A Rocket Start!

The heading summarised the start of 2008 for me. (Warning: this is a LONG post)

On New Year’s Day at around 9pm, we heard a commotion in the study. The next moment, Braun scuttled over to the adjourning room (where the litter trays are kept). Then I heard one of the girls using the litter tray and I wanted to check if it was Skoda (we’re monitoring her pee). I saw blood splattered on the wall and the floor and Braun hurried away (I think she saw the shock on my face). We examined her paws and saw one of the nails on her left paw was bleeding. It looked bad. Skoda was the only eye witness of Braun's mishap but she wouldn't piece the details together for us. Immediately we packed Braun into the pet taxi and got on our way to ARVC. Called up the ARVC to check if the vet was around and was told the vet would only be summoned in for emergencies. This would take time so we made a detour and headed for Mount Pleasant Animal Hospital (yes, again!).

This time it was a different vet. She told us that the nail had come off (the whole of it :{ ). She bandaged the paw and put a cone around Braun’s neck (to prevent her from licking the wound). The festive surcharge alone was S$180.

When we got home, it was apparent Braun hated the bandage. She took cover under the dining table and was so disoriented over her new “handicap”. She kept shaking her bandaged paw and actually managed to shake it off. I was amazed how easily the bandage came off. Feeling uneasy over how her wound was now exposed, I decided to bring her in to Dr K the next morning. To avoid jeopardising the wound, we isolated her in one of the rooms for the night.

Dr K said that a part of another nail had also come off. The hospital vet didn’t tell us this. I told Dr K of Braun’s great dislike of the bandage so this time he did a partial bandage and showed me how to do it (lest Braun repeats her feat). He said if Braun persist to resist the bandage, I could either leave the bandage out or try putting a baby mitten over her paw. He also gave her an anti-inflammatory injection. The wound should heal in one week and the new nail would grow back in two to three weeks’ time. Braun now retains the record title for having chalked up the highest medical bill (bet you didn’t think such a record is being kept at the Cove).

When we got home, Braun was so perturbed by her bandage that I decided to remove it. She was howling away, something that she does only when she is distressed. The cone made her very moody (but it had to stay on because this girl loves to lick).

I had taken leave for the day so I attempted to “harvest” Skoda’s urine. Lined the bottom layer of the litter trays (the girls are using Pee Wee system) with a plastic bag and patiently kept a close watch on Skoda. This girl FINALLY peed, at around 9pm. The clinic had already closed for the day. The urine sample needs to be brought in within two hours after "harvesting". Mission failed!

In the evening, Mikki kept blinking her left eye. We asked ourselves if she would be the next one to be seeing Dr K as well. Thank God her "condition" cleared up the next day and there wasn't any abnormality around her eye area.

For the next three days, we kept Braun in isolation when we were out of the house and to cheer her up, she had wet food for dinner. Mikki snarled and hissed at Braun whenever their paths crossed. Skoda had seen Braun with a cone before so she didn’t react so strongly. When we opened the door to the room where Braun was kept, the two rascals would help themselves to Braun’s food and water (as if hers taste any different from theirs). Skoda would use Braun’s litter tray and plonk herself in her favourite couch, aka Pinky which was "on loan" to Braun.

Close-up shot.
The area is blackish because Dr K applied some medication on it.

After we took off the cone on Sun, 6 Jan, Braun immediately spent a good 30-minutes licking and grooming herself. Very quickly she was her happy self again. Mikki still snarls and hisses at her, in a bid to intimidate her (doesn’t look like playfulness to us). If we catch her at this, we’ll keep her away in the room (time-out!). This girl is in need of some discipline.

Fingers crossed that we won’t be hit by an emergency in a long time to come and not have to visit the Animal Hospital again!

On the family front, a perpetual “headache” is making a creeping return. It is causing me quite a bit of mental stress and fatigue is setting in. Grimlock reminded me that the burden is not mine alone to bear. There is a resolution, provided there is no changing of minds. Someone has put kinship to the question and his responses are very disturbing.

On a lighter note, I got a promotion :) (re: reaping the fruits of my labour as mentioned in my last post). The official announcement was made on last Fri, 4 Jan. I didn’t linger on Cloud 9 for long though. Crashed right back to Planet Earth when I took a look at my to-do list (:p haha…).

If the first week is anything to go by, 2008 will be a __________ year?!? (blank to be filled in when the year is up)