How to deal with a cat in heat?

[mservant]

@Malt  that sounds hard to watch and such a shame when she has been through surgery and everything.  Fingers crossed it is sorted really soon.  That link from @rubysmama  looks very interesting, and nice to see a positive outcome.  Something to look towards. 

 

[helsic]

I really hope you can get a second surgery or a positive treatment with pills, so she would be a happy cat lady without regrets~ hehe

 

[malt]

An update for all of you helpful lovelies: I took her to the vet today and they took some blood for a blood test. It'll be a good few days before I get the results because they have to send it to their lab in a different city. But hopefully it'll come back positive for her being in heat - it should, she was calling half an hour before I took her in and was calling all afternoon and evening too after we got back. If it's positive the tests and the following treatment we pursue, if any, should be free (no guarantees but that's what the vet and I discussed). If it comes back negative I'm out a couple of hundred dollars just to begin with x_x 

It went really well today, thanks in part to a substitute vet being there instead of a regular one. The regular one is really dismissive of me, I won't be going back there after this is all over. The vet I saw said surgery was probably the best option, but should the tests come back positive I could discuss our options properly. With chemical treatments offering side effects like diabetes she's probably right. Diabetes isn't what I would call a 'side effect', that's just trading one ongoing medical problem for another. D: 

Mama cat's had a very exhausting day (she was shaking like a chilly chihuahua in the waiting room and cried the entire drive there!), and she's currently completely unconscious on my bed. Thank you all so much for your help. Without your encouragement I would have let my regular vet just push me around and dismiss me, and gone on believing this was a problem that couldn't be fixed. 

 

[mservant]

Will have fingers and paws crossed for you over here, and hope that the blood tests show what is happening so those discussions about solutions can get under way.  Loads of postive vibes.

Poor little girl, it sounds like she is having a hard time of it and some relaxation and letting her body settle is well over due.  Will be looking out to see how the results come back.

 

[evamilly]

I hope it all gets sorted really quickly for you both, keep us posted

 

[mani]

Good for you, Malt, for your persistence.

  And fingers crossed..

 

[malt]

Just to keep everyone updated - Mama's tests came back positive, and she's booked in for surgery next Tuesday. 

Poor baby girl, I really don't want her to have to go through another surgery. But she's getting worse and worse. Today she slipped out past my flatmate when the door was open for 0.2 seconds and she went missing for 5 hours. I finally heard her yowl and when I got to the back steps she was being cornered by 2 cats. I don't know if they wanted to fight her or mate her but she was growling up a storm. I scooped her inside and she growled and growled and growled at everything until I calmed her down. She has some scratches and bites on her (nothing major, but I'll be getting her tested after the surgery to make sure she hasn't caught anything because I know she has mated since I last had her tested). She has hardly eaten recently and she has scent-sprayed on my bed and my flatmate's bed, as well as other places too. It's getting ridiculous and long-term this is going to be bad for her health. Especially the not eating and the fighting. She's so little! 

If they find they missed the tissue in the first spay, it'll be free. If it's in a weird place, I'll be charged. So I'm really hoping it is their mistake and some ovarian tissue didn't wind up like, in her chest or something. I can only just afford that kind of cost and I'd really rather not have to pay it. But it'll be worth it in the end, because we're together until one of us kicks it. 

 

[mservant]

Your poor baby.  That must be so stressful to watch every day, and awful to see her coming back injured and distressed after she got out.  Tuesday can't come soon enough.  Fingers crossed you do not have to pay but if so, does the vet offer any kind of payment plan if it turns out that there was some difficult position the tissue has been in?  

 

[malt]

On the payment plan - possibly? Depending on how much it is, I can pay for it out of pocket. I have a couple hundred reserved for situations exactly like this; say the cat needs vet treatment, or the car needs unexpected work, or something happens and one of my flatmates can't pay rent. Plus christmas is coming up, so if worst comes to worst I can ask for a bit of payment towards this as my christmas present. It's not guaranteed that I'll have to pay it, anyway... I'll burn that bridge when I come to it  

 As over-dramatic as it sounds, I was going through a really bad time back in Feb when I adopted her, and she's the sole reason I didn't do anything drastic then. So, I kind of owe her. If I do have to pay for it all, I'll just have to cough up. *shrug* 

