Caturday Saturday

Well, our mewmie, who planned ahead before she went on vacation to Oregon, and had a photo a day while she was away, has finally taken a moment to take some photos of us today, with the warm sun shining in, the snow melting and life is good! This is a photo of our mewmie, all bundled up, smiling cuz she's on vacation in Orygun!


Everyone has been asking how President Coco's feeling now she is expecting again. She is doing just fine and according to Teri, looks rather plump for only being 5 weeks along, so she is wondering if there are more than 3 buns in the oven for Madame Coco. During her last week of pregnancy, mewmie will take Coco in to work (yes, her day hunting place is the V.E.T.'s) with her every day so she can monitor her closely and also the vet will take an xray to determine how many babies Coco is carrying. Here is a photo of Coco and her "Baby Bump"...


Teri moved a rocking chair up from the basement and put a cozy cat bed in it and right away Disco and Brighton burrowed in it and put on their most photogenic smiles for the next shot...


Disco is being very good, with no signs of spraying while mewmie was away on vacation or on anything since she got back (he's been known to spray her suitcase after a trip), and even our petsitter said the four of us seem very content and happy, too. He is still on anxiety meds (Paxil) and mewmie is happy he is behaving himself!

While Teri was taking photos of us, Kiki decided that a good rabbit kick to Teri's knee would be fun. Teri tried to catch her mid-kick, but failed...but in the next photo you can see the glee in Kiki's eyes! Funny, but our favorite kicker toys are made out of old jeans...hmmm, is that like giving a puppy an old shoe to chew on and then getting mad when it chews up your Choo's?


And since it was a pretty slow week at work, Teri took Sammy, the stud cat, in to work with her for his yearly exam and lab tests and to have his teeth cleaned, as last year the vet said they needed attention. Well, mewmie printed out his chart and realized he hadn't had a dental prophy since 2006! She was embarrassed and expected the worst as his breath was stinky.

But she didn't realize how bad things were in there, especially as he had gained 8 ounces since last year and looked good. When the vet got him under anesthesia and started probing his gums, she said she thought he might need a full mouth extraction! The vet recommended having her partner take a look at his teeth and maybe he would even need to go to the Dental Specialist! So, while he was asleep, they cleaned his teeth and extracted 2 incisors (the very small teeth in front) then let him wake up.

So the next day, she took him back in to work and using a different anesthetic protocol, since his BP got a bit low, then he tried to wake up during the procedure yesterday, the vet examined him and said that yes, almost all his teeth were affected and once was close to abscessing! But she said he didn't need to go to the specialist as she was confident that she could handle his issues.

Because he needed extractions on both the upper and lower jaw, the vet elected wisely to split it into 2 procedures, as the lower jaw is fragile and removing 2 canine (fang) teeth on the lower jaw at the same time is risky as it could fracture or be very unstable. So he had 10 teeth extracted, all of his upper incisors; his 2 right canines, and some of his pre-molars. For now, the molars look healthy.


He has a fentanyl pain patch on that lasts 5 days, will be on antibiotics for a month, when he will go back and have 1 more canine and a lower premolar extracted. Our mewmie just feels terrible that she didn't get him in sooner for his dental and that a year had passed and more since his last dental! And it just goes to show, that sometimes even a visual exam of the mouth can't show you all the problems that lie hidden under the gumline!

Fortunately, he has no stomatitis or other issues (like Fiona) so once he heals up, he will be happy and comfortable again. He will have a silly smile though, with just one Fang! And you can see in the photo below, of Sammy resting in his heated bed, that the right side of his face (where his fangs used to be) looks different than the left side.


You can see he is drooling a little still, and his eyes are a little unfocused too, from the pain meds, but he is eating and head bunting and Teri's giving him lots of kisses on the top of his head, where it isn't sore!

Thinking of Fiona, and all the mouth problems her breeder sent her off with, our mewmie told her vet that even if she decides to retire Sammy this year and stop breeding, she never would send him off to his new home without taking care of all his medical problems first--that's the only ethical and compassionate thing to do!