Update - Staying @ the E-Vet
This morning I noticed that Tiki was acting a bit off. I had brought a chair next to her cage to read. I've been doing this often to get her used to being close to me without trying to touch her (very hand shy). She is normally very alert and attentitive to what I'm doing, even when I'm just reading. Today she was puffed up and closing her eyes a lot.
Then I watched her take large drinks of water and vomit it all up within 60 seconds. She did that twice.
I took her to the emergency clinic where the first thing that they wanted to rule out was a foreign body in her digestive tract. She has not been anywhere unsupervised for at least two weeks but she has been bad in the past about climbing off her cage if I leave the room for a few minutes.
It took them two tries to get one xray shot as she was so panicked she almost hurt herself when they were trying to hold her still. But an object (likely metal) did show up on the one and only xray. I have absolutely no idea what the object is or where she got it from.
Now I have to give her medication twice a day orally for the next 5 days, stop for 5 days, then repeat. The object cannot be surgically removed so the medication will bind with any metal in her blood stream as it is broken down by the digestive tract. I have to stop for 5 days to keep the medication from binding even with metals the body normally needs at some level, like magnesium. I just started clicker training with her exactly a week ago and now I have to torture her by restraining her to give her the medication. There goes all the trust I've gotten from her so far.
I have to take her back during the week for blood testing to find out if she has any zinc or lead in her blood. I have her in a carrier covered with a towel right now to keep a better eye on her. I have to make sure she is able to keep the medication down as she may continue to vomit. They tube fed her and gave her SQ fluids before we left though as she was already dehydrated.
In all her prognosis is ok for right now but I know she is going to be even worse that she was already about being handled. Before she distrusted me and now I'm giving her a reason to hate being handled.
This morning I noticed that Tiki was acting a bit off. I had brought a chair next to her cage to read. I've been doing this often to get her used to being close to me without trying to touch her (very hand shy). She is normally very alert and attentitive to what I'm doing, even when I'm just reading. Today she was puffed up and closing her eyes a lot.
Then I watched her take large drinks of water and vomit it all up within 60 seconds. She did that twice.
I took her to the emergency clinic where the first thing that they wanted to rule out was a foreign body in her digestive tract. She has not been anywhere unsupervised for at least two weeks but she has been bad in the past about climbing off her cage if I leave the room for a few minutes.
It took them two tries to get one xray shot as she was so panicked she almost hurt herself when they were trying to hold her still. But an object (likely metal) did show up on the one and only xray. I have absolutely no idea what the object is or where she got it from.
Now I have to give her medication twice a day orally for the next 5 days, stop for 5 days, then repeat. The object cannot be surgically removed so the medication will bind with any metal in her blood stream as it is broken down by the digestive tract. I have to stop for 5 days to keep the medication from binding even with metals the body normally needs at some level, like magnesium. I just started clicker training with her exactly a week ago and now I have to torture her by restraining her to give her the medication. There goes all the trust I've gotten from her so far.
I have to take her back during the week for blood testing to find out if she has any zinc or lead in her blood. I have her in a carrier covered with a towel right now to keep a better eye on her. I have to make sure she is able to keep the medication down as she may continue to vomit. They tube fed her and gave her SQ fluids before we left though as she was already dehydrated.
In all her prognosis is ok for right now but I know she is going to be even worse that she was already about being handled. Before she distrusted me and now I'm giving her a reason to hate being handled.
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