After today I just want this done, to be honest. Her fur still feels gross - kind of dusty and greasy at the same time, and it's still matted in some places even though I've been brushing her as much as she'll let me. I can tell she's still rattled. Plus I'm still not certain she hasn't been injured anywhere - she gets really frisky/growly/wriggly when I touch her and pick her up, so it's pretty hard to tell (I don't see any blood though). After her little Houdini routine today she's been confined to just my bedroom and we're currently driving each other nuts with our mutual inability to sleep 

 

 

[AbbysMom]

Your poor girl. Lots of luck and hugs for Tuesday's appointment. :cross:

 

[mservant]

It sounds sensible being extra careful about her getting out again, however difficult it is for both of you.  I can just imagine what it will be like trying to get any sleep.  :-(

Do you have any micro fibre cleaning cloths at home?   If you use a clean,  damp micro fibre cloth to rub over her fur when she will let you it is great for lifting both dust and oils off fur.  You only use water and no chemicals, and it can be warm water if she prefers this.  She is probably very sensitive at the moment, even without the recent trauma and any possible injuries so any touching could be too much for her.  It might be preferable for her to be touched more firmly rather than a gentle touch to her fur.

Hopefully there are no wounds that you can't see and she will settle quickly; at least she will see the vet on Tuesday and anything which might not be visible will be picked up then.

 

[mani]

Your poor girl. Lots of luck and hugs for Tuesday's appointment.

    

  Looking forward to hearing how she is..

 

[malt]

Mama cat was at the vet's for almost 9 whole hours! They kept her for quite a while after the surgery. They found some ovarian tissue and I guess it was close enough to the original spay area, because they covered the costs. I'm not going to lie, that's a huge relief. 

She's home now and very groggy and grumpy, and she can't walk in a straight line, but she's okay. We've got some aftercare painkillers and 2 follow-up appointments. I've put my electric blanket on and darkened my room completely just the way she likes, but she's deicded to sit in the hall instead. 

DSC01593.JPG

• malt
• Nov 10, 2014

 

That little outfit she's wearing is half a t-shirt modified into a 'body sock'. She couldn't tolerate the elizabethan cone after her spay but she also wouldn't stop licking and biting her stitches, so I improvised. The people in the vet's office were all very impressed/amused when they saw it! 

Hopefully this is the end of it. I don't know what I'll do if she goes into heat again. But ORS is rare to begin with, so I'm hoping she's not going to beat those odds twice in a row. For now I'm just going to focus on taking care of her while she heals. 

Once again, thank you all so so much for your support. I wish I could give you all some chocolates or something! My heartfelt thanks will have to do. 

 

[mani]

She actually looks quite pleased with herself!

I'm so glad you both got through this, and that the vets did the right thing and covered the costs. It's not easy to push these things and you did really well.

 

[mservant]

 
.....

I'm so glad you both got through this, and that the vets did the right thing and covered the costs. It's not easy to push these things and you did really well.

    Good for you, holding out and advocating for your furbaby.  Fingers and toes crossed here that she can now relax and settle in to your home.  That will be the cherry on the cake for everyone here - so I'll put in a choclate cherry for all of us in anticipation -  

     She looks quite chilled out about her little outfit but perhaps that's because the anaesthetic hasn't worn off completely yet.

 

[evamilly]

Glad it's all sorted, loving the body sock, genius! think you should go into cat body sock business and sell them on amazon! :lol3: this have prevented my cat a whole lot of trauma after she was spayed.

 

[rubysmama]

How's kitty doing?   Love the the t-shirt body sock.   She still wearing it?   What's her name, btw?

 

[malt]

@rubysmama

Thanks! She's stuck in the body sock until the 21st, when she gets her stitches out. She cannot handle the cone but she won't leave her stitches alone for 2 minutes if she's not wearing something. She's doing pretty okay, although the pain relief the vet sent me home with to give her upsets her tummy a bit. Some extra cleaning for me to do... I'd rather scrub up her, uh, messes than her be in pain though. 

Her name is just Mama (often gets called 'Mama Cat'). It's what I called her when I first saw her with her kittens, back when they were all strays. It just stuck. I don't think she minds too much but I do feel bad for giving her such a silly name! 

 

[rubysmama]

Glad to hear she's doing well.  I forgot she'd had kittens, so Mama / Mama Cat makes sense now. 

 

[mservant]

I think Mama Cat is a cute name and a nice reminder of how you met each other.  I hope you manage to keep her comfortable and clean until the 21st, poor baby getting an upset tummy with the meds.  Did you call the vet to see if there's a different pain relief that might suit her better?  Roll on the 21st and her healing well anyway.