But it was a cat.
I bolted up to the woman (probably startling her) and we walked inside together. She carefully unwrapped the "package" and I found a very small Himalayan. He had an obvious eye infection and I carefully opened his mouth to see VERY VERY tiny white teeth. This Himmie is a kitten! Turns out, he's about 4 or 5 months old of a purring love machine. He was kneading in the air and I found myself falling in love with this sweetie.
One of the staff members at the shelter happily took him home to foster (Thanks, Tiff!), and named him "Oscar". We figured getting his eyes fixed up would be a *snap*.
*sigh*....no such luck.
His foster Mom took him to the vets and found that Oscar had "the worst case of Entropic eye lashes" the vet had ever seen. Entropion is when the eye lids are turned inwards and the eyelashes rub against the cornea of the eyes. It's painful and requires expensive surgery. You can't just pluck out the eyelashes because they grow back.
No wonder he was being dumped at the shelter. The owner probably got the bad news about his eyes and couldn't afford the surgery.
Of course, I'm taking on a special needs guy just when Christmas bills are coming in for people and asking for donations feels almost....embarrassing. But I'm going to HAVE do it...
He's currently at our vet clinic waiting for his surgery. Look how cute he is!!!!!!!
8 comments:
I know where you are coming from, we just had an adult Himmy who needed the same surgery, had one eye done the other is being done this week plus extensive dentistry :(
What is recovery like for this surgery? Will he have sight? Just curious...
I remember reading about a couple of cats at Best Friends in the Guardian Angel program who had just this problem - yes, it is a pricey surgery! I'll post about Oscar on my FB page.
Aw, I could cry. It looks so painful. When I've graduated school and moved into my new career (hopefully this year) I'll be able to donate, but for now, unfortunately all I can do is hope for the best.
Kay: I'm not 100% sure. He should have sight, but am not sure about the recovery period. I'll know more later today.
One of the few conditions they use botox for - use to be the best Vet in the city for eyes was Lonnie Goldstein at Forest Hill Vet clinic. He is a Vet ophthalmologist who fits police dogs with contact lenses! Think he is retired now tho. Do you ever use the Vet clinic at U of Guelph Vet college? http://www.ovc.uoguelph.ca/hospital/
good luck
Too bad the SPCA right next door didn't offer to do his surgery, they could have used him to show how "fabulous" they are, yeah right! He's lucky he has Beth!
FYI just found this:
My foster kitten just had agenesis eye surgery on both eyes (no upper eyelids, where they make upper eyelids for the kitten by taking a patch from below and putting it above to create an eyelid so the hair doesn't scratch the cornea).
Entropian surgery is much easier as they will just be rolling the eyelid out.
Your cat will be in a cone (a conehead) for a minimum couple of weeks before the stitches are removed. You may see the eyes after surgery and freak out 'cause they look bloody-ish and very swollen, but this is all normal and the swelling will go down. Call your vet if anything seems amiss. I did on day 2 post-surgery and he gave me some anti-inflammatory oral meds jusT to give her two times. The anti-inflammatories can actually slow down the healing process, but not to any dangerous extent and it really helped with the swelling).
You may find that the third eyelid comes up - cats do this to protect their eyes. My foster's third eyelid in one of her eyes was all the way up and really thick until I gave her the anti-inflammatories, now the third eyelid looks normal and it's halfway down instead of being all the way up covering the entire eye.
She is getting better every day. Be sure to keep that cone on as they can scratch the stitches out and really hurt their eyes (the stitches are itchy). If you do take it off for any reason, 100% supervision and keep your hands at the ready for your cat's sneaky little ways of quickly pulling the paws up to the eyes. When you put the cone back on, leave 1 finger's worth of space between the cat's neck and the tie.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to e-mail me. I can send you a picture of her 1 day post surgery so you can be prepared for waht your cat will look closely like. If you see the picture, do not be alarmed as my Vet did an excellent job on the surgery and she is healing very, very well now. You start noticing the healing process on about the third day post-surgery.
Source(s):
Volunteer/Foster, Animal Services
naps_with_cats from yahoo_answer
Harpurr's Mom
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