Big Fat Animal Post
Oct. 28th, 2009 12:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylOh, what a week, what a week.
First Washburn the ferret started vomiting continuously. Tery rushed him to Alameda East, the hospital featured on Animal Planet's "Emergency Vets." They're closer than Tery's hospital; they're also a lot more expensive because they've got state-of-the-art everything, which Tery took comfort in. They thought he had an obstruction near his kidneys. How I prayed it was something the bird had thrown onto the floor, something that might secure her eviction. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of cotton, likely from the Q-tip the Kitten had been batting around the bathroom all week. I always say dogs are stupid, but ferrets sometimes equal them in sampling things you would never imagine any creature could mistake for food.
He came home a few days and $3000 later (thank god Tery gets a discount, though a smaller one than at her own hospital) for a day.
He's going as Frankenstein's monster for Halloween
Then we noticed a strange bump at the end of his incision. Back to the hospital he went (Tery's), where it turned out to be an abscess. A second one sprang up the following day, so he stayed almost the whole weekend. He's on antibiotics and doing fine now.
That was the good news. The bad news is Alsatia, our 17-year-old diabetic, arthritic, frequently incontinent cat with cataracts finally reached the end of her road. We woke up Sunday morning and she was stretched out unnaturally with labored breathing. We rushed her to the hospital (Tery's), where our doctor friend/co-worker very generously met us (two things that are indispensable in life: a mechanic you trust and, if you have pets, a good vet. And access to a vet hospital after hours is nice too, so a career in the vet industry. Making that I guess three things). She was severely hypothermic with dangerously low blood sugar. A dose of sugar seemed to snap her out of it instantly, but as we tried to rewarm her, it became obvious the shock was too great and she wasn't normalizing. We realized it was time to say goodbye.
It was very sad, but the silver lining is I got to dash about and retrieve items and help the doctor, proving to Tery that she actually doesn't pay me for nothing.
Just to put the Powers-That-Be on notice: We've had our share of medical emergencies this week. Move on to someone else, please.
I always appreciate it when people post terribly sad news and then disable comments, so I'm doing the same. I just want this in my journal for reference because it's the only way I can keep track of anything that happens in my life.
~*~
I'm not leaving it on a sad note, though. Following are some pics that make me happy:
After Alsatia, we weren't grieving enough to ignore our ravenous hunger, which was nicely satisfied at the new Five Guys burger joint that opened up nearby. Kitten (who despised Alsatia and isn't shedding many tears) wanted in on it too.
Minky can has cheezburger?
This one was taken with a very cool camera app I found for my phone, that creates those lomo effects I had forgotten about (you might also have noticed I've discovered how to put borders on my pictures). I'm quite pleased with this result, so expect to see more experiments in the future.
These kittens aren't ours, but this is another result (accidental) I liked:
Meo and Gaea (someone had copied their names onto the cage card as "Neo and Gaya," because those people can't handle the simplest of tasks)
First Washburn the ferret started vomiting continuously. Tery rushed him to Alameda East, the hospital featured on Animal Planet's "Emergency Vets." They're closer than Tery's hospital; they're also a lot more expensive because they've got state-of-the-art everything, which Tery took comfort in. They thought he had an obstruction near his kidneys. How I prayed it was something the bird had thrown onto the floor, something that might secure her eviction. Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of cotton, likely from the Q-tip the Kitten had been batting around the bathroom all week. I always say dogs are stupid, but ferrets sometimes equal them in sampling things you would never imagine any creature could mistake for food.
He came home a few days and $3000 later (thank god Tery gets a discount, though a smaller one than at her own hospital) for a day.
He's going as Frankenstein's monster for Halloween
Then we noticed a strange bump at the end of his incision. Back to the hospital he went (Tery's), where it turned out to be an abscess. A second one sprang up the following day, so he stayed almost the whole weekend. He's on antibiotics and doing fine now.
That was the good news. The bad news is Alsatia, our 17-year-old diabetic, arthritic, frequently incontinent cat with cataracts finally reached the end of her road. We woke up Sunday morning and she was stretched out unnaturally with labored breathing. We rushed her to the hospital (Tery's), where our doctor friend/co-worker very generously met us (two things that are indispensable in life: a mechanic you trust and, if you have pets, a good vet. And access to a vet hospital after hours is nice too, so a career in the vet industry. Making that I guess three things). She was severely hypothermic with dangerously low blood sugar. A dose of sugar seemed to snap her out of it instantly, but as we tried to rewarm her, it became obvious the shock was too great and she wasn't normalizing. We realized it was time to say goodbye.
It was very sad, but the silver lining is I got to dash about and retrieve items and help the doctor, proving to Tery that she actually doesn't pay me for nothing.
Just to put the Powers-That-Be on notice: We've had our share of medical emergencies this week. Move on to someone else, please.
I always appreciate it when people post terribly sad news and then disable comments, so I'm doing the same. I just want this in my journal for reference because it's the only way I can keep track of anything that happens in my life.
~*~
I'm not leaving it on a sad note, though. Following are some pics that make me happy:
After Alsatia, we weren't grieving enough to ignore our ravenous hunger, which was nicely satisfied at the new Five Guys burger joint that opened up nearby. Kitten (who despised Alsatia and isn't shedding many tears) wanted in on it too.
Minky can has cheezburger?
This one was taken with a very cool camera app I found for my phone, that creates those lomo effects I had forgotten about (you might also have noticed I've discovered how to put borders on my pictures). I'm quite pleased with this result, so expect to see more experiments in the future.
These kittens aren't ours, but this is another result (accidental) I liked:
Meo and Gaea (someone had copied their names onto the cage card as "Neo and Gaya," because those people can't handle the simplest of tasks)
