How not to spend a saturday evening: 5 hours in an 24-hour emergency vet’s waiting room with a toddler.

Merlin, one of our cats, had a urinary tract blockage about 2 years ago. That time it was during normal business hours so I took him to the vet who quickly diagnosed the problem. He ended up being hospitalized overnight, getting flushed out and hydrated by IV. It was not a cheap bill.

Yesterday it was right around 5pm when he was being irritating – moreso than