final mimo update. (hopefully.)

first, i need to mention that our regular vet, donna manley, called us at home last night to check in on mimo. she spent about 20 minutes on the phone with us, answering our questions and easing our anxiety. she is truly a remarkable woman, and i will take our cats to her until the day i die. she is an angel.

flash forward to this morning. no vomit and no poop from mimo. so we drove him to the vet school at 7:00am. the roads were clear and the skies were dark. in the car ray let mimo out his carrier and held him in his arms.

the student doing the intake told us mimo was scheduled within the very first series of radiograph appointments for the day, at 9:30am. dr. mazzei called with his assessment at 11am.

he said the x-rays showed no evidence of the pneumothorax. either the first series of x-rays that diagnosed the problem were in error, or mimo had already reabsorbed the pocket of air. dr. mazzei is no longer concerned that this is an urgent health issue. whew.

mimo also had a full cardiac workup this morning, including an echocardiogram, which showed that his murmur is due to a mild thickening of the heart muscle. sometimes this can be due to medical factors like thyroid problems, but in mimo's case --because he's so young-- dr. mazzei believes this is simply a congenital heart defect. he suggests we leave it untreated for now, but to watch him closely... perhaps getting an echocardiogram every year ($$!!) and definitely getting him examined by our vet every 4-6 months. additionally, dr. mazzei would like to teach ray & i how to take mimo's blood pressure & pulse ourselves... there's just no way they can get an accurate reading at the vet school. he is either too anxious or too sedated.

finally, the string. it's funny that this now feels like the least critical issue. dr. mazzei palpated mimo's abdomen this morning and felt that a big ol' turd had formed in his colon. he believes that if mimo swallowed the fucking string then he's going to simply shit it out in another day or two. there is definitely shit impending. so dr. mazzei believes that doing an endoscopy at this point would be a waste of our money... "as much as i love scoping cats and pulling things out of their stomachs --it's fun!!-- i think i would just be spending your money unnecessarily."

so because mimo isn't vomiting and he shows no sign of obstruction (the food he's eaten these last couple of days is on its way out) it looks like we're just going to wait for him to poop the fucking string out.

still, even though we're about $1,500 poorer with no string to show for it, i think this turned out to be a beneficial experience. at least we know more about mimo's heart murmur and we're reasonably confident he isn't going to die by string.

Posted by xta at January 21, 2005 12:07 PM | TrackBack