Its Been A Hard Week

Well, I should summarize the week...

Sunday - Ayla suddenly started extruding pus from her vulva.  I spent the afternoon and night keeping her as clean as I could.

Monday - Brought Ayla to my regular vet first thing in the morning.  He did some tests to eliminate urinary infections, then did x-rays to search for a reproductive tract problem.  He scheduled surgery for Tuesday.

Tuesday - Ayla was opened for exploratory surgery first thing in the morning.  At noon, the vet called to say that he had found the spayed uterus remnant was infected, which led him to discover her left ovary was intact.  He removed both.  Considering that the breeder's vet had done both a first and a followup spay operation, he was quite surprised!  I was very angry towards the breeder's vet.

Ayla (and I) have gone through frequent and lengthy heat cycles for 3 years.  Most times lasting for 10 days separated by 2 weeks of calm.  Occasionally, there was a whole month between heat episodes.  The news that my vet had found the cause was a matter of extreme joy.  I was thrilled.  The $800 was well worth all the trouble.

Tuesday night I picked Ayla up to give her the antibiotic, and I discovered she was dripping with red stuff all over the incision.  I assumed it was blood and brought her to an emergency pet hospital.  I was there for 2 hours.  The ER vet put a pressure bandage on her, did some tests, and decided she should see my regular vet in the morning. 

Wednesday - My vet was upset and distressed that I had had to go through all the ER stuff.  He explained that scar tissue is difficult to seal and that sometimes there is seepage.  But he apologized for not having advised my of that, and I am OK with the apology.  It DID cost me $1,000 at the ER hospital to learn that Ayla COULD have just lain on a thick towel all night.  The ER vet COULD have told me that, but he is running a business and I DID request service.  It was still pretty shoddy, though.

Anyway, my vet kept her for observation and examination all day at no charge. 

Thursday - Brought Ayla back to my vet for further observation.  He found the incision healing, not seeping, and he removed the IV catheter.  No charge, more apology, and lots of discussion.  And he gave me his home phone number in case of night time problems.

I hate the cone she has to wear, so I went out and bought an inflatable collar (XS dog collar, if you want to find one for a small cat, S for a regular size cat).  Ayla doesn't mind the inflatable collar, it even seems to make a decent pillow!

Friday - Ayla is alert and walking around, eating, and drinking.  She seems fine now, healing well with no "sera" seepage.

I spent the morning giving her lots of attention and scritching the itchy incision area that she can't get at with the inflatable collar.  She enjoyed that a LOT!

In the afternoon, I unwound by watering the veggie and flower gardens.  I have a nice system.  Stab a spading fork with a "D" handle in the ground, fit a hose nozzle in the handle (most will fit one way or another), and turn the water on for 5 full minutes at each spot.  Move the spade and repeat.  All afternoon!  Sit in a chair in the shade and drink a beer while listening to classical music on a little boom box.  Very relaxing and theraputive. 

It was 100+ outside, but I was sitting in the shade and there was a slight breeze.  There was water spraying, birds around, etc.  I NEEDED that!

Speaking of the gardens, the reason I was watering was because we are so dry here in MD.  There have been rains, but brief and hard and not much for several weeks.  How dry has it been?  The hosta bed still has dry crunchy leaves from last Fall.  They won't decompose!  Too dry.

More bad news!  A sign at the entrance to my neighborhood advises that electricity will be turned off for 5 hours August 1st!  Oh joy...  The forecast for that day is over 100 again.   I see that Verizon is digging up the neighborhood for some reason, so that must be the cause.

More bad news!  Have you ever used a garden hose and forgotten to turn the water off?  And the hose burst?  And not gone out there for 2 days?  That happened to me Tuesday.  I don't know exactly when the hose burst.  If I am lucky, it burst just before I went out and noticed.  If I am unlucky, it happened shortly after I went inside and it spewed water for 2 days.  And, of course, the water was not even spewing near any of my plants...  I will find out on the next quarterly bill.

More bad news!  Because of Ayla's apparently finally successful spay Tuesday, I contacted a radio vet show (The Animal House).  I had been a guest in June of last year discussing unsuccessfully "Twice-Spayed Ayla, and they asked for followup.  So I was scheduled for a taping Wed afternoon.  Well, Wed morning I had been up all night and morning, so I had to call to cancel (because I needed to collapse in bed).  They didn't want to reschedule for the next week, so they are just going to read the email I sent them.  I sure wish I could have been on-air to talk to them.  That would have been thrilling!  I guess I missed my 15 minutes of fame...

It will be broadcast in August and I will give details for that later.

I think it is finally safe to have "too much to drink tonight"!  And I plan to.  I just haven't decided whether it will be my favorite cheap wine (Twisted vine Zinfandel) or my own Sling recipe (1/2 oz gin, 1/2 oz pomegranate liquer, a shot of real pomegranate juice, fill up the glass with ginger ale over ice, and drink through straw).

I HAVE had worse weeks, but not often, and this one ranks way up on the list.  My baby sister died last Summer, Mom died last Fall, Skeeter died in Dec 2008, LC died in Jan 2010, I failed out of college in 1975 (I returned and graduated in 1993), and I got fired from a job because I couldn't roll tires off a truck fast enough.  All considered, I think this week places 5th.  Maybe 6th because I think at least Ayla IS finally spayed and that's good.