The kitty isn't dead but he almost was.

And by the way, my grandma still says that he didn't have any seizures while she was with him alone but I don't see how that's at all possible. I'm thinking she just missed them.

So today I got there about 1:30, fed him some formula, and he purred and purred and purred and then went to sleep for a bit. About 2, he had what I thought was maybe a mini seizure at 2 (I'm now sure about that) and then was back after about 10 -15 seconds or so... there was no convulsing like with the bigger ones. He mewed, stiffened, and trembled a little bit while his eyes fluttered. And that was it. Then he started purring again and went back to sleep. This happened again at 2:32. At 2:43 this happened again and I called the emergency clinic to find out how much it would be to be seen. At 2:45, while I was on the phone with them, he had one of the bigger ones. Within about 5 minutes, we were driving at the time, he had another mini one. Then about half an hour later when we got to the clinic he had another mini one.

The whisked him away right after I got there and all of our consulting was done with him in another room. They said he had at least 5-6 more mini ones while he was there. I don't think they ever saw one of the bigger ones. I talked to the doctor about what the options were. She didn't really go into the possiblity of head injury too much. It sounded like I'd have to rule out a lot of things with tests first. I felt like my options were limited to: give him tests and admit him to the hospital or have him put down. They pretty much had me talked into having him put to sleep, since the cost was just too high for me to handle, especially since they sounded like even if they did figure out what was wrong, it would probably be something they couldn't fix. So they put a catheter in his little arm and brought him in to me to be alone with him and say goodbye. And he was pretty alert and bright eyed, and he looked at me and was purring and purring. And I couldn't do it. I opened the door, which was supposed to be my signal for them to come in and do the deed. But I asked the doctor if she thought he had any pain or discomfort when he seized and she said no. And I said that I didn't want to do it today then. They said ok, adjusted the invoice, gave my card a refund for that part of the bill, and gave him a shot of valium (to help with the seizures hopefully) before giving him back to me.

After they gave him that shot he was really active for a little while. I set him down in the box on my front seat and he was walking all over in it and trying to climb out. When I picked him up and held him, he settled down and was quiet. Not really sleeping, I don't think, just looking very out of it with eyes partly open. I had to get gas because I was on empty when I arrived at the place. It was storming outside. I pulled into the gas station and set him down in the box and he started moving all over the place again. So I held him while I swiped my card on the pump. He got hit with some rain and started moving around again so I set him down in the box and checked on him while I pumped. Putting him back on the soft towel when he'd hang himself over the side of the box. All the way back to my grandma's I had to hold him because he wouldn't stay still otherwise. The shot of valium must have really kicked in by the time we got to my grandma's though because he didn't object to me putting him in the box when I took him in. He pretty much slept while I was there. I believe he had a couple seizures while I was with him. Once in the car and once at my grandma's. He didn't have any twitches or convulsing though. He would stiffen and that was pretty much it. And it only lasted about 10 seconds or so, if that. Otherwise, if he'd open his eyes, I'd pet him and he'd go back to sleep.

I'm going to call my grandma before I go to bed and see how he's doing. I'll call her tomorrow morning too and then go over there when I get out of work.

Now I'm going to research more about head injuries and seizures.

Tags: critter tales