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Many of you have reached out asking about Fiona so I wanted to give an update and also some background information in case you don’t know her story yet. Fiona had her kittens on Tuesday May 5. Everything seemed fine- she was nursing them and purring. About 2am, Neil got up and checked on her and woke me up. He said something was off with her, but he didn’t know what. I took one look at her and agreed. I called the emergency hospital to let them know I was on my way and would likely need an ultrasound. Fiona ended up needing an emergency C-section because she had a kitten that was too large to be born naturally. She was released the next day which was Wednesday. We put her in her own catio so she could rest and recover. By Friday morning, I could tell that she was not recovering like she should be. She was not eating and I could tell she just felt crummy. I called my vet, but they couldn’t get her in. I called four other vets that I’ve established care with for situations like this, but everyone was booked. One of the receptionists recommended a clinic I hadn’t heard of, and they were able to get her in that afternoon. The Dr. took one look at her and told me she needed to be hospitalized. She had one of her techs call the nearest emergency animal hospital to organize a transfer and she did a brief exam to check her heartrate and temperature, but then we were back on the road. At the emergency animal hospital, they found she had a terrible uterine infection and needed to perform an emergency spay. She stayed in the hospital for a couple days and seemed to be doing better. When I picked her up from her spay, I noticed she had necrotic tissue on her abdomen. The ER Dr. told me she was worried about that spot but was hopeful it would heal so I brought her back home. Every few hours we were giving Fiona medication or putting compresses on her incision. It’s a bit of a blur so I don’t remember how many days had passed since we brought her home- three or four- when we woke up to find that her necrotic tissue had completely failed and she had a gaping hole in her abdomen. Neil scooped her up and I drove to our closest emergency animal hospital. I called twice on the way and was assured there was no wait. When we got there, we were sent to a room to wait. I asked how long the wait would be and was told they were waiting for a tech to come in for their shift, and they would be there “soon”. We got back in the car and drove out to the emergency animal hospital that had performed her second surgery where they performed a third surgery. Fiona had gotten mastitis that had abscessed and ruptured and resulted in the original spot of necrotic tissue I had noticed along with more necrotic tissue around her incision which failed and opened up her abdomen. The third surgery ended up being an abdominal exploration surgery to determine how much damage had been done and then her necrotic tissue was debrided. That was over two weeks ago, and we are still battling infection and trying to get her incision to heal. We are giving her antibiotics, probiotics, beef collagen, and as much protein as she wants. She has also had seven laser treatments on her incision so far which should promote healing. My vet has told me she may need one more surgery to remove more tissue before she will heal, but I am really hoping we can get her better without putting her through another round of anesthesia and stress. She will see our vet again on Monday June 1, so I’ll put an update in the next newsletter with what we find out what the path forward will be. Fiona is in good spirits and seems to be feeling pretty good. She is eating 15-20 ounces of wet food a day and enjoying her private quarters. Lots of purrs and happy snuggles when we treat her incision so even if we do have to get another surgery, at least she will be in better shape for the next one.
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