Cooper, our orange tabby boy kitten, got whacked in the face or something yesterday, and his right eyelid swelled up. It was hard to tell if his eye was scratched or just the area around it, but obviously something -- most likely one of Alice's claws -- had damaged something around there.
Since yesterday was Sunday, though, we just kept an eye on it until today. The difference between an emergency vet visit and a regular vet visit is substantial, and today's visit plus meds still cost over $100. Now he's on antibiotics and getting a steroid ointment in his eye twice a day. Fortunately, the problem is in the conjunctiva, the pink tissue around the eye, not with the eye itself. So he'll be OK.
I knew today would be a vet day, but I wasn't expecting to have to go to the pediatrician's, too. DD woke up with a very sore throat and just feeling miserable. DH thought it might be strep, but I didn't; strep doesn't usually give you a brutal cough like hers. I listened to her lungs and heard squeaking, and that was enough for me to make the call to the doctor.
She has mild, intermittent asthma -- yikes! Once three or four years ago she had a problem like this, but this is the first time since then. She had a breathing treatment in the office and felt immediately better, although the doctor still heard some squeaks. She'll be on the nebulizer every four (waking) hours for the next few days, and also on a short course of steroids. We're all hoping that this was just triggered by the cold she had, and that she won't need daily medicine.
I was worried that it might have something to do with the kittens, but the doctor said the symptoms would have shown up much sooner if that were the case. We'll just have to keep a close eye on her and make sure she's not having chronic problems. There's no reason to think she will, but she is already resistant to the idea of having daily meds and/or also having to change some of the way she lives her life.
She's such a healthy girl now I don't often think of how tiny she was when she was born, and those days when I wondered if she would make it or not because eating seemed like too much bother to her. But today put me in mind of that time, because when she couldn't get enough air she didn't want to eat or drink or even move. I carried her out to the car, hearing the echo of those days.
It's my job to be calm and reassuring, though, so I couldn't let any of those old fears surface. In the process of comforting DD, I consoled myself as well. She'll be fine, even if asthma is a new worry lurking in the shadows. At least we know it's there now, and can deal with it as need be.
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