Today was the big day to get Tia’s stitches out! I scooped her up this morning and stuffed her into her new carrier before she knew she was being betrayed, LOL. We discovered the new carrier wasn’t waterproof, unfortunately (she always gets so scared she pees). But a towel in the car seat, and we are off!
The vet is impressed with how well she is walking, and has the stitches out in 10 minutes. She is now free of the cone, but we are supposed to watch to make sure she doesn’t get obsessive about the scab.
Back home to release a VERY happy kitty! I fed her, and she wandered around, somewhat in disbelief that I wasn’t putting her cone back on.
Here is a picture of the incision after the suture removal:
Its hard to believe its only been a week since Tia’s surgery. She has made a ton of progress in the week, and things have settled into a workable routine.
Today her larger sized suit arrived from Vetgood. The medium was so tight on her torso it was making her “freeze and flop”. The large size fits better in the torso, but the bottoms were too big. So, I am using the smaller size bottoms and the large top. She no longer freezes and flops over and seems to be mobile in this new configuration.
She is happy to have the cone off, I think.
Her stitches look great, no redness and the swelling and bruising has gone down significantly. Looking forward to getting them out on Monday!
Here she is begging for more petting. She was in a good mood this morning and enjoyed all the attention I gave her. She is eating well, and litterbox habits appear to be normal, so that is all good. She has lost one stitch on her incision and one has a loose string, so we are just being diligent with the protection to try and make it all last until Monday when we go back to the vet.
Tia was a little slower this morning, and didn’t end up eating all her breakfast. We had been giving her medicine in her food, but we will now have to give it separately if she won’t eat consistently. I ended up giving her a remaining dose of the first pain medicine around noon to see if that would make her feel a little better (I don’t think she got a full dose of the gabapentin this morning due to not eating all of breakfast)
This window cat bed is a favorite of all the cats because we have one of those heated pet bed pads connected to it. So I put her up on it and she seemed to settle down and relax. Hopefully the heat will help with sore muscles since I think all the extra effort to get around is starting to take its toll. I have some pet stairs going to it so she can get down if needed.
I have been keeping the cone on her more often than the recovery suit – I am waiting for the larger sized one to come in. The Medium size seemed a touch too small and was constricting her joints making her less likely to be mobile in it. So, if you order one, know they run small, since Tia hit the medium measurements right on the dot.
Since events have slowed down and we are just on the slow slog to getting the stitches out, I may not update the blog quite as often, but I will try and keep everyone posted as to her progress!
