Yet another cat update
Jul. 4th, 2011 12:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_andyLast night, just as we were falling asleep, Ed sneezed a couple times. For once my paranoia paid off, as I came upstairs to find his nose just beginning to bleed. I got Chris up and grabbed his nose drops, then quickly moved him to the futon (with it's easier to clean blanket) and administered the drops. That kicked off a sneeze or two, but then things seemed to subside. Chris started a timer (if the drops didn't stop the bleeding in 10 minutes we had some stronger ones to apply) and I kept Ed calm on the bed. The bleeding seemed to stop pretty quick, then Ed got fed up with my attention and moved to the floor. We decided to keep and eye on him for a bit, then take him to the vet.
Once he calmed down and cleaned his face you couldn't tell anything had happened (aside from the splatter on the blanket). We wavered about the vet a bit, but were leaning toward taking him in, to avoid relapses while we slept. When I called the vet about 40 minutes later they said that of course we could bring him in, but a) the bleeding would probably remain stopped and b) taking him in would increase his blood pressure and potentially cause them to start up again. So we decided to take the gamble of keeping him home. I slept on the couch and Chris in the bedroom, to cover more area in case he wandered.
We didn't need to worry; once I got established he slept on my feet all night long. And I was too much of a softy to adjust myself, even though I thought my ankles would break. I didn't sleep too well, mostly because his sister was interested in what was going on and I had to continually shepherd her away from his side of the couch. Eventually I think she decided to sleep with Chris.
Ed is now sleeping in a sunbeam on a chair in the study, apparently no worse off than he was before. It's really pretty shocking how quickly the bleeding started and how quickly treatment can stop it. A couple drops of children's decongestant is preferable to a late night ER trip. I'm just glad it happened when we were home, and not, say immediately after we left the house for work some day.
Once he calmed down and cleaned his face you couldn't tell anything had happened (aside from the splatter on the blanket). We wavered about the vet a bit, but were leaning toward taking him in, to avoid relapses while we slept. When I called the vet about 40 minutes later they said that of course we could bring him in, but a) the bleeding would probably remain stopped and b) taking him in would increase his blood pressure and potentially cause them to start up again. So we decided to take the gamble of keeping him home. I slept on the couch and Chris in the bedroom, to cover more area in case he wandered.
We didn't need to worry; once I got established he slept on my feet all night long. And I was too much of a softy to adjust myself, even though I thought my ankles would break. I didn't sleep too well, mostly because his sister was interested in what was going on and I had to continually shepherd her away from his side of the couch. Eventually I think she decided to sleep with Chris.
Ed is now sleeping in a sunbeam on a chair in the study, apparently no worse off than he was before. It's really pretty shocking how quickly the bleeding started and how quickly treatment can stop it. A couple drops of children's decongestant is preferable to a late night ER trip. I'm just glad it happened when we were home, and not, say immediately after we left the house for work some day.
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Date: 2011-07-04 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-04 08:38 pm (UTC)