My cat had surgery yesterday and now she's living in my bathroom with a shaved butt

I came home Monday night and found my cat Calico sleeping in my bed. This is unusual for her. The other two sleep in my bed all the time, but she rarely comes upstairs, and when she does she sleeps in the chair. I didn't think much about it, though.
On Tuesday, she didn't eat. This is really out of character, and it was a bit worrying. She's about 14-16 years old, so it's getting on towards the time when I'd expect her to start having real problems. She was at the vet about two weeks before, though, and they gave her a clean bill of health, so it was surprising.
On Wednesday, she didn't eat and spent the entire day under the couch. That was, you know, bad. The most common cause of death due to old age in cats is kidney failure, and 15 or so is about when that would probably happen. I put some water under there for her, but she didn't drink anything.
On Thursday, I got worried enough about her getting dehydrated (she hadn't really had anything to drink since Monday or so) that I got her out from under the couch and took her to the vet to get some subcutaneous fluids, which is something they often do at that point, because it makes things a bit easier and more comfortable for the cat. She was clearly not happy by that point--really listless, subdued, etc.
We got to the vet and I put her up on the table there, and the vet's immediate impression was kidney failure, too. But as soon as the vet touched her, a huge abscess near the base of her tail burst. It was horrifying. There was bloody pus everywhere, and it smelled so bad they had to open up all the doors to get some ventilation. It was one of the most awful things I have ever seen in my life. It was actually very good news, though, because an abscess is treatable, whereas kidney failure would have meant her death.
So they took her into the back of the clinic while some interns came and cleaned up the mess (there was a lot of it--an incredible amount of pus) and sprayed Febreeze around (it didn't work). They cleaned her up as best they could and shaved the area immediately around the abscess, revealing a really nasty wound. It was quite wide, and so deep there was exposed muscle. They gave her a pretty serious dose of pain medication immediately, which got her a bit calmer so they could look at it. The conclusion was that she'd been attacked by something, probably on Monday. They said that it's almost always another cat when stuff like this happens, but Calico is 15 years old. She barely goes outside. Sometimes she lies out on the deck in the sun, but the deck is seven meters off the ground, and I've got dogs, too, so there are almost never other cats in my yard. There aren't that many pets in my neighborhood. I can't imagine that one of my other cats did it--Calico has always gotten along very well with the other two, and I've never seen them fight. Attacking something like this would be extremely strange behavior for both of them, too. So I'm not sure how she got it, but anyway, she did.
The vet said they were going to need to do surgery to clean out the wound, put in a drain, and stuff like that, but it was already late Thursday evening so they couldn't do it then. They would do it Friday morning, and she'd need to stay at the vet until Saturday, so they could watch her and make sure she was OK.
Now it's Saturday, and she came back home this morning. Much of her back half is shaved, and she's got a lot of stitches and a drain (a rubber tube) in the wound, and an e-collar of course. She needs to go back to the vet on Tuesday to get the drain taken out, and then it'll be another week or so until the stitches can come out. She'll have to be kept apart from my other pets until then so they don't damage the stitches, and she'll have to have the cone on the whole time. Until the drain comes out she's stuck in my bathroom with the tile floor, because it's still dripping bloody fluid occasionally. We've fixed it up with a litterbox and the chair she likes and stuff, so she's OK in there. Once the drain is out she'll have access to my room, too, with the door closed to keep the dogs out. It'll probably be close to two weeks before she's free to go outside or to the rest of the house, overall.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention that. I'd post pictures of her, but she's pretty messed up right now, so it's not really something you'd want to look at. I'll update this occasionally as she recovers.

Quick recover for your cat , guess that sounds weirder in Engish now that I think of it but whatever ("Get better soon" is too long for me , w8 I just wrote it O.o , Im hopeless -.- ).

Our old cat had to get surgery to have his ears cut off due to cancer. Plus some after he got savaged by a shitcrazy terrier. The cat survived, the dog didn't.

@proto you had a quite badass cat there...

Ivan2006 wrote:

@proto you had a quite badass cat there...

Yeah, the old bastard was harder to kill than SCP-682, farm cats are the best.

It was funny and cute as hell to watch my cat back from the vet after he had surgery, she was still under the effect of the sedative and was all drunk as hell. You could see how she tried to stand and every time she was going from side to side and ultimately falling. Finally she just fell down on the spot and fell asleep right there.

Awww...Sorry about your cat LJS. My best wishes on its speedy recovery.

