Day 4 – After Amputation

So, it’s day 4 since amputation. After the first day, Fang took to resting a whole lot more. He pretty much spends his days sleeping under the coffee table, which we turned into a little tent type place (with a blanket over it). He seems to like the dark, so I’ve been keeping the room mostly dim (though it’s starting to make me depressed – remember, I pretty much haven’t left this room since he cam home). Yesterday he was rather chipper and followed me to the door when I went to get him food – unfortunately I didnt know that and when I came back in I nearly swung the door into his face. He freaked out and ran under the coffee table and did not come out again that night or all this morning. He was even to afraid to use the litter box and peed on one of his blankets which I obviously had to take out of the room. Poor baby. Just a few hours ago he finally hopped underneath the computer desk and laid against my feet as if to say “It’s okay, I still love you mom.” It made me really happy. I think he was feeling better.

So, naturally, when I realized that we needed to go to the vet to take off his foot pain patch (fentanyl) I didn’t want to since he hates the vet and he was finally loving me. I mean, last time he went to the vet he had an arm off so I figured, in the interest of stress relief, why couldn’t I just take the patch off myself? I emailed my vet of course to ask, and she said it was fine. I just needed to be sure to dispose of it where nothing can get to it, because it’s fatal if swallowed or even if it’s ripped a little and the slow-emitting med system is disrupted and something touched it. Dangerous stuff. So, I figured, “okay I just have to take it off quick like a bandaid and it’ll all be good.

Let me tell you – removing the fentanyl patch is not fun and it does not make you kitty’s favorite person. They did NOT shave under the patch and tape, so basically all the tape I had to remove ripped off a TON of Fang’s fur, which naturally doesn’t feel good. At this point he’s sort of aggravated with me, but he’s happy to have the tape almost off, so he pulls his foot sometimes and licks me but mostly lets me work. But, the patch itself is stickier than the tape! Wayyyy sticky in fact! And, once it’s exposed you cant just leave it alone because if he licks it that’s really bad. So, I’m pulling off the patch and he’s GROWLING at me, and hissing, and biting, and it obviously feels terrible. I’m frankly worried that I’m ripping off his SKIN (I wasn’t but, it’s that sticky). I finally get it off, Fang is back to looking at me very distrustfully and I am definitely feeling some of the effects of the fentanyl (was not wearing gloves… should have been, for sure).

So, you know, if you decide to do that yourself…. note that your cat might be pretty annoyed with you.

Additional note from the vet’s: Called because I wanted to make sure I didn’t need to do anything other than rip the patch off and got this extra tip: There is still medication in the stickiness left after the patch is ripped off – it shouldn’t be enough to hurt kitty since by the time you remove the patch it should be nearly out of juice anyway, but at the vet they use a wet rag with soap to get some of the sticky off kitty’s foot afterword. So, if you do it yourself, don’t forget to wash kitty’s foot a bit.

Otherwise, things are going well. I’ll just keep on keeping on!  (I still do not feel comfortable enough to leave him alone at home so I’m not going in to work tomorrow – luckily it’s a part time job I’d be missing and my career job is from home anyway, but I can’t imagine what I’d do if I actually HAD to go to work during this recoup. That would be… hard, for sure).

Author: cldavis

I am a Sac State graduate with an International Business degree. I do consulting from home for Java programming, primarily in the Wicket framework. I have a wonderful fur-baby family, all with wonderful stories. Like with most cat-people, they're my kids. View all posts by cldavis