Saturday, November 26, 2005

Worried


I've ha da lot of stuff going on... Thanksgiving, cooking, etc, etc... I will post about that later.

Right now I am just so worried about my Chico.

I was preparing food at about 2pm, baking some stuff for the Hubby while he watched tv. Tushi was playing and Chico was just sleeping on the arm of the sofa, letting the sun warm him. Suddenly I hear all this ruckus coming from the living room. I thought Tushi had come to bug him or he simply was having those typical mad-dashes that cat's have. But it sounded very rough, so I left the kitchen to go calm him down when I look to the sofa and I see him on the floor twirling and shaking.

I went running and saw his eyes were very wide open, the black of his eyes covering completely. He was foaming, drooling, and having what seemed to be a seizure. At first I thought he was choking on something but so I tried holding him in place and began screaming for Husband to come. He came immediately and we both had to hold him from his front and back paws because as his body was arching and stiffening, he took his front paws to his face and was clawing at his eyes. It was so difficult to try to keep him steady and it was a horrible feeling to know we simply didn’t know what to do! We just... felt so hopeless and small...

Hubby kept talking calmly to Chico, trying to ease him but Chico wasn’t listening, or simply couldn’t control himself. We didn’t know if he was in pain or what was happening to him. I rushed to call his vet and we got the emergency circuit since the offices close after a certain time on the weekends. We had to take him to a different clinic, which was the one taking emergency calls for the city this weekend (seems like the clinics rotate weekends to take care of emergencies). By this time Chico was no longer having the seizure but he still wasn’t recognizing us and kept mewing horribly as if he was in a lot of pain and his eyes were still completely odd.

Very carefully I put him in his travel cage and we rushed out of the house. After some driving around and going from office-to-office: the operator didn’t immediately call the vet on call to go so when we got to one office everything was locked, then we kept making calls until finally the doc phoned us and we met him at the clinic. Chico’s temp and pressure was back to normal kitty numbers, but the doc said it was best to keep him there overnight. He also had his head checked for a concussion, thinking maybe he had fallen and hit his head which could have caused the seizure, but pupils dilated fine and there were no signs of that. A nurse would stay to check up on him and then in the morning they will make blood tests to check his liver and kidneys. Once those things are taken care of and ruled out then they will test him for epilepsy...

He had attacks like this when we first got him as a baby. When he arrived home he was very tiny, had many fleas, and worms, which caused him to have an episode like this, but it was brief. After he got a deworming and all his shots, he never had it again. It has been 15 months since Chico came home the first time and suddenly he gets this again... The whole thing lasted probably like a minute and it was very scary.

I am so very glad that my Husband was home. I simply wouldn’t have known what to do. I was a wreck and when I called the operator I was in tears trying to explain everything. I felt completely stupid and frightened at not knowing what to do. I would have of course rushed him to the vet as we did, but I don’t know... I probably would have had an accident driving or something... I mean, my husband was extremely cool-headed and as I was making my hysterical phone call he grabbed the emergency money, turned off the oven (I would have come to a burnt house if I had been by myself), put Tushi in the bathroom and closed her in so she wouldn’t be alone near the stove, set the alarm and got the car running and placed Chico in. I am really glad he was home.

I am not a person you want to have near in emergencies... definitely not.

3 Comments:

At 2:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ugh...I had to do that once. The poor cat had another seizure en route, while on my lap. We didn't have a carrier (it was the unenlightened 80s!). She unintentionally bit right through my pants and into my leg. Fortunately, I wasn't the one driving. Hope it all turns out OK.

 
At 9:09 PM, Blogger Kitty said...

Mr. L - Yes we hope so too; we shall be picking him up tomorrow and the doctor will explain all his lab results.

What did your cat have? Do you know why he got the seizures?

 
At 1:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We have a pup (though not a pup anymore) that is an eptileptic. Your's sounds like that, but... there's something amiss.

Usually, when a seizure occurs his whole body tightens up and is unable to claw at anything. You said Chico was clawing at his eyes... it doesn't sound right to me for eptilepsy.

Usual signs for setting off eptilepsy (in Sinjin's case) was excitement and heat (was it warm/hot in the house?).

Though this could be a variation of the disease.

 

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