Update on my Ollie
I posted on FB last night the following
**Just returned from the cat ER. Came home to find Ollie with severe head trauma. He is in the oxygen tank and on diuretics to reduce the brain swelling. We are hoping his eyesight will return. I am a wreck. No clue what happened or when. We got to visit hi briefly and he was alert but skittish from all the excitement. Will blog more and post after I check on him in the morning. **
sorry for the cut n paste but truly I'm wasted and wracked with grief (and guilt)
I just called the ER (it's 11:pm PST) to check on him and was told he was off oxygen; he had eaten some and was doing well.
so now let me explain what we think may have happened: As most of you know we have a visitor. I've been feeding him and have plans to get him neutered just as soon as my buddie Vickie can take him (next Friday it turns out) to the clinic where she works doing feral spay/neuters once a month.
Ollie hasn't been too happy since the visitor has made his way into the house a couple times (by opening the locked screen door- he knocks it off the hinges) and I took Ollie's silence that maybe they could get along once the visitor got fixed.
Fast forward to tonight when I returned home from work. I feed everyone first thing; Ollie knows I'm home & comes to the kitchen door (that leads to the garage where I park my bike) and greets me. Not today.
So I put my stuff down & wandered into the living room where there was a scene! Bird feathers everywhere; (Ms. Stella's handy work) the screen door was knocked off the hinge and the slider was open just enough. My Ollie was curled up on his hammock that is in front of the sliding door. He was snoozing I thought. I went around to give him pets & when he looked up at me I nearly died. His face had a huge scab on his nose, there was severe swelling & one of his pupils was fully dilated & the other was partially covered by the nictating membrane. There were minute traces of blood coming out of his nose. I scooped him up and he was just limp. I grabbed my magnifying glasses and headed into the bathroom for a closer look, praying that the pupil dilation was not really what I was seeing.
He was truly in pain; he simply felt his way into my lap and sat there. It was then I realized he couldn't see and I flew into action.
I ran to my neighbors and begged for a ride to our vet. (who agreed to see us if we could get there before six) We arrived & Ollie was whisked to the back for inspection.
Our vet said we needed to get him to the emergency clinic asap so they could administer IV with a diuretic to bring the swelling down. There were no signs of car accident as he was completely fine everywhere else.
I called Ellen's dad & he flew over to take us to the ER.
They immediately took Ollie in the back and started him on the fluids. They did a couple xrays and found no internal damage
*though they did find an old wound of a BB still in his back!*
I know, I know, and right now you could come and run over me with all your cars and I wouldn't feel any worse; truly. I had no idea that 1.) we had horrible people in our immediate neighborhood and 2.) that he had ever been injured!
The Vet came in and said she felt he should be ready to come home as early as tomorrow evening. She said that he has no vision in one eye and most likely only sees shadows in his other eye. It appears that he ran headlong into either the slider door, a wall or something (she even suggested that someone could have hit him. Not with a car but just... )I simply cannot recognize those words even as I write them.
Most likely; Ms. Stella wiggled her way out of the screen and caught a bird (as she is wont to do) maybe when she brought it back in it got away from her and I can see him flying through the house in an attempt to catch it. I have seen him fly right off the top of the 6ft cat tree and miss the mantle by that much and go flying out of control. I have also heard him hit the sliding glass door when the visitor is on the other side of it. He doesn't scream; or howl, he just huffs and then slams into the glass.
I have not seen the visitor since i've been home tonight. Miss El took the bus and met us at the ER even as she was sick with a cold poor thing; and her dad and she brought me home; we chatted & looked all over the house & yard for clues. Pat fixed the door for me so the screen and slider are actually locked now.
Everyone else is fine. The vet said that given time Ollie may regain some or all of his vision. I'm still astonished by this. His poor nose is so swollen but he's breathing fine. They can't tell anything else about his head without and MRI which the vet said really wouldn't be necessary given they can pretty much see what they need to see with all the other tests they've done.
I will update you further in the morning when I call to check on him again. They assured me I can call anytime during the night.
They let us see him while he was in the oxygen chamber. I was able to snuggle him a bit and his ears were like a bats; pivoting like mad at all the sounds. He was so frightened then; I couldn't bear to leave him. Of course after everyone left I collapsed in tears and I thank Teri for messaging me at length even as I know she is three hours ahead of us.
I thank everyone who has posted their love, hugs, purrs and well wishes on FB. It really helped me make it through the night and not feel so totally alone.
xoxo
