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- Nov 5, 2020
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I have lots of news, first of which is that Millie has a new sister, who I initially called Gertie but renamed Maisy 
Maisy is an 18-week-old kitten who has been with me for 5 weeks now.
Since she’s so young, when I need to be out of the home for 6+ hours, I have a pet sitter come. The pet sitter has been lovely and a HUGE help!
Yesterday though there was an accident. The pet sitter opened a cabinet looking for treats and a bottle of ibuprofen fell out, hit the floor, and opened. She thought she picked them all up - this would’ve been around 3:45. She left at 4:00. At 4:15, I have ring footage of Maisy vomiting. I got home at 4:45 to find 5 little puke piles - 3 were all food, 2 were bile. I saw the first few puke piles, was a little concerned, then walked into the kitchen and saw an ibuprofen tablet on the floor and the horror I felt cannot be described. But, I had a call at 5 that I could not miss - it was a call to go over our org’s audit with the board, auditor, and president. I’m the controller and the only person who could answer questions. I only had 15 minutes too so I just felt like my hands were tied - maybe an awful mistake I’ll regret forever. I love this little girl and Millie does too.
I texted the pet sitter and she told me what happened and got activated charcoal and brought it over. I called ASPCA poison control and started holding. We administered the charcoal (not quite as much as we should’ve, about 3/4ths of a dose) and I spoke to poison control, who advised admitting both cats to the ER for 48 hours. I cannot afford that - the ER quoted me prices for the known services and... I have pet insurance but I just can’t pay $6k+ and wait for reimbursement. It was also 11pm by this time and the girls were playing happily together and eating and drinking, and I figured, well, she must’ve puked immediately so how could anything get absorbed....? Uneasily, I decided to try to wait til the morning. Overnight nothing unusual happened and the cats were playful in the morning, but of course I brought them in. The vet seemed to think it was unlikely that one of them ate a whole tablet. (Being a crazy cat mom, I bit into one last night and at first it doesn’t taste like anything; after about 10 seconds it’s bitter and gets more bitter.) I swept 2x and didn’t turn up any half eaten pills. He ran bloodwork on both of them and said to watch for loss of appetite and vomiting.
Their appetites are good and Millie is her usual playful self but Maisy has just been sleeping since we got home (5 hours) - very unusual especially since she didn’t get to play in the morning. When the tech called to tell me everything came back normal, I mentioned this and she said Maisy might be wiped out from the vet visit - but she got shots 3 weeks ago and had a well kitten two weeks before that and she’s never reacted like this. The vet agreed to run bloodwork again tomorrow....
This is all just such a NIGHTMARE - it feels like a horror movie. How could one stupid little incident, something that took a second, (possibly) cause all this?? If her bloodwork is all normal, why is she sleeping so much?
Does anyone have any experience with this? Did your cat throw up right away and still need to be hospitalized? I also just, idk, want to be able to talk to people about this as I watch and wait and worry.
Maisy is an 18-week-old kitten who has been with me for 5 weeks now. Since she’s so young, when I need to be out of the home for 6+ hours, I have a pet sitter come. The pet sitter has been lovely and a HUGE help!
Yesterday though there was an accident. The pet sitter opened a cabinet looking for treats and a bottle of ibuprofen fell out, hit the floor, and opened. She thought she picked them all up - this would’ve been around 3:45. She left at 4:00. At 4:15, I have ring footage of Maisy vomiting. I got home at 4:45 to find 5 little puke piles - 3 were all food, 2 were bile. I saw the first few puke piles, was a little concerned, then walked into the kitchen and saw an ibuprofen tablet on the floor and the horror I felt cannot be described. But, I had a call at 5 that I could not miss - it was a call to go over our org’s audit with the board, auditor, and president. I’m the controller and the only person who could answer questions. I only had 15 minutes too so I just felt like my hands were tied - maybe an awful mistake I’ll regret forever. I love this little girl and Millie does too.
I texted the pet sitter and she told me what happened and got activated charcoal and brought it over. I called ASPCA poison control and started holding. We administered the charcoal (not quite as much as we should’ve, about 3/4ths of a dose) and I spoke to poison control, who advised admitting both cats to the ER for 48 hours. I cannot afford that - the ER quoted me prices for the known services and... I have pet insurance but I just can’t pay $6k+ and wait for reimbursement. It was also 11pm by this time and the girls were playing happily together and eating and drinking, and I figured, well, she must’ve puked immediately so how could anything get absorbed....? Uneasily, I decided to try to wait til the morning. Overnight nothing unusual happened and the cats were playful in the morning, but of course I brought them in. The vet seemed to think it was unlikely that one of them ate a whole tablet. (Being a crazy cat mom, I bit into one last night and at first it doesn’t taste like anything; after about 10 seconds it’s bitter and gets more bitter.) I swept 2x and didn’t turn up any half eaten pills. He ran bloodwork on both of them and said to watch for loss of appetite and vomiting.
Their appetites are good and Millie is her usual playful self but Maisy has just been sleeping since we got home (5 hours) - very unusual especially since she didn’t get to play in the morning. When the tech called to tell me everything came back normal, I mentioned this and she said Maisy might be wiped out from the vet visit - but she got shots 3 weeks ago and had a well kitten two weeks before that and she’s never reacted like this. The vet agreed to run bloodwork again tomorrow....
This is all just such a NIGHTMARE - it feels like a horror movie. How could one stupid little incident, something that took a second, (possibly) cause all this?? If her bloodwork is all normal, why is she sleeping so much?
Does anyone have any experience with this? Did your cat throw up right away and still need to be hospitalized? I also just, idk, want to be able to talk to people about this as I watch and wait and worry.
Best of luck, please keep us posted on Maisy. 
