December 13, 2021

The Duck Chronicles Continue : Day 11

One of these days, I will be able to write about something else! (Actually, please send me some transformations so that I can post Transformation Tuesday tomorrow.)

After our visit to the emergency room vet last night, I was feeling very confident that Duck would be feeling better, or at least not feeling any worse, this morning. When we got home last night, he was super energetic (the most I've seen since his surgery). I shook the treat jar and as always, he was the first one there. I went to bed feeling very hopeful.

This morning, however, Duck was very lethargic. Normally, he wakes me up by jumping on me (and lately, he's been curling up next to my neck when we are in bed); last night, he spent the entire night on my couch. When I got up and talked to him this morning, he didn't even turn to look at me.

I opened a new can of food for him, and he wasn't at all interested. He didn't want treats. I kept trying to pet him and brush him (which he loves) but he just kept going under the couch to hide.

I knew something was very wrong, so I took him to the vet the second they opened. They brought him inside for a while and then the vet came out to the car to tell me what was going on. His temperature was at 105.9!!! Anything higher than 102.5 is a fever in cats, and at a temperature of about 106.0, cats are at risk of brain and heart damage and it can be fatal.

I gasped loudly and had the sensations I did before the couple of times I fainted--my hearing got muffled, I started to get tunnel vision, and I felt like the ground was moving beneath me. I'm glad I was sitting down! Now I know why in the movies, they always tell people to sit down before giving them bad news.

The vet was still talking, but it took a minute for everything to register. I asked him a bunch of questions, but aside from wanting to know if Duck was going to be okay, the main thing I wanted to know is WHY this is happening. What caused the fever? The vet said he was confident it wasn't an upper respiratory infection, which is what I thought it was yesterday.

He did a chest x-ray and there was no sign of fluid in his lungs or around his heart (that's what I was most worried about). He did blood work, but I can't remember what he said about that. Because of the extremely high fever, it was definitely a medical emergency that they lower his temp.

So, the vet said he needed IV fluids and would have to stay about two nights. Again, I handed over my credit card and just told them to do whatever they need to do. I'm really glad that we built up our savings account after paying off our debt a few years ago, because I wanted to have money set aside for emergencies--such as this. We're blowing through it pretty fast this month, though!

I can't believe this all happened because of a piece of yarn. It makes me feel sick every time I think about knitting or crocheting now, so I actually spent the evening today organizing and photographing all of my knitting and crocheting stuff so that I can list it on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

I have a lot of really nice knitting needles that I'd saved up for and bought back when I was losing weight. I know I won't get nearly what I paid for them, but I'll feel good about selling them and then putting whatever money I get toward Duck's vet bills. I don't have a whole lot of yarn to get rid of, but I'll try and sell that as well. There are actually several things around the house that I've looked at recently and thought I should try and sell--so now would be a good time to just do it. 

The whole time I was working on sorting everything, Chick was right there trying to get into it all, of course! Today was a good day to work on it because Duck certainly would have been right there watching me, waiting for an opportunity to grab something ;)

While I was doing that, I got a great text from the vet saying that his temp was down to 101.8! They are reducing his fluids and watching his temp; if his temp stays normal, then I'll be able to pick him up tomorrow. They also sent me this picture--it made me miss Duck so much! (He looks much better than he did this morning)


I asked if they figured out why he got sick and the doctor really doesn't know. There is no sign of infection from his surgery, he doesn't have pneumonia, and his symptoms don't really make sense for being this far post-op. They said they could run a blood test that looks for all sorts of different problems, but it takes a few days for them to get the results (and, like everything else, it's expensive). I certainly don't want to have to keep worrying about him at home, wondering if his temp is going up, so I said to go ahead and run the test so we can hopefully find out what's wrong--and prevent it from happening again.

If you're a knitter or crocheter and you have cats, let my experience over the past 11 days be a lesson you won't ever have to learn the hard way.

I have an appointment with my psychiatrist tomorrow... the poor guy has no idea what's in store for him! ;)

EDIT Tuesday morning: Duck's temp was 104.0 this morning. Every time I think he's getting better something like this happens. He's going to have to stay another night at the hospital. This is killing me. 

5 comments:

  1. Oh I keep worrying about your baby too Katie. He looks good in this picture but that high fever. I just feel for you with all the stress and worry. And of course the vet bills. We paid out big bucks for our Rita, $502.00 every 3 months for her medications and way more for the vet bills. And one of her surgeries was over $2000.00. With this little rescue dog we have, I asked the vet to look at her upper right teeth, and she said we would pay $2000.00 and she would pull every tooth, not just the ones that needed to be extracted. Well we haven't been back there. I respect doctors. I know they need to get paid, but some of them overcharge. It seems your vets are really good, but he should be past the scarey stuff and healed. I so want him to turn the corner, and you and your whole family have so much fun at Christmas with Duck hiding up in the tree. I'm thinking of you and checking to hear.

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  2. Poor Duck and poor you. I know all too well the fear you are feeling right now. He sounds like he is in good hands <3 I wish there was something magic to say to make you feel better. *hug*

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  3. Oh poor Duck! He's really going through it. And putting you guys through it as well! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good updated today! Hopefully the blood work will give you guys some answers!

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  4. I'm so sorry Duck isn't feeling well. Hang in there!

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  5. I really think at this point the vet is the best place for Duck to recover. Even if his fever does go down, he will likely get more rest and quiet at the vet than he will in your loving but busy home. Please trust that he's in the best place right now and can get immediate medical attention should he need it. I hope he turns a corner and improves soon.

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