Tia the Tripod Cat

We had dropped Tia off at the vet on Wednesday for her surgery.  The vet called in the afternoon to let us know she had done fine, and they were going to keep her for 1 to 2 days.     The next morning, the vet called again and said Tia had done fine overnight, but that she was very frightened and could we come pick her up early?    Luckily I am working night shift right now, so I headed to the vets office to collect our new tripod kitty, or as we are calling her:  Tiapod.

I get to the vet’s office and she comes out and explains she would normally like to keep Tia longer, but she is so stressed in the kennel in the back, that it would be better for her to go home early.    Instructions are given for pain medication followed in three days by a nerve pain medication.    Then the big moment – they bring Tia out.    I steel myself, but Tia comes out and is laying on her surgery site, so not too bad.   The vet looks at her and laughs and says the pain medicine must be working well.    While they are getting my account ready to pay out, I open the cage and say hello to Tia.   She is glad to see me and works her way to flipping over to her other side.    First sight of the surgery wound – not that bad, actually.    The stitches were neat, and there was some bruising, but not too scary at all.

I take her home and let her out of her carrier into the prepared master bedroom.  She immediately runs/hops/crawls under the bed (oops, forgot to block that off) and hides.    She hasn’t eaten for the day yet, so I walk out to the kitchen and prepare her some canned cat food.   I come around the corner to bring it to her, and who do I find?  Tia!  She has crawled out from under the bed and hobbled down the hall for the prospect of food.     I am impressed – I didn’t think she would be mobile so fast.

Here she is one day post-operation.

I let her eat – and she happily eats the whole portion then drinks some water.   Awesome!    I then attempt to put a veterinary surgical recovery suit I had bought on her to try and eliminate the cone of shame since that is so stressful for her.   I get the shirt part on, but without the leg, the pants part won’t go on straight.  In the (mild) struggle with the pants, Tia loses the bandage on her IV paw and now she is bleeding.    Pet parent fail for the day, sigh.    I give up on the suit and take it back off her.    I re-apply the gauze and medical wrap over the IV wound and snap an e-collar on.     Oh well.

Tia hobbles over to one of the many cat beds in the room and lies down.   But now every time I come in the room, she is sure I am taking her BACK to that horrible place (the vet) and hobbles under the bed.    I leave her be for a few hours hoping she will calm down and come out.

I check on her a few hours later and she is still under the bed.   Its now pain medicine time, so I have to half coax/half scruff her to get her out from under the bed.    Pet parent fail again.    I give her the pain medicine (liquid, tastes very bad, apparently) and put her on my lap for some petting time.    She immediately starts purring and relaxes into my lap – nice!    I am even able to ice her wound for 10 minutes per the vet instructions.    I then place her in a bed and she settles down a bit.

I have to head to work, so the night shift is covered by my husband.   He came home and she immediately hobbled under the bed again.   STILL convinced we are taking her back to the vet.    Sigh.  He got her to come out for a little bit, and felt sorry for her and took her cone off.    She rubbed his hand, then said “sucker!” and ran under the bed without the collar.     (She will not leave surgical wounds alone unfortunately, she has to have the collar or something)

She stays under the bed all evening, but he is able to coax her out once for her evening pain medicine.    Then straight back under she goes (still without the collar).    I get home and half coax/half scruff her back out and we get the collar back on.   Whew.    I put her on the bed with me and she happily snuggles and goes to sleep next to me.    Sometime during the night, she got up and hopped off the bed and used the box (yay!) and ate dinner, which she hadn’t touched.

DAY 2 POST OP

I get up late the next morning and she is back under the bed.      She has a bit of a panic attack under the bed where she tried to pull the collar off and then went into “crocodile rolls” trying to gain her footing.   Coax/scruff her out, but can tell she is hurting today and overdue for her pain medicine.   I have GOT to fix the under bed access today.

I put her next to me in the bed and she sleeps a little bit.   When she falls asleep, she starts getting numerous twitches/muscle spasms all along her body.   Way more than “normal” cat dreaming.   Anytime she wakes up, it turns into a panic attack where she tries to pull the collar off and does more crocodile rolls.    Its hard.    I take the collar off, but that doesn’t seem to help – she appears to be reacting to the loss of the leg mobility or something in addition to the collar.    Collar goes back on and I keep an eye on her.    The pain meds eventually kick in and she starts purring and seems to be more relaxed.    She eats a few bites of breakfast, but not much.    Can’t win them all, I suppose.

She lays down in the corner of the room (NOT under the bed) and I take the opportunity to block off the under bed area with some scrap wood, pillows, etc.    Sigh of relief.   No more trying to get her out from under there.

She settles down on the heated cat bed we got for her and sleeps.   She still gets panicky and does crocodile rolls when she wakes up, so I try my best to not disturb her.

Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day….