Also Proto nice cat.

One of my cats got an abscess once. Not a normal one, either.


What happened you ask? Well, we found it while petting her, as she hadn't been acting strange. We took her to the vet, and apparently there were more. The culprit?

Bot flies. Thought she was a rodent, and they laid their eggs in her (no joke), which caused the wound. Nasty stuff.

Callie is doing great. The drain was taken out today, but the holes where it was weren't stitched up because the vet wants them to close on their own, so she's got to stay in the bathroom until that happens. She can't lose the e-collar until she gets her stitches out next Friday, but beyond that she's behaving pretty normally.

Hmm, yes. I, too, have a cat.

The place where the drain was seems better, so she's allowed out of the bathroom now, at least while I'm there.

This thread is vaguely disturbing, hope your cat gets better though.

She got her stitches out today, so she's officially back to normal. It'll take a few weeks for all her fur to grow back, but she's out of my room and living with the other pets again.

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

Laibach wrote:

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

That would work if you lived anywhere near me, I guess, but as far as I know you don't.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

That would work if you lived anywhere near me, I guess, but as far as I know you don't.

Same city, that was the joke, if joke you can call it.

Laibach wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

That would work if you lived anywhere near me, I guess, but as far as I know you don't.

Same city, that was the joke, if joke you can call it.

You don't know where I live. You and Tiel are both convinced it's Atlanta, but that remains incorrect. I have come to the conclusion that it would take more time than I have to convince you of that, so whatever floats your boat.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

You don't know where I live. You and Tiel are both convinced it's Atlanta, but that remains incorrect. I have come to the conclusion that it would take more time than I have to convince you of that, so whatever floats your boat.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

I have come to the conclusion that it would take more time than I have to convince you of that, so whatever floats your boat.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

so whatever floats your boat.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

boat.

LJS living on that boat confirmed.
So is HL3, Portal 3, L4D3, and TF3.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

That would work if you lived anywhere near me, I guess, but as far as I know you don't.

Same city, that was the joke, if joke you can call it.

You don't know where I live. You and Tiel are both convinced it's Atlanta, but that remains incorrect. I have come to the conclusion that it would take more time than I have to convince you of that, so whatever floats your boat.

All I know is what I saw on the poster map, and you said stuff about being an organizer or something at dragoncon and the 501st legion. I'll go along with whatever you say, though.

Laibach wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

That would work if you lived anywhere near me, I guess, but as far as I know you don't.

Same city, that was the joke, if joke you can call it.

You don't know where I live. You and Tiel are both convinced it's Atlanta, but that remains incorrect. I have come to the conclusion that it would take more time than I have to convince you of that, so whatever floats your boat.

All I know is what I saw on the poster map, and you said stuff about being an organizer or something at dragoncon and the 501st legion. I'll go along with whatever you say, though.

I'm not even a member of the 501st, although I've marched with them on occasion. Dragon*Con is indeed held in Atlanta, but it's the largest convention of its type in the world. One of the people who stuck around to give feedback on the Star Wars track after the con was French. That tells you nothing. I suppose I can't speak to what the poster map said; I know Tiel saw me on vacation in the Caribbean, so you may have looked while I was at Dragon*Con, although I'm not usually on much then.

Realized after writing all that that I'd already said I didn't have the time to argue with you, but whatever. Guess I was wrong.

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Last_Jedi_Standing wrote:

Laibach wrote:

Congratulations, I'll have to come over and see her sometime, maybe bring the Blessed Spices as well.

That would work if you lived anywhere near me, I guess, but as far as I know you don't.

Same city, that was the joke, if joke you can call it.

You don't know where I live. You and Tiel are both convinced it's Atlanta, but that remains incorrect. I have come to the conclusion that it would take more time than I have to convince you of that, so whatever floats your boat.

All I know is what I saw on the poster map, and you said stuff about being an organizer or something at dragoncon and the 501st legion. I'll go along with whatever you say, though.

I'm not even a member of the 501st, although I've marched with them on occasion. Dragon*Con is indeed held in Atlanta, but it's the largest convention of its type in the world. One of the people who stuck around to give feedback on the Star Wars track after the con was French. That tells you nothing. I suppose I can't speak to what the poster map said; I know Tiel saw me on vacation in the Caribbean, so you may have looked while I was at Dragon*Con, although I'm not usually on much then.

Realized after writing all that that I'd already said I didn't have the time to argue with you, but whatever. Guess I was wrong.

Sure, I believe you.