my only real friend and people at work have been really understanding so far I think they are probably really thinking I’m taking the piss now and I’m being melodramatic.
The shocking thing is, I work with animals for my job, making welfare decisions and giving good advice is so much easier when there isn’t quite the same level of emotion attached and you have a clear head!
If you made it to the end you’re a legend!
Any tips gratefully recieved.