Clara's surgery/not surgery visit.

Clara is working her way up to being the second most expensive cat in our house. Her polyp removal surgery was scheduled with no major issues. I was nervous at drop-off, as usual. She's a quirky little girl in all sorts of ways. She cries when she is "lost"—if she's alone in a room and doesn't hear any of our normal day-to-day sounds. I was concerned she would cry all day in the waiting area/recovery area and that she would struggle with the surgery itself. I had nothing to worry about—she was in great hands all day. Dr. Alex and all the vet techs loved on her and made her super comfortable! When I scheduled, I told them no litter box in her kennel—she refuses to use it and will make a bigger mess trying not to use it, so just put a puppy pad down for her. It's what we do at home for her, and she's used to it. Now I truly sound like a crazy person at the vet's office!

Drop-off went smoothly - off to work I go. She had what turned out to be a nice deep sleep and a very deep ear cleaning. When they put her under and got ready to start the surgery, they noticed that she did not, in fact, have a polyp in her ear! Such great news! No surgery needed! Why did we think it was a polyp? The ear infection was so bad that part of her ear canal was swollen to the point it appeared to be a polyp. Since we gave her meds previously to treat the ear infection, the swelling was going down by the surgery day. So they took advantage of her being under to do a really good cleaning of both her ears. She does have some aural hematoma spots, which could be genetic, and in our case, might be the case because her brother Jasper has them too!

What does that mean for us? Just her being more prone to ear infections—no surprise there. Our best course of action is daily ear cleaning (more so than usual) to prevent ear infections. If needed, we can always get a round of steroids for her. If it truly becomes a bigger problem or more persistent, we can opt to have ear canal surgery done. But that's the last thing we will do, unless something changes in a big way for her.

She struggled to fully wake up from the anesthesia. No worries, they have a medicine to "reverse" the anesthesia. I could wait about 15 minutes or come back. I opted to wait, sure she is ready to be home with her favorite people. She finally wakes up enough to be released. We leave, and she meows most of the way home. We gained one happy cat who no longer shakes her head when you pet her. Now, to add to the daily routine of cat things to do - deep ear cleanings.

Till our tails cross again,

Melanie & Clara

#PURRFECTDOZEN #CLARA #CATLIFE #MEDICALISSUES #VETVISITS #FELINELIFE