Me-ouchier!

Mom came home from lunch today and since the weather was nice she took me and Sydney outside. She finished her lunch and we all went to go inside. Sydney went first, then me, then mom was coming in behind me. I was just inside the door, but had not yet moved on into the house... when... she stepped on the fur of my tail! I felt it pull a little so I jumped up onto the chair.

Mom saw a clump of fur by her foot (she hadn't felt it at all, so she knew she must have just stepped on my fur a bit) so she came over to console me. Then she saw... blood!

She tried to touch my tail, but I yowled. So we went upstairs to the bathroom and she tried to be my vet. I wouldn't let her touch or look at my tail, so she wrapped me in a blanket and then poured a little styptic powder on my tail to stop the bleeding. Then she wrapped it with vet tape to keep me from licking the powder.

Mom was still worried, and it was time to leave to go back to work, but thought she should probably call the vet, just to be sure. Since there was blood she thought there might be a tiny little spot where she pulled the hair off, and I might need antibiotics. She first went to pick up the clump of fur... and... saw that she had pulled the end of my tail right off!!! Panic set in - maybe she saw it wrong. How could this have happened?!?! NOOOOO!!!

Mommy speed-dialed the vet, they said to bring me right in, and off we went. At first the vet recommended amputating part of my tail. They said that there is a risk of infection to the spinal cord. But since I have CRF, and am 16, there are higher risks. The other option was to treat it medically - pain meds and antibiotics while it heals, with frequent follow-up visits. Mommy went out and called daddy to talk about it.

You see, with my kidneys not being healthy this surgery is a major risk. It could cause my CRF to go from stable to really bad, and that would be fatal for sure. Heck - for a 16-year-old cat any surgery would be considered high risk. And mommy is most concerned about my quality of life... she doesn't want to send me in for surgery if it isn't really necessary.

So, after a long talk with daddy and the vet, they decided to try the "medical" route along with frequent checkups. So long as my tail is healing well then we'll keep that up and hope for the best. If there's any sign of infection then I'll be going in for surgery. Mommy agonized over it, but in the end decided that this was the best option for me.

So for now I'm home, mommy's home (she took the afternoon off from work for me), I got an extra meal this afternoon, took a little bath (had to wash off the yucky vet smell), and now I'm napping on the sofa. I know mommy feels awful - she keeps crying - but I tried to let her know that I understand it was just an accident.

So... if everyone can please say a few paw-rayers for me that would be really great. I need to heal well, and have no infections so I can avoid the surgery.

Purrrrrrrrrrrrrs,
Seamus

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