Neutering Scare

Bandit went in Tuesday morning to the Vet to be neutered and declawed (front only).  I dropped him off before work and they said I could call after noon to check on him.  They put me through to the Vet when I called.  "So you got my message?"  No (stupid phone!).  Anyway, she went on to tell me that during the procedure he started expelling fluid from his lungs - including blood!  They finished the neutering procedure, but didn't declaw him since they wanted to stop the stress on his little body.

They did a CAT scan (ha!) and it showed more fluid.  She said his blood did clot and his vitals were good the whole time, but he gave them a good scare.  He was stable, but not "out of the woods."  She said that could indicate a recent, fairly severe injury to his side or a bad heart.  Could we think of any instances when he fell a significant distance or was kicked?  No, but he is a very active, jumping cat and is always playing - very rough and tumble.  She suggested we send the fluid for some testing to determine if it is his heart (he's a good cat, but we won't spend $200 on that sort of thing).  They would watch him overnight.

I called the next morning and she asked whether we had any rat poison around the house?  No.  Are we in a new house?  Yes.  WELL....she said that was important.  Turns out his blood wasn't clotting after all and this might indicate poisoning.  Perhaps there was something in the house that he got into.  The only thing I realized is that we just moved his litter box into our laundry area and there are two open closet areas that have utilities in them.  We have never looked behind them and who knew if there was some De-Con type stuff back there.  She said they gave him some vitamin K and he was up and about being very playful and doing great.  I could come get him anytime.

He has to take it easy for the week, take more vitamin K and 2 antibiotics to clear up the fluid.  We checked the utility area and there is nothing, but I did realize that I had liquid laundry detergent on the washer (in that same room) with a measuring cup that had residual soap in it.  He has jumped up there to get a better view of our goldfish (on top of a very high cabinet that he can't reach).  Perhaps he licked the cup?  That is the only toxic thing we can think of, so we will resolve that issue. 

He is pretty calm right now, but picking up his playfulness more and more.  He is not supposed to jump, but he has gotten up on the coach and a bed to be with one of us. Hopefully this was just an incident and will not be a problem going forward.  He will go back in a month and if things look good we will move forward with the declaw.  They did put "soft paws" on him which is little plastic nail covers so he can't damage anything in the meantime.

We are glad he is home.