Miss Zelda

This week has been hectic and trying so far. As I have mentioned before, Zelda's health hasn't been too great since we left Virginia. We had another incident the other night after her recent dosage of antibiotics ran out and we knew it was time to get down to what was causing her illness. 

I took her to our new vet here and decided that yes, it was time to fork over the cash to get Zelda her ultrasound to ultimately diagnose her with pyrometra (infection of the uterus). $400 later and it was pretty conclusive that she definitely had a stump pyrometra and that she was, "one of a million" cats, according to the vet, to get this condition especially since she had been spayed. 

When the condition occurs in altered cats its because a small piece of ovarian tissue is left after a spay. The ovarian tissue causes her cervix to open and become receptive in hopes that she will become pregnant. However, because the small section of uterus isn't connected to anything anymore, when the cervix opens it can take in bacteria. That's what happened to poor Zelda and unfortunately it was a perfect place for bacteria to grow and fester. 

Happily, Zelda was doing remarkably well (which I heard from both veterinarians I took her to) and I was able to quickly call around for the best price and place to get her surgery done. Our initial vet wouldn't keep her overnight because they weren't open and would cost nearly $2,000 after all was said and done. After some early morning calls, I found a place a few more miles away that would perform the surgery immediately and keep her up to two nights for observation for less than that. 

It was a very serious and complicated surgery. The surgeons actually called me mid-surgery to inform me about what was going on and that they had run into a snag: her infected uterus was close to her kidney and they were informing me about the risks of removing it. But... there really was no good scenario. It had to come out or she would surely die. 

I got a call after the surgery that she had made it though and that there was no obvious damage to any surrounding structures. I also was called early this morning about her condition and she was up, eating, drinking, and trying to play. She seems to be doing really well and we're just waiting to hear a call from the doctor this morning about when we can go pick her up. 

I'm just hoping that getting this removed that she will finally be a healthy little kitten. 

It's been tough though, having to make these decisions on my own because Russ was busy on his ship and wasn't home with me. Guess I'm earning my Navy wife stripes, right?