Cat

[helen99]

When we first got our Siamese cat Oosie, she reacted to her kitten shots by not eating for a week - we thought we were going to lose her. She pulled through, but we had to hand feed her every two hours. Several months later, she received her adult shots and she reacted again by throwing up and not eating for several days. All vets in MD required shots prior to spaying. We were afraid she'd react to the shots again, and maybe also the anesthetic, and thought that with the combination of the two, she might not make it through the surgery. As a result, we never got her neutered, and she went into heat periodically, an event that came to be known around our house as 'shriek week'.

This has been a perpetual source of insanity and insomnia for her and for us. She has a typical Siamese cat's voice, which is several hundred decibels louder than most other cats, and she knows how to use it. She knows the exact spot in the bathroom that will echo the loudest, and she would stand in that spot and roar at the top of her lungs when she was in heat.

At some point last week, we decided that continuing life like this was just not going to work for anyone concerned, and that if we got her spayed and she didn't make it, it would be better than allowing her (and us) to continue life like this.

This past Friday, Oosie was finally neutered. Similar to Y2K and 2012, nothing at all happened or will happen. She's fine. She and we suffered for SIX YEARS with this situation, during which our nerves and her libido were frazzled beyond their breaking points, and we never had to do this at all.

I'm not sure whether to rejoice or stick my fool head in a paper shredder.

Comments

[kiarrith.livejournal.com]

hugs you
its also possible that at the time it would have killed her but now her body has changed...and thus did not affect.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Possibly. I just wish we had all been spared this experience, especially her.

[dreamfall.livejournal.com]

Siamese cats tend to react to almost everything by throwing up, they are the barfiest cats ever, heh. They have smaller stomachs than other breeds.

Anyway, I'm glad things will be more peaceful for everyone!

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Poor babies - I think they've been overbred to some extent.

[miss-adventure.livejournal.com]

I'm going to vote for rejoicing. I'm glad she made it through the surgery, and you guys made it through six years of shriek week with sanity intact.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (Though I'm not sure the 'sanity intact' part is entirely accurate).

[orthaevelve.livejournal.com]

Having been around female cats in heat and around siamese, I am amazed I have eardrums. Since you have been around both in the same feline, I think you deserve an award. Or several.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks.. I guess we all made it through ok. I hope she'll be able to calm down and be happier now, even though this was done so late.

[janeoftrades.livejournal.com]

Beware of phantom shriek weeks after this... cats that have been neutered older can occasionally have sporadic bouts of random shriekiness with no real correlation to the actual heat schedule. (Rare, but it happens, best of luck that that's not the case for you.)

Congrats on having ended the suffering for all involved!

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Yep - unfortunately neutering is most effective at six months, not six years. Go us. So far so good, though. Hoping for the best.

[jolantru.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Siamese cats are vocal. Had the fortunate (or not) opportunity to be a person to one. :P But by golly, she was noisy.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

That would be our Oosie. She talks all day long...

[elven-ranger.livejournal.com]

hehe, at least you have some peace now. :)

[helen99.livejournal.com]

She's still a Siamese, so I'm sure she will talk all the time anyway. That's fine, as we have learned to talk back...

Hopefully, however, she'll refrain from roaring through the house at a level that was dramatically audible from the street. I'm surprised someone didn't report us for the alarming noises emanating from our house.

[rejoicingapathy.livejournal.com]

Horray! Congratulations to you, your cat, and your household.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[rhiannasilel.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! I can't imagine how happy you are. I've been over during shriek week and can't imagine having to try and sleep through it.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Haha. Sleep, what a concept. Some amusing history:

This is when I first got her in July 2003.

Here are her first kitten pictures

This was when we just got through that week where we thought we were going to lose her

Here's where she caught her very first mouse

She used to get along with other cats... maybe now she'll return to being this affectionate with them.

And here's where she first went into heat. December 15, 2003. I was asleep and dreaming about a foghorn when it first happened.

Here we are, a few days short of 6 years later...

[rhiannasilel.livejournal.com]

Awww...she's always been so tiny.

[dogemperor.livejournal.com]

Congrats that Oosie made it through okay (and I can see why you'd be a worried kitty-mom, based on her past history).

And ohgod, I can only imagine how noisy that was. O_o I have a HALF-meezer (she essentially looks like a blue lynx-point applehead Siamese) and dear GODS, I love Ashie to death, but she is *easily* the most vocal kitty I've ever seen. And *demonstrative*, at that. (She IS incredibly lovey, though, so this makes up for it. We lovingly call her our Puppy-Cat because in some ways she is rather doglike. Including howling along with me :D)

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Oosie loves to talk, that's for sure. The funny thing is, for a few weeks before the surgery, she'd taken to scolding me, a.k.a. getting up on top of the stacked washer/dryer, looking down at me from up there, and giving me a very low, loud, meaningful meowing-at. I could be wrong, but it was as if she was saying, "I have had enough of this. Do something. NOW."

[toxicelement.livejournal.com]

rejoice! there were good reasons for having doubts about having it done, but now she's still alive and hopefully happier for it.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kitten-goddess.livejournal.com]

Much rejoicing for you and Oosie.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks! (Our friends are probably pretty glad too)...

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! I'm so glad that Oosie--and you!--made it through okay.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Yay! and Thanks!

[iliandriel.livejournal.com]

I know how that can be. I'm glad though that you did the right thing for her. Even children react to some of those innoculations.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

Thanks. No reaction at all this time, even though she did get her shots updated. Maybe there was a bad batch of shots going around in 2003. Hard to say.

[iliandriel.livejournal.com]

I'm glad your friend is doing good. Always a blessing.

[podisodd.livejournal.com]

Ah, so x-mas has come early at your house. Excellent.

[helen99.livejournal.com]

There's still a lot of vocalizing, but not like before. It's now at a level that a sock puppet can deal with rather than a nuclear containment vessel.