Luckie Kitty's Tail

In December, at a routine visit to the vet, they were changing the wrap around her neck when they noticed an infection at the tube site. The E-Tube would have to come out and another one could not go in. The alternative was a PEG tube. This is a longer term solution and can stay in for up to a year before needing to be replaced. The tube enters through the body wall on the cat's side and goes directly to the stomach. Again I scoured the Internet for information. Even though she had the tube in her neck it was hard to imagine one going into her side. Would she scratch at it? Bite at it? We went forward with the procedure and she came home with bandages around her belly, holding this incredibly long tube in place. I'm told the tubing only comes in one size and is therefore long to accommodate a larger animal. The good thing was that the diameter of the tubing was larger and therefore did not clog as easily as the E-Tube. Luckie adjusted to the PEG tube as if nothing had changed--although she did seem pretty glad to get the wraps off her neck.

It was nearing Christmas and Luckie was only going to the vet for fluids a couple of times per week.The vet techs delighted in changing her bandaging and decorating it for the season. She came home with holly berries one day and Christmas trees another. Other than the tube sticking out of her, she was living a pretty normal cat life. She got tons of attention and warm food and water going into her belly a couple of times a day. She seemed to be living the good life.

Having her mid-section wrapped all the time was notideal. The tube site was looking good and she didn’t bother it, but she had to have the wrap to secure all that tubing. I began to think about what other way we might be able to accomplish the same thing and let the fur and skin around her middle breathe a bit more. One of my hobbies is sewing, so I started looking at patterns for pet clothes. I found a “vest” pattern for a small dog and adjusted it for what I wanted it to do. It buttoned around Luckie’s neck and under her belly. It looked a bit more like a dress or a cape than a vest, but what was more important was that I was able to place holes strategically through which I could feed the tubing.

Luckie was amazing during the design process, which started with me cutting a pattern out of newspaper and wrapping it around her to refine the sizing. Then during the creation of her first outfit, there had to be several fittings. She would sit and let me put it on her and showed no irritation at me poking around to see where I needed to take a tuck or whatever. When it was finished, I put it on her and she seemed to love it. She pranced around as if she was showing it off. She looked adorable. I later made her another version and we alternated between having her wrapped for a few days and letting her wear her dress for a few days. The dress didn’t hold the tube in place as securely as the wrap, so we had to keep a close eye on the tube site. Eventually, we gave up the dresses because she was having some problems with the tube site.

In March, Luckie was put under anesthesia so that Dr. McClellan could go in with a scope to check the tube. Dr. McClellan had just told us that she was leaving AVC to do consulting work and would not be seeing patients. This was a huge blow but was softened somewhat when we learned that her husband worked as a vet at Derry Animal Hospital, which is within walking distance from our condo. We were looking to change vets because we were unhappy with our previous vet, and learning that she would continue to consult with her husband and even come in to do feeding tube replacement made the break less jarring.

Prior to this procedure, Luckie had been "coughing" intermittently. It sounded like she was trying to get a hairball out. After the procedure, and receiving extra fluids, this worsened to the point that Luckie appeared to be having trouble breathing. It was a Sunday. Another trip to the ER. More X-rays. A new and scary diagnosis--Congestive Heart Failure. She spent the night in an incubator on oxygen. In the morning, she was transferred to AVC. Dr. McClellan was gone, but Dr. Sanfilippo, the Hospitalist at AVC, had been actively involved in Luckie's case and was a familiar face to us. An ultrasound was ordered to take a better look at her heart. She had fluid in her lungs and around her heart. Her body wasn't absorbing the subcutaneous fluids properly and so we made the decision to stop the fluids and hydrate her via the feeding tube. After she was stable and breathing better, she was able to come home and we were set to follow up with a visit to our new vet, "Mr. Dr. McClellan", as we had begun calling him to differentiate him from his wife. While the ultrasound had shown some abnormalities in Luckie's heart, it was unclear what the extent of the problem was.

Luckie, yet again, bounced back like a champ. It was truly amazing how resilient she was. We met "Mr. Dr. McClellan" when Luckie needed a routine check and updated blood work. He shared with us that there was a good chance that Mary Ann Sanfilippo would be leaving AVC and joining the staff at Derry Animal Hospital. That was great news. We kept our fingers crossed.

Soon it was spring and time to open up our camp again. Obviously we couldn't spend a night at camp without Luckie, so she got to be the first cat to come to camp. The camp has a three season porch that is all windows. Chipmunks and squirrels skitter about in the yard all day (and probably all night). For Luckie, it was love at first sight. She perked up at camp in a way that we hadn't seen for over a year. She basked in the afternoon sun that flooded the room, she watched "Chipmunk TV" avidly and basically claimed the porch as her own. She rarely came into the main camp. We joked that she probably didn't even know that there was a bedroom in the place.