I brought Cali home from the vet on Friday. The little guy cost me $730 in vet bills. I'm still debating whether he's worth it. ;)
His surgery went well.
Gory details:
After opening him up, the vet was able to "milk" the rubber cap out of his stomach and down into his colon, where it was retrieved rectally. This meant that they didn't have to cut into his intestinal tract and avoided increased risk of infection. He's got a 4" long line of stiches on his shaved belly. They come out at the end of this week. Thankfully, the vet said stitches removal and the follow-up visit is already included in the bills I paid....or I'd have my dad do it.
Cali was also diagnosed with mild pancreatitis. He's on mild prescription food this week and not allowed to leave my room. Happily, he hasn't done any more vomiting and seems to have plenty of energy. He's been very affectionate and uber-cute in his soft blue E-collar. We spent a lot of the weekend curled up on the bed together.
...is having a bad week.
I mentioned in my last post that my cat, Cali, has been vomiting since Sunday morning.
I dropped him off at the vet this morning (his second vet visit of the week) for bloodwork and x-rays. They called me a little while ago with results.
It seems Cali swallowed the rubber end cap from a door stop. He's enjoyed playing with them from kittenhood, so I was able to agree with the vets guess of what he was seeing on the xray.
Cali will stay at the clinic overnight and get rehydrated before having surgery tomorrow morning.
I'm just glad to KNOW what is wrong with him. I think I'll probably be funding replacement of all the door stops in the house with hinge-mounted ones.
The Pumpkin Massacre last night was a success. We had around 30 guests of all ages in the house, madly scooping guts and getting creative with knives. I was pleased to see that a large number of my friends from TWTexans managed to make it all the way out here...
Dinner was tri-tip, potato salad, beans, and bread. The Texans universally decreed that tri-tip was *yummy*, even as they tried to guess what part of the cow it came from.
If I had a camera more capable in low-light situations, this picture would be far more interesting. As is, I present a view of some of the carved pumpkins from early in the evening, when my camera still had battery life...
In other news, my cat Cali isn't feeling well. We went to the vet this afternoon for a short examination to figure out why he's not keeping food down. The vet didn't find anything wrong, so we're going to try some anti-nausea medicine and bland food for a few days.
Mom and Amy are back, with the horses (Tuffy and Cisco) settled in at a nearby pasture and Sophie the bloodhound bathed and well on her way to becoming an indoor dog.
My cat, Cali, seems to be fine with the new addition. Kelsey the scottie isn't quite ready to relax.
I received a Polar F11 Heart Rate Monitor Watch for my birthday from Tony. It's a really great gift because it's something I might not ever have considered buying for myself, but now that I have it,I absolutely love using it.
Retailing at around $150, it's not just a simple heart beat counter. It measures fitness level and then creates a customized workout program that tells me how long to exercise each week at what heart rate levels. Then when I actually go out to exercise, it lets me continually know whether I am in my exercise heart rate zone, exercise time goal for the session, how many calories burned, and how long I've exercised. It also makes me take a warm up and cool down period before and after exercising. This watch is more powerful than some computers I've owned (in the distant past). I love gadgets.
It's hugely motivating, because I'm constantly getting feedback and know that my exercise is actually accomplishing something. It's also gotten me motivated to exercise longer per session because the shortest amount of time my customized workout program recommends is one hour. I really want to make this watch happy so It'll display a little trophy symbol at the end of each week. Oh, that and tell me that my fitness level has gone up.
Doesn't he look thrilled?
Meanwhile, I received word from one of my readers that comments weren't working in certain browsers. I hope I've fixed that by changing to a more standard template. Please let me know if you encounter any errors.
