Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Costly Kitty: A Child Preparation Lesson?

On Sunday night around 8:00 pm, our middle kitty, Parry, started getting sick. This sickness continued about every 15 minutes throughout the night and into the next morning. Parry couldn't keep anything down - food or water. This had happened to Parry once before. At that time he had been diagnosed with something called Megacolon. Basically this means that Parry's colon doesn't work correctly to help him get rid of his solid waste.

Adam graciously agreed to take Parry to the vet on Monday morning. This delayed Adam's plans for the day and made him have to delay his cycling later in the day. However, Adam put the needs of the sick kitty ahead of his own desires. (Won't he make a great dad?) Adam then waited and waited for the vet to call him on his cell phone so that we could figure out what was going on with Parry. When the vet finally called (around noon) they said that they had done an x-ray and Parry's intestinal tract and colon were about 75% blocked with hard, non-moving solid waste. She said that they would be giving Parry several enemas and a laxative and hopefully be able to get things moving. She said she would call again around 5 pm to update us.

The vet did call again around 5 pm on Monday night, but she did not call with good news. Parry had still not been able to pass any of his waste. She said they would be giving him another kitty enema and then keeping him over night for observation. (Lord willing we will never have this same problem with our own child!) She said that she would call again the next morning and update us.

On Tuesday morning the vet called Adam to tell him that Parry had still not been able to pass anything and the next step was to sedate him and manually remove the blockage. Without any other options, Adam made the decision to go ahead and permit this next step. (Unfortunately Adam forgot to ask about the cost of this procedure, but cost becomes somewhat irrelevant when you're dealing with someone you love, right?) The vet said she would call again later to update us. She called around 2:30 pm to say that Parry had come out of surgery but would need to stay the night again so they could continue to monitor him.

At this point I did a great deal of research on the internet about Megacolon. I learned that there is no known cause for this disorder and that there are a great deal of medications that cats can take that can help eliminate some of the problem. I had a little fear because one of the medicines, Propulsid (cisapride) had been removed from the human drug market for causing heart arrythmias. I made sure to note this so I could ask about it when we got to see Parry and the vet. I also learned about some of the other medications and how they work to treat this disorder.

On Wednesday morning we got a call from the vet saying that Parry was doing quite well and had actually eaten some of his food. The day passed and we got to actually meet with the vet when we picked Parry up at 5:00 pm. I asked her all of my questions and she thought I was a pharmacist because of all the medicine questions I asked. I explained that I was not a pharmacist, just a concerned "mommy."

In the end, this whole business was an expense, but not as much of one as we had anticipated. We also learned a little bit more about the sacrifices that we will undoubtedly be making in the years to come.

Only 2 more days until we find out if the baby is a boy or a girl! I'm sure I'll post again soon!

No comments: