Tuesday, August 05, 2008

The Big Snip

Yesterday, Bonnie & Clyde went to the vet for the Big Snip. We tried to warn them about it, but I don't think they were prepared. Neither were we!

The cats still waltz straight into the cat carrier when we bring it out. At some point, they'll start associating it with the vet, but for some reason they still do not. (Even after yesterday, they've gone in it several times.) So, there they go into the carrier, and off we go to the vet. We drop them off and feel very guilty about the pain we've left them to.

By 2:30pm, I was ready to know how the cats were doing. Poor kitties. After our own doctor's appointment (about 5:00), we called to see if we could come by and pick them up. No, we had to wait until 6:00 for a consult with the vet. Oh, okay, we didn't know about that. So we went home for 30 minutes, then back to the vet, where we waited.

Finally, someone brought B&C into the exam room. They were in the carrier and pretty frantic. They pushed their noses into the wires and would never settle down, which made the wait for the vet that much longer. Jon even broke into his own rendition of "Love is a Many Splendored Thing" hoping to remind the people outside our room that we were still there! He always makes me laugh!

The vet finally came in, and his first words were, "Well, Clyde really had a hard time of it, so he'll be pretty groggy, and for longer than Bonnie."

The (slightly funny) truth is that Clyde has a condition called cryptorchidism. Crypto: Where is it? and Orchid: testicles. (I just lost my G-rating right there.) That's right, Clyde has a missing ball. It never descended like it should have, which meant that his surgery would be as extensive as Bonnie's. The vet would have to make an incision in Clyde's abdomen to go searching for the missing...orchid. Well, as it turns out, it was quite a hunt, and Clyde's incision ended up being about 4 inches long, compared to Bonnie's half-inch incision. Poor guy!

When we made it home, we had two ravenous kittens, with the disadvantage of still being slighty drugged. They swayed and wobbled their way to the food bowls, and proceeded to make a huge mess of everything! Food and water were everywhere as the cats pushed their noses into the bowls and snarfed away! Most people would probably laugh at their antics, but I just can't. Maybe I'm too sensitive. I've never found drunk people to be funny, or people doing crazy stuff under the influence of something other than themselves. It's just sad to me. I do, however, recognize that I'm the exception, so if you find yourself giggling over my sad story, I'll forgive you. :)

Then Bonnie would not settle down. She carried her jingle ball around for about 30 minutes with no stopping. She never put the ball down, and she never actually played with it; she just did circles around the house. Now we know Bonnie does not handle drugs well! :) We tried to hold her to get her to settle down, but she would have none of it!

Clyde was fastidiously cleaning himself. Thankfully, he was staying mostly away from his incision, but it did start to bleed again for a short while.

Needless to say, Jon and I were basket cases. Coming out of surgery is one of the hardest things to see, I think. You think the hard part is surgery, so you expect things to be right back to normal afterwards, and it's always a shock to see that they're not.

Today, things are much better. Both cats have slept the entire day. Bonnie expressed slight interest in a string, and Clyde tried to pick on his sister once, but otherwise, they've just traded off who got to sleep in my lap (and at one point they were both in my lap!). I finally moved to the bed to work, to let them both cuddle up to me and still enable me to get stuff done.

I must say, in the past I've only had male cats with no shy orchids, and that surgery is a breeze. They usually come home a little wobbly, but are running and playing by the end of the day. This has been no walk in the park, and it's been as hard on Jon and I as on the cats, I think! We take them back on Thursday for their checkup, and I'm sure they'll be back to their crazy selves before then!

8 comments:

  1. Orchids, huh. So that's the new word for them? Just kidding. I have a little Yorkie girl. It's hard to see them go through that surgery. You're right; seeing anyone or anything come out of surgery is really hard!

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  2. Aww. I got a chance to see the kittens last night and I think they did pretty well given the cirrcumstances. I've been throught this twice before, once with a cat and once with a dog -dogs are much worse! :~) I did offer some catnip but Momma said no, they've had enough for one day!! :) Just remember... this is all good practice for when Caleb is here!!

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  3. poor little fuds. As I said, give them a pat for me and let them know they can always talk to me when their parents are horrid to them! =)

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  4. The quest for the missing orchid, eh? Hope the kitties feel better soon!

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  5. Oh no, poor kitties. My only experience with pets after that surgery is lots of sleeping. I hope they are back to normal soon!

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  6. Forgive me...but - If you get this worked up (basket cases as you say) over two small cats who have a simple and very common procedure what in the world are you going to do when you have a real person that has something done. You might explode.

    Shy Orchids...really? Shy Orchids. That's what you came up with as a replacement word? I'm sure there is a bloggable story about where that came from.

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  7. @Teresa: The cats were up and playing like crazy this morning!

    @Cliff: Yes, it is a big question of what we'll do when we actually have real children. However, at least we know we'll never have to endure this particular surgery! :)

    As for "orchid," that's not some euphemism I made up: it's the actual term, as in "cryptorchidism," also "polyorchidism," which is a word I learned the last time I played Trivial Pursuit. It's probably Latin or something.

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