7 posts tagged “meisha”
The woman from Aussie Pet Mobile did a good job and he wasn't as pissed off about it as he usually is.
Oh the indignity that we put poor Meisha through just to keep the fuzzy cat hair tumble weeds and hacked up hairballs at bay.
Meisha has got to be the best cat ever. Actually, he's more like a stuffed animal, but better because he snuggles and likes to be carried around like a little baby on his back. And nothing ever phases him. He's quite enlightened in that way, our little fuzzy Buddha spirit. Whenever people come over to our house we have to make sure that they don't tuck him in their bags and take him home. He's that adorable.
Meisha slept soundly all night with AB, but this morning seemed just as exhausted as the night before.
He was still listless and limping, his eyes were draining and all gooped up, his breathing sounded really bad and he wouldn't eat or drink anything. We decided to take him to see the after-hours vet.
The vets and techs were compassionate and thourough. And it was a very busy day at the emergency animal clinic.
While we were there, it was sad to be witness to one puppy being put down and a young woman in tears hearing the news and another dog being brought in wrapped in a blanket by a couple who had just witnessed it being hit by a car. The owner hadn't been contacted yet and the man who witnessed the accident was in tears over this little dog that wasn't even his own.
We also saw smiling pet owners and their very happy animals heading home after being treated. It was so cute to see this couple come in with their four year old daughter who was waving her arms around shouting "emergency emergency emergency!". Her doggie had a cut on his foot, that clearly wasn't an emergency, but she was getting into the drama of it with the gutso only a four year old can bring the situation.
The folks at the ER seemed genuinely like good people who enjoyed their jobs despite having to deal with so many problems and people's high emotions indoors on this beautiful sunny warm Sunday.
At first they scared us with all kinds of possible illnesses and injuries he could have; they thought Meisha might even have to stay overnight, :-(
But after x-rays, blood and urine analysis, IV fluids and some meds, he ended up spending just about 4 hours in their care. Here's the diagnosis:
-
upper respiratory infection -- but not pneumonia
- dehydration with slight elevation in something indicating kidney problems and possible gastrointestinal bleeding -- she thought that the kidney and blood might be a result of eating something rough or poisonous while he was out and about
- no broken bones or fractures - but pretty severe arthritis in his hips and rear leg joints that was probably acting up as a result of being out all night on his feet walking or running
- an enlarged heart -- she thought it was a result of the shelter giving him too much fluid too fast to rehydrate him, but he needs to have this checked again tomorrow at his regular vet
- low potassium level
The vet said what Meisha had been through was "like a lttle old man who had been thrown from a train who then spent the whole night wandering around lost outside and then was picked up by the police and locked away in a homeless shelter for 36 hours." As if we didn't feel bad enough already!
But she was right, at 11 years old, he's no kitten, even though he usually thinks he is. Meisha's always been a pretty fearless little dude, I wonder if this experience is going to shake the little guy's self-confidence. I hope it makes him less likely to want to wander the backyard like it's his own private Serengeti!
A pile of money later, he's now on antibiotics, eye drops, some vitamin/mineral paste and some stomach coating pink stuff that looks like Pepto-Bismal.
And later today he walked stumbled around the house a bit, slept a lot and seemed to be feeling a bit better. Tonight he's still dozing on AB's bed, but he's started to drink water, eat a few bits of food when we brought it up to him on the bed and he generally has begun to seem like his old self again.
He's not too stable on his feet, so we're carrying him around. But that's not too unusual; we like to carry him and he likes being a big baby.
Again, thank you all so much for all your interest and concern.
Going through this weekend knowing that so many people were as concerned about our little Meisha-man as we were, makes me so happy I can't even express it; I just wanna hug you all!
Meisha is home.
We avoided the possible ten-day quarantine (he bit the neighbor that called animal control after finding him out on the sidewalk scared and freaked out from spending the night outside).
His transport box was sort of funny and added levity to our heavy hearts.
Frankie was still worried, but stopped his wailing and instead hovered watchfully nearby.
Meisha was covered in mud, his eyes, his mouth, belly and toes were caked and covered with dirt, leaves and debris. He was so scared and traumatized, but we didn't see any cuts or obvious wounds.
When he saw us he didn't seem to recognize us but he let us pet him gently and we drove home with the box open and him not making a peep.
Instead of going straight to the emergency vet we decided to take him home. The vet at the shelter said they only thought he was dehydrated and they gave him some IV fluids. We could tell his foot or leg was hurt (and the neighbor said he was dragging his leg when they found him), but we thought that the ER vet would need to clean him up first in order to see what was dirt and what might have been a sharp burr or a cut or something in his paw.
It was a good decision. He had been through 12 hours outside, lost and who-knows-what-else and then he had spent another 32 hours in a metal cage at the shelter. That was enough trauma for now. When we got home we gave him a bath which didn't make him happy, but he was just too tired to put up too much of a fuss.
We wrapped him in a towel and he just passed out from exhaustion. He's been sleeping ever since.
Tomorrow we'll have to see if his feet need medical attention, but tonight we're just happy he's home and think it's best just to let him sleep it off. He's been sound asleep between us for over five hours, occassionally sneezing or coughing or jerking awake to see if we're there and then instantly falling back to a deep deep sleep.
THANK YOU ALL for your well-wishes, suggestions, love and positive thoughts.
I KNOW it all helped bring our Meisha home.
Just got Meisha back, he's not doing too good. More later.
He's been found!! The fliers around the neighborhood worked. A few minutes ago a neighbor called to say that they found him yesterday morning.
He'd been hurt "pretty badly" and was "very scared and confused". They said he was growling at them and didn't want to be picked up. They called San Jose Animal Control and they came to pick him up.
I just got off the phone with Animal Control and they said they have a record of having him, but there wasn't a kennel number in the record so she couldn't be sure of exactly where he was. They think he's at the Center on Monterey Road. I have to call back at 9 am to be sure and the place doesn't open until 11 am.
She said that the vet staff would be in after 9 am and they could probably give me more information when I called back. She also updated the information they had on file from the chip Meisha has implanted. We had adopted him from the Humane Society in Minneapolis and hadn't updated the information to our California address. They did try to call the old number.
Poor Meisha. :-(
I want to go get him NOW. I'm sure he's so scared. And he's hurt. I hope not too badly.
But thank you for all your well-wishes and positive thoughts. Last night was rough for us here. Frankie is just beside himself. And frankly, so am I.
I'll update more when we get him back and I know more.
And if you can't get enough pictures of our boys Meisha and Frankie, here's the whole collection from today...and haircuts before.
