Without the tube, she began acting a bit more like herself, but it was stressful again, wondering if she would ever eat or drink on her own again.
As you may recall, this whole epic began November 30th. Since then she has made countless trips to the vet, and even spent a couple nights in hospital. She had several blood tests, several urine tests, an ultrasound, an IV, an xray, a biopsy, was sedated at least 4 times, suffered a total tick infestation that was not relieved by medication, had a strange tongue injury, the alleged spider bite, and had a feeding tube inserted. Add to this a plethora of medications, some of which just caused her to vomit, some which did not work, pills, sprays, injections … For most of December, January, and the beginning of February, she had little control of her bowels or bladder, in addition to vomiting and regurgitating with regularity. She was a total mess and I resorted to trying to clean her up in the shower or with a spray bottle with limited success. Every horizontal surface in the rig had to be covered or cleaned many times a day, or both. I had tarps on the bed, on the floor and over the seats in the truck. I bought a whole new supply of towels to help contain the mess, and became one of the best customers of the laundromat in Ft Mohave. In search of food medications and care, I visited two vets in Ft Mohave, two in Yuma, 5 in Lake Havasu. Picked up prescriptions for her at the vet, at Walmart in Ft. Mohave and Yuma, and had some more medications come by courier from Omaha! All the floors were scattered with newspapers that would be replaced every time they got soiled. Food and medications had to be be administered on a strict schedule, sometimes in the middle of the night. I have recorded virtually every bathroom visit, every meal, every symptom, every medication for 10 weeks straight. She ate or drank nothing for almost two months – relying on the me injecting semi-liquid food and water through her neck tube. I offered milk, tuna, water, cat food, and she would just walk away! Not much time or incentive to blog!
In the middle of February, after about 3 days of the feeding tube being removed, a miraculous thing happened. Hailey started to EAT, a bit, on her own! First time in two months! I bought a whole array of exotic, gourmet cat foods in an attempt to find anything that she would eat. With the resumption of minimal normal feeding routine, the random messes of the last two and a half months were mostly gone, so I was finally able to remove all the tarps, towels and newspaper that covered everything in the rig!
Living on the edge, we decided to move back to California and spend some time in the Mojave National Monument. It is only a two hour round trip to visit the vet – that we have only done once so far, for a routine weekly antibiotic injection. Two different RV friends have stopped by to visit so far.
Hailey is still not eating enough to regain her lost weight, and the ugly sore on her leg is taking it’s time getting any better, but once again we are hoping for the best. She has also resumed grooming herself finally, so she is looking a bit better as well.That’s about it for now. Not sure how long we’ll be here, but no doubt it will depend on what Ms Hailey dictates. In the meantime, the weather has finally begun somewhat of a warming trend. I did a test post a few days ago with Live Writer, so I sure hope it is still working. There is no way I’m starting over again with the lousy Blogger editor.
Blogger refuses to accept any post that has photos in it!!!
People have been asking about Hailey, otherwise I wouldn’t bother fighting with Blogger …
