It is confirmed, we are those people who feed their cat thru a feeding tube.
What can I say? She's worth it. Sigh.
Tuna is doing very well, considering. She ended up having a ping-pong ball sized abscess on her small intestine. If you don't know what an abscess is, you are about to wish you still didn't. It is a ball of pus that surrounds an infection. Ew. Ew. Seriously Ew. Even the vet said, "That was disgusting" after they removed it.
She can eat on her own, but because we have to keep her hopped up on kitty morphine (no joke), we have to supplement her nutrition by pumping food mixed with water into her tube and therefore into her esophagus. It is just about as fun as it sounds.
One good thing is that it has given Marc and I a fast forward to what we would be like as parents. Me scolding him for picking her up the wrong way, and him sticking his finger into the food mix to make sure I didn't make it too hot. It sounds stressful, but it has actually been quite hilarious. How can you take life too seriously when your cat all the sudden sounds like Darth Vader? (The feeding tube somehow amplifies her purring.) Or when her huge pink neck bandage makes her look like an African woman from a neck-stretching tribe?
Her incision is pretty gruesome because it is closed up with what I am pretty sure are #10 standard staples, but we've just taken to calling her Zipper.
The vet told us that what happened was she most likely ate something that poked her small intestine causing the infection and abscess. We should get the biopsy results in the next couple of days. I'm really hoping that the cause was not 86'n it construction debris, or we are going to feel really guilty.
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I'm one of those people too. Though my kitty was the cause of his own problem - he tried to eat a whole spool of thread. The vet had to open is intestines up in 6 places to get it all out, oh and the best part, he saved us the thread (yuck). Now Shaft has a double belly from the scar tissue.
ReplyDeleteEw, but I am relieved for you.
ReplyDeleteChances are, the problem was a birdy or mousey part.
Clearly, it was the dark side of the force.
"Darth Tuna"
M
I love the run down of your fledgling parenting skills! Tuna is lucky to have you guys.
ReplyDeleteLol at the purring being amplified!
we're those types of people with our dog.
ReplyDeletehope your kitty feels better soon.
So happy Tuna is going to be fine. What is she like on kitty morphine?
ReplyDeleteI give my cat insulin every 12 hours and even though I feel like "the cat lady" when I tell people about it, I have no choice really. With it she's super happy and healthy and cute and without it she quickly declines. The four leggeds make life infinitely better imo. And yes - major parenting practice!
ReplyDeleteMy cat had a feeding tube too. I called it the kitty gas tank. I did what I had to do... and i'm glad i did.
ReplyDeleteI love your little Tuna! Kitty is so lucky to have you as parents and I'm glad that Tuna adds to the quality of your life, as it should be. Love your blog, BTW, keep up the good fight - whatever will you do when all the work is done? ;-)
ReplyDelete