Thanks giving

I give thanks for veterinarians around the United States, and for people who love animals in general and cats in particular.

On Thursday, we fed Savannah some ground-up turkey. Dr. Bob had told us that we could give her some as a treat as long as we ground it very fine. Heather used the blender and a lot of water, and we had the turkey blended to a thin liquid. Heather put about 5 ccs into Savannah through the syringe, and then...

Nothing.

Couldn't move the plunger at ALL. Not a millimeter in. Even when trying to force it. We tried everything we could think of - warm water to flush it through, soda (on a recommendation from a nurse and a vet), and even backing up the plunger a little bit (which Heather was veryopposed to, although I couldn't think as it would hurt her much). Nothing. Savannah, of course, was unperturbed by the whole thing, sitting calmly in Heather's lap the entire time.

We called the Laurel Animal Hospital on Friday morning after an anxious night. They recommended warm water and gentle pressure, which didn't work, and agreed we could try the soda, which didn't work. Then they told us to take her to a local vet.

We took her to the Kettering Animal Hospital (we were in Dayton, OH, visiting family - did I mention that?) were we had to explain her medical history to the staff and the vet. ("Has she been spayed?" "Um..." "How old is she?" "Um..." and so on) The vet took her away from us and returned with her a few minutes later. Turns out the tube had been kinked underneath her bandage, where we couldn't see it, and we hadn't blocked it up with the turkey, like we'd thought. They'd put on a new bandage, cleaned the area underneath for us, and repositioned the tube so it wouldn't kink again*. He also gave us a topical antibiotic for the area around where the tube goes into her neck, and made some recommendations.

Oh yeah, and he didn't charge us for the visit.

People who love animals are the coolest.

*I should note that the way the vet repositioned the tube is the same way it was positioned when Savannah came home with us, but we'd moved the tube around for ease of feeding, since it lies across the back of her head and pokes up between her ears. So we screwed that up. :)