Costly Cure
Jiji ran out of things to break around the apartment, I guess.
When it rains, it pours!
When Jiji had a little coughing fit, we launched into full-blown Overbearing Parent Mode and took him to the vet, assuming it was just allergies or an upper-respiratory infection. The vet checked him over and, to our surprise, said that we needed to go see a surgeon because he might have a polyp in his ear that was tickling his throat.
We took Jiji to get a surgical consultation and were told that he didn’t have an ear polyp! He had polyps in both ears, like the worst BOGO sale ever! Since these are things that can grow to restrict his breathing, cause infections, deafness, and generally screw with his quality of life, we are going to be biting that bullet-bill (haha, like Mario! Get it? …okay, nothing like Mario.) and getting him surgery in a few of weeks. On the upside, we did catch Jiji’s condition early enough that he’s still happy and practically symptom-free, so that adorable little jerk is having a great time.
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:-/ When is the surgery due?
We need to finalize the exact date, but it will be the third or fourth week of October, depending on when they can fit him in.
**WARNING, POSSIBLY GRAPHIC:**
He has to have incisions on both sides of his neck, where they separate the muscles and go around the nerves to his face in order to cut out the polyps. Since there can be some swelling that impacts breathing after this, they need to monitor him for 24hours before they can send him home, and then it’s a 10-day recovery process where he has to wear a cone/puffy donut around his neck to keep from scratching at his incisions. The stitches are the dissolvable kind, so luckily they won’t need removed. The total cost estimate also includes antibiotics and steroids for after the surgeries, so at least we have an all-in-one bill. We’re hoping to spend 24/7 with him after his surgeries since his inner ear may be affected, which could lead to vertigo or dizziness, so we want to be able to monitor him carefully. There are a few risks associated with the surgeries, but the risk of (ugh) death is literally 0.000000001% and the surgeons seemed confident and said they do these kinds of surgeries all of the time on shelter cats. So, we’re hopeful he’ll just be really, really mad at us for a little while.
Do you have a puffy cone? If not, I have one I’m happy to donate to the cause.
Thanks for the offer, but the price was all-inclusive — they’ll fit him with a puffy donut for us all to laugh at after his surgeries. <3
It’s nice to hear that all will be well after the surgery. Our black cat recently had surgery to remove a lump on his chest/ribs. We bought the puffy cone and tried to use it when he started licking his stitches a little. We tried to put it on three times. Each time he quickly removed it, so we just watched him closely and he didn’t mess with it anymore. His recovery has been great. Unfortunately, the lump was malignant and will grow back (even if we decided to try extensive additional surgery followed by radiation). (Don’t worry- he’ll still be getting the best palliative vet care, treats, and snuggles.)
Small PSA: His tumor was most likely Vaccination Associated Sarcoma (VAS). It’s rare (1 in 10,000 to 30,000 cats), but make sure your vet is giving your cat vaccines in the recommended sites (usually hind legs for rabies and FLV, front right leg for all others, sometimes tail, and not on the shoulders/back) and is not over-vaccinating your cat. In the unlikely event that a tumor does develop, the leg can be amputated and the cat spared other, even more traumatic treatment. We adopted our cat as an adult, so we’re not sure about his past injections.
I know this is a month late, but I just needed to say the panel of Jiji coughing is like the cutest thing ever.