Trip to the 24 Hour Vet

So...last Wednesday night I had to take Baxter to the 24 hour vet in Evansville. Not fun!

Here's the story...

Last Wednesday was my only night last week (Mon-Thurs) that I got to go directly home after work. I've had Junior Miss stuff going on every other night and haven't gotten home until have 9 o'clock or so, so I was really looking forward to getting home around 6:30 and actually cooking dinner for once.

Anyway, I get home and get out some chicken breasts to thaw and Baxter comes downstairs. He eats a little food and gets a drink, maybe, and is over by the kitchen table. I go to pet him and he looks up at me and I see a quarter sized area under his neck where their is no hair and raw skin is exposed. I freak out immediately and pick him up to see what happened. It was bleeding, just pink and it looked like there was a little puncture wound in the center. Almost like he had been poked with an ink pen. I take a picture and send it to my mom and call her. (Ty's playing golf and I can't get ahold of him.) I talk to Mom and Gerry and they both think that I need to take him to the vet immediately. I looked and didn't see that there were any 24 hour places in Owensboro, so they said to take him to the one in Evanvsille and they would meet me there.

So I get some stuff together and grab Baxter and we head back to Evansville. He's scared and hiding under my seat the whole 45 minute trip there. We finally make it and they take him back to check him out. The vet comes in and he said it looks like he's been in a fight and probably got scratched and it's infected. He has 104 fever and they need to put him to sleep to flush it out, because he wouldn't cooperate while he was awake.

He said it would only take 20 minutes or so and we would be able to go home that night, so I said go for it. I could hear him back there growling and meowing, not loving what they were doing and it made me upset. I just felt so bad for him. I'm his protector and I didn't protect him. Darn cat is bullheaded and just thinks he has to go outside. There will definitely not be anymore of that in his future. Sorry buddy.

So while they do that, they see that he has basically lost his front 2 thumb claws and one on one of his back feet and those are infected too. So they clean those out and give him antibiotics and pain meds.

They bring him back in to the room and he's still a little drugged up and is so confused and it was just sad. Bless his heart. It was heartbreaking. I felt so bad for him, but I knew he would be better.

Oh, and we decided he probably would need a cone too so that the can't get to his paws or his wound on his chest. Yeah, he loved that. :(

So since his paws were sore too and had cuts on them, they suggested we get the Yesterdays News cat litter. By this time it's after 9 pm and PetSmart who would defintely have it, is closed. So we head to Target (my parents come along too b/c they don't want me to leave Baxter in the car by himself). No luck there. Start heading towards the westside Walmart, calling them on the way to see if they have it, no luck. Head towards the eastside Walmart, call there, no luck. So then I suggested Schnucks, and we got lucky, they had it!

Finally at 10 pm, we're on our way back home. He slept off and on, thankfully. But was very happy once we got home. Lexie on the other hand, was not. She was not liking this new Baxter we brought home. Not sure if it was the cone, or if he smelled differently but she wasn't having it. She camped out upstairs in our bedroom for the last couple of days.

He laid on the kitchen floor while I cleaned out the litter box and got his food and water in cups and elevated so that it would be easier for him to get to.

So anyway, they sent me home with some pain meds so I gave him that Thursday and Friday twice a day, so he slept most of the time. I tried to give him as much love as I could while I was home. I even fell asleep on the floor next to him on his little bed that I made him Wednesday and Thursday nights.

He really started acting like himself Saturday and Sunday, so that made me feel better. I decided to take off his cone last night and I'm pretty sure he was RELIEVED!! That thing was really annoying to him. But now, he can scratch his neck and chew on his feet, so I hope they can still heal well. Let's hope.

Oh and let's hope I never have to take him to the emergency vet again!!! Darn cat! :)