Tuesday, May 17, 2011

the worst week ever vol. 1: sad kitty

Last Tuesday morning we woke up to my poor baby kitty, Harley Quinn, vomiting. I didn't think much of it because, hey, she's a cat and occasionally eats some non-food item (the vet called it a "dietary discretion") that causes her gastric distress. Unfortunately, this behavior continued, not only throughout the day, but the night and next day as well. Things started getting scary when it became obvious that she couldn't even keep water down and had not used the litter box in several hours.

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Corban decided to take her to an emergency vet on Wednesday night. We ended up waiting there until past midnight, just to learn that her blood work came back clean and nothing showed up on the x-rays. They advised us to take her to a "real" vet if her symptoms continued, which, of course, they did.

This is how we found the coolest vet in the Dallas area. Dr. Block at Cottonwood Animal Clinic is the sweetest, most invested doctor I have ever met. He seems genuinely concerned for Harley's well-being. He did some doctor things that I will not go into here, ended up cutting open her stomach and found that her gall bladder was super inflamed. She later passed a bunch of bile, immediately after which she started feeling better.

We know that she felt better because she went from being sweet and compliant to trying to tear Dr. Block's face off. I picked her up yesterday and was so gratified and touched to find that she recognized my voice and face. When the vet tried to handle her, she was hissing and growling, but as soon as I started talking to her she meowed pitifully and snuggled close to my chest. She's home recovering now, no vomiting and with a renewed appetite. She is napping in my lap as I type.

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Her shaved tummy and bandages look so silly, and are really freaking out her sister Ivy (a day later and she's still growling at poor Harley.) Still, she's got her spunk back and will get her bandages off on Friday, then her stitches next Wednesday, if all goes well.

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Dr. Block was almost as happy as me to hear today that Harley is eating and seems to be better. We're still watching her, but I feel that after the crap storm that was last week, things are genuinely looking up. I'm just so grateful to have found such a great doctor and so so happy to have my baby back home and getting healthy.

I took a little video to show off my battered, but happy family (more about Corban in my next post.) I love these beings. 


Welcome Home, Harley! from Shertown Studios on Vimeo.

3 comments:

  1. AWWWWW. I'm not even a cat person, but this post made me swoon/ feel sad. GET BETTER SOON, KITTY KITTY!

    That video is way adorable, too.

    QUIRKYEXPLOSION.blogspot.com

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  2. yay for kitty recovery! wish our fatty would have something genuinely wrong with him...he vomits all the time and nothing is showing up. must be that 'great' vet we have :(. the best things i've found about worst weeks ever is that the following weeks could only get better and that perhaps someone else is ALWAYS having it worse. our events seem to have parallels too! Jeff was in an accident just yesterday and our new kitten had some new kitten gunk wrong with her... c'est la vie i suppose ;p. wishing you better weeks to come!

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  3. Celia - I hope Jeff and your new kitty are ok!! :( It's seems that everything always goes wrong at once, but you're right, I'm happy just knowing that things are so much better than they could have been.

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