Sunday 7 March 2021

Poorly Poorly Charlie (from 3 weeks ago - he is ok now)

So the best laid plans as they say...

...Charlie has been really out of sorts for a few days and, after a day when he had been so lethargic and so not wanting to eat, we had agreed to take him to the vets in Polis as soon as we could get an appointment and that was to be Monday morning.  He lay on the bed next to me last night and there were times when I thought he had stopped breathing so I didn't get a very good night's sleep.  Then this morning he seemed much brighter and hopped off the bed to get his breakfast and then bounced around a bit in the garden so we were happy that we had an appointment for him and that it could wait until then to get him checked out.  We prefer to go to Polis as it is that bit closer so less stressful for the cats and for us.

Happy that all was ok and on a fabulously glorious day in February before storms are forecast, Rachel and I walked and new walk.  I have found that Narky Nora aka Kamoot can do a video of the pictures so I shall try and post it here.  This walk started at the lovely little picnic area I had found on Thursday which is between the edge of Kathikas village and the cemetery.  We parked up here and crossed the road and walked heading towards the top of Theletra.


We walked cross country towards Theletra and then had a short stretch on the road through the village which was very quiet and although we were on a road we did not encounter any traffic.  It was glorious, really glorious but as we headed down, down, down, Rachel remarked that could only mean one thing - at some point we would start going up, up, up!!!


Shortly after the road section we turned off through tracks which took us through a cool valley before we negotiated a very steep section which took us up and away from Theletra heading back towards the main road from Stroumbi to Kathikas.

We crossed over the main road and headed down into the valley below which, if we just walked directly down would have taken us to Stroumbi.  We walked across towards Kathikas - it is a warren of little roads and tracks with vineyards all around and where today people were out clipping the vines and burning the clippings - great except we had come out for some fresh air and at times our lungs were filled with smeech!!!

Rachel was amazed that at this point we are in beautiful countryside but within 2 minutes of the main road and our car.  This was not the longest walk we have done but possibly one of the most hilly and certainly one with some fabulous scenery.  It is always so gratifying if I get a "WOW!" at some point during our exercise and today we had several.

I got home earlier than anticipated and John and I showered and changed and we then shot off to Mum's with lunch.  I had done a one pot beef in beer casserole with peas, carrots, sweet potato and ordinary potato all in one and we had a tarte au citron with fresh strawberries and cream for pud.  Our lunch was short and sweet due to the time restrictions imposed by lockdown but all good and Mum is going to see her friend Lilian for lunch tomorrow so a nice weekend all round for her.

On our return we began to notice that Charlie was not so well again and gradually getting worse.  His good eye which is the one which is half closed in the picture was half closed and the only way he seemed to be able to breath was by holding his head up to the light with his mouth open - periodically he made a strange sort of gagging noise and he was clearly in distress.  We decided that we could not wait and that we would call to make an emergency appointment at the vets but it being a Saturday we had to go down to the vets on the road to St George's which is a good 20 minutes and is distressing for the cat and distressing for John and I as we get so stressed we argue all the way.

So to cut a long story short - I had to get special permission to make a third journey out and had to take a form with me in case we were stopped, John's text message went twice and he got it approved and denied.  It was muggy and Charlie couldn't breath so by the time he arrived he was hyperventilating and very very distressed - I thought we were going to lose him then and there.  John and I have terrible memories of that vet's building because the last time we were there we had gone down to collect Chivers body as he had passed away during the night after ingesting something toxic.  

We were met by Dr Michelle - who is a new vet for us.  She looks like a younger more smiley Dr Inna and is originally from Germany and a cat lover.  She explained that if Chivers had something up his nose this was serious.  If she could not see it to remove it he would have to go somewhere special for an endoscopy and if it was too far down the labrynth of tubes they might not be able to remove it and that could prove fatal.

She checked Charlie over and said that he had a very high temperature which indicated infection which she thought she could see up his nostril, he had an irregular heartbeat and was overweight.  She couldn't see the foreign body and said that she would sedate him to have a better look but if she couldn't see anything at this point we would have to take him to some specialist hospital.  We asked if we could wait and she said she was happy for us to do so.  It took longer for him to be sedated than she thought - not helped by the fact that he vomited - that was to go with the poo and wee he did in the basket on the way down.

Eventually Charlie behaved and drifted off and then it seemed like ages until she came running into the reception area - at this point I feared the worst but she came brandishing some tweezers in which there was this long green blade of grass about 5-6cm long which had been lodged somewhere between his nose and his throat.  She had only managed to see about 2mm but managed to get hold of it and pull it down from his nose and out through his throat.

She was amazed and happy but not half as much as we were.  She then left Charlie to settle and come round and we discussed taking him home.  She said she would be happy when he demonstrated enough movement and cognitive behaviour which took a while.

He was silent on the way home which was worrying - we wondered if something dreadful had happened en route but he was awake when we got home.  He was awake but very drowsy and very quiet but he wouldn't settle - we had to ensure he couldn't jump anywhere or eat anything but that isn't easy in our house with the other cats and Boris couldn't work out why Charlie smelt different.  We sat up with him until, like a child, sleep overcame him and we then put him on our bed. 



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