On Tuesday, December 8th, I took Herm to her pre-surgery blood screening. My poor baby dealt with an assistant who was not all that great at holding down animals and it ended up with her being a bit bruised by several attempts to take out blood in both her chest and her right hind leg. Not a very good day for Ms. Hemione.
Here is the bill for that:
You will note that they charged me for a Feline Lukemia test even though I told them Hermione's negative :( Well obviously the test came back negative and I spoke with the Vet in charge to reduce the charges (which he did by discounting $10 off the test and reducing the extraction from $100 to $75.)
That same day I took the Antirobe (oral antibiotic) home and started giving it to Herm.
On Thursday, I got a call in the morning that the blood test were all clear and we could proceed with surgery. I took Herm in at 11am and consulted with the Vet. Signed waivers that pretty much said I give them permission to save my pet should something bad happen. I helped put her in a little cat cubby, paid the clerk and left her there :(
Bill paid at dropoff:
At 3:44pm, while I was visiting my mom at the hospital I got a call from the Vet's office. They told me that Hermione was out of surgery, that she's doing fine and I could pick her up after 5pm. When I got to the Vet at 5:30pm, I had to wait for several peeps who were picking up animals as well. When they finally called my name, I spoke to the Vet that handled Herm's procedure. He explained to me that they started administering gas and everything seemed ok. But that they were getting abnormal EKG readings. When they saw that, they stopped the gas immediately and checked on Herm. After checking her out, he decided that she was not fit to be under anesthesia and that because of that they could not do the extraction.
She was calm and groggy enough that they proceeded to scale and polish her teeth. He said that afterwards he took a good look at the shape of teeth and said that it was sound enough to wait for extraction. However, the infection was in the gums and had spread. He advised that I keep her on the antibiotics until it was done. I asked him if it was just a bad reaction to the gas that effected her heart or if it was due to her age. He told me that she definitely had a bad reaction to the gas but whether it was that or her age or the fact that she has an infection her body is trying to fight that caused the abnormal EKG readings he couldn't tell. He said it could be all three things taxing her body. It was his opinion that she may be too old for surgery of any kind, but that at this time we should focus on curing the infection. When that happens, I can bring her in for another EKG to see how her heart is doing.
Since they had to cancel the extraction, they issued a refund of :$182.50. (It's gonna take several days to post to my account they said.) I'm sorry if I offended anyone by asking if it was ok to keep this amount in the Hermione Fund, I know yall donated the money out of the goodness of your hearts, but I just didn't want to take it without consulting yall. (Please Please don't be offended)
Refund:
When I took her home that night she was definitely still groggy and kept stumbling and and dragging her self around like a drunk. It was kinda sad. She kept trying to climb up on my cabinets which is her fave place but she couldn't. After an hour she got to the top of the fridge and almost fell off. I decided to put her in her carrier until she was strong enough and lucid enough to not try dangerous climbing stunts.
Here are some videos:
Hermione home after procedure Thursday:
