Our cat, Delilah, had a litter of kittens on August 1st. We have 3 little girls and 1 little boy. Two of the girls and the boy are all gray and the other girl is white with gray paws, tail and ears (she is so pretty!). It has been a lot of fun to watch them grow and now at only 26 days old they are so big!
On Monday our little boy started to breath funny, keeping his mouth open and seeming somewhat labored so I ran him to the vet. She looked him over and couldn't find anything that would cause this like a respiratory illness or pain from constipation or anything like that. She gave his a shot with steroids and antibiotic just in case and told me that if that didn't work and he was still in pain on Tuesday that we could do an z-ray because it might be a diaphragmatic hernia.
Well, being the paranoid person that I am, I researched diaphragmatic hernias that night and realized that if that was the problem it could be fixed surgically. Unfortunately, at only 10.6 oz he was way too little for surgery.
The poor baby cried in pain and had labored breathing all night so I called the vet to ask advice the next day. We decided that since he was in so much pain the best thing would be to put him down. Some kittens can live with the condition comfortably until they are old enough for surgery but that was definitely not the case with this little guy.
Shaylee went with me since I had taken her out of school for a dentist appointment. We cried. It was sad and very hard to hand him over. I told her that he would be in heaven where Gina (one of our cats who had died over a year ago) could take care of him. That seemed to make her feel better and we moved on.
Around 2 pm today I got a phone call from the vet's office. My first thought was that something went wrong or they were calling to ask if we wanted the kittens body to bury or something. Imagine my surprise when the nurse told me that he was all better and I could take him home!
It turns out that the vet thought he was looking a little better and couldn't bring herself to euthanize him until she gave him a little more time. He slowly started getting better, eating and passing his fluids like he should. One of the nurses even took him home the last 2 nights so that she could feed him every few hours! He was now in top shape and could come home.
I started to ask her what kind of payment plan I could do when she told me there would be no charge. Another much appreciated surprise.
I went to pick him up at 3:30, right before I was to pick kids up from school. It was hard for the nurses to give him back. They had all grown quite fond of him! I loves surprising all of my kids with the kitten that we thought we had lost when I picked them each up from school. When I told Ashlee right after the phone call she gasped and jumped from her bed to run and get her shoes on so we could pick him up!
It's not just any vet who would hold off on the shot to see if the kitten will pull through and then give him back with no charge. I so much appreciate our vet. We have been with them for many years and today that relationship truly paid off! Thank you Animal Clinic at Mission Square for all you did to bring back our baby.
He is the gray one farthest to the right
I think I'll name him Chance.
No comments:
Post a Comment