Posted: Mar 26, 2007  18:46

By Judy Capparelli

Sara, is a long haired Siamese Cat that belongs to my friend John. Every year Sara gets knots in his hair- Yes he is a he with a girls name. (that is another story in its own.) This year it was so bad it was like Dread Locks- He wouldn't let you comb him to prevent them. So we figured a trip to the Vet to get him shaved down was in order. We thought he would have to be knocked out in order for them to shave him down. Suprisingly the cat just layed there and let them cut his hair.

He looked kind of silly-everything was clipped except his head,tail, and lower legs. He was fine with this- didn't act embarassed like some animals will. He just felt good getting the gnarley knots off from him.

He was fine until about a week and half later.. then started acting like he didn't feel good- moped around the house, didn't eat much- and didn't hardly use his litter box. This was unusual for him- then on the news out came the story about the Pet Food Recall, and the Scare began.

John took him into the Vet- they ran test after test, hooked him up to an IV with antibiotics and fluids- he spent the better part of the week there. All the tests came out negative. They told him that he could have an ultra sound done on him to check out his gall bladder and pancreas, but he would have to go to another Vet in Spokane for it. Being the responsible Pet Owner he is, John took Sara to Spokane. $800.00 later, he found out the cat was all OK, had nothing wrong with him. Other than being shaved down all the way on his sides and belly.

Sara came home on Friday, still with the IV needle in his leg. (He was to go back on Monday and get it out if nothing was found to where they would need to use the IV lead.)

Sara seemed ok, but yesterday we noticed his foot where the IV needle was was swollen and he was limping. So we decided to unwrap his leg and remove the needle.

Easier Said than Done!! I held him down, had my face right to his head holding him down and trying to calm him-while John worked at taking the coban and tape off. BOY can that Cat Holler!! It would have been the perfect chance for him to tear my eyeballs right out of my head! Luckily he was just making noise.

Under the coban which only sticks to itself, there was real tape that was stuck to his fur and skin. We finally gave up and re-wrapped it with new coban- tho not as tight as it had been. John took him to the Vet this am and got the needle taken out. It took them about 5 minutes to do the trick. They put a bandaid of some sort on it, told John to leave it for about 5 hours, then remove it. When he went to get Sara to remove it, he had already taken it off by himself- no one to yell at that time.

I can just about bet that the Vets have been overwhelmed with calls like this that are just scares. Expensive ones- but hey Animals are kids too.