05/15/2025
For all of the fans of Callie, the store's calico cat, you will notice her absence for awhile. This is the story.
Monday morning she wasn't out back waiting for me to arrive as she usually is, so I messaged Christy who told me that she HAD been here on Sunday along with the rest of the cats. About 10am Pedro comes and tells me that kitty showed up but her tail's all messed up. I go up to look at it, thinking that she's gotten in a fight or gotten bitten by a raccoon or some such thing, but her entire tail from bum to tip is completely stripped of all flesh and fur!! So I try to call the vet's emergency line, but no answer. I put her in the carrier and take her down to Fortuna Vet immediately. They hadn't answered the phone because there was only one staff member working the front desk, so they told me that they were glad that I had just come in.
After Dr. Rice had a chance to look Callie over, she called me to tell me that it would be a tricky surgery because of the proximity to so many nerves in that area that regulate, not only walking, but urination and defecation. If there is nerve damage to either of those bodily functions there isn't much that can be done. She sent images and texts to all of the other vets that she works with to see if any of them felt confident to do that surgery and there were 3 who were. They kept her on pain meds and antibiotics for 1 1/2 days while we waited for her to urinate on her own, because if she couldn't there was no reason to do the surgery. She finally emptied her bladder on her own, so the surgery was done Tuesday afternoon and was more successful than we had originally thought that it would be. Dr. Desen was able to keep a couple of the vertebrae so that she'll have a stump and there ended up being plenty of excess skin to close the incision.
Callie has been eating and drinking just fine, she's been able to void her bladder both before and after her surgery and she's still receiving pain meds and antibiotics so that she doesn't develop an infection.
Since she's a store cat and there is so much going on here, doors open, etc Dr. Desen suggested that we could board her with them until her stitches come out just to be cautious, so I believe that she will be remaining in the hospital until the end of next week.
They are calling me every day with updates and, other than being REALLY pi**ed off about the cone of shame, she's doing quite well.
Next time you all see her she will have her new look, which let's face it, what girl doesn't want to reinvent herself in mid-life?? She will now be a manx, but still the sweet little scale-warmer that we all know and love.
We will keep you all posted on her progress.
Cheers!
