We noticed on Wednesday night that Suyom seemed unusually lethargic and turned up her nose at her wet food so we decided to watch her on Thursday. She slept all day long (rotating between our bed, the couch and her cat bed) and refused to eat or drink water, which had us really concerned. She felt much warmer than usual and was uninterested in anything around her. I decided that I'd call the vet first thing Friday morning if she didn't seem any better in the morning. She spent the whole night sleeping next to me (normally she gets up and leaves halfway through the night) so I knew she was still not feeling well. I called the vet on base as soon as I got up. They had had a cancellation that morning and so I quickly got dressed, loaded Suyom into her cat carrier and set off directly for the vet's.
After waiting awhile, the vet determined that Suyom had a fever of 104 degrees (a cat's normal temperature is 102) which meant that Suyom had either an infection or inflammation but they couldn't be sure without a blood test. Unfortunately they couldn't do bloodwork at the vet clinic on base so I had to put Suyom back in her carrier, walk to a Korean vet clinic off base, cross two very busy intersections and attempt to have a conversation with the Korean vet about my cat's bowel movements in very bad English. They wrapped Suyom in a blanket and went to draw some blood but she was fighting and clawing her way out of there (don't blame the poor cat) so they clipped her poor claws. After wrapping her little leg with a bandage, Suyom and I had an hour to wait for the results to come back so I decided to head back to base to eat (since I needed all the won in my wallet to pay for the blood test). Just as I was about to enter the base, the Korean vet called to say that they needed MORE blood so I crossed back over the two busy intersections again and walked back to the vet clinic. (And I had so worn the wrong shoes.) Her meows this time were so pitiful and heartbreaking that I nearly started to cry. But she made it through and once safely ensconced back in her carrier, we set off again for the base.
By this time, it was 11:30a.m. and I had yet to eat anything. I was one very unhappy pregnant woman, carting around one very unhappy and picked-on cat. We made it back to base and I had just enough time to eat before I got a call saying the blood results were ready to be picked up and so I walked back to the clinic, crossed two very busy intersections with my abused cat and picked up the results and paid them 90,000 won for the privilege. (And more Korean/English language barrier fun ensued when I asked for a receipt.)
It was nearing one o'clock by the time I got back to the vet on base. But the vet was pleased that the blood work showed that there was no infection in Suyom's kidneys or liver and that it was probably just inflammation. But since Suyom hadn't had any water in at least 24 hours, they wanted to give her an I.V. to pump her up with fluids before sending her back home which would take about an hour.
I went home, picked up David and we headed back to the clinic at 2:30 to retrieve our poor cat. The vet had shaved one of Suyom's arms in order to put in an I.V. but the vessel was blown (from the blood taking) so they shaved the other arm, but that vessel wasn't viable either so they waited for us to get back to show us how to inject fluids under her skin ourselves and to administer her antibiotics. So, for the next three days, David and I get to stick needles into our cat and pump her full of fluids and for the next 2 weeks, we get to force-feed banana flavored antibiotics down her throat. It should be fun. If my arms aren't scratched to pieces by the end of the weekend, I'll be very pleased indeed.
Though she looks rather pathetic here, she is doing a lot better now. I just hope she won't hate us forever for all the trauma we put her through today. It can't be any worse than carting her halfway around the world with us. And she's (mostly) forgiven us for that.
2 comments:
"So undignified!" Poor kitty - Faith had an inflamed gum above one of her canines a few months ago, and we also experience the fun of the syringe and banana flavored anti biotics! I ended up having to wrap her in a sweatshirt, hold her in my arms on her back like a baby, to get her to open her mouth!
What a scary (yet a little funny) experience - I am impressed at how you navigated through that despite the language barrier! (And of course glad that she is doing better)
Oh poor Faith. I'm glad she's doing better too. I'll have to try the sweatshirt idea. I've used a towel but Suyom is a great escape artist but sweatshirt material is probably stronger and thicker and it would be less likely that she could claw her way out of that. I think David and I are far more traumatized by the whole experience than Suyom. We were so scared to poke her with the needle last night. David kept saying, "Why are we doing this? We're not doctors!" But Suyom is already doing so much better so I guess our pain is worth it.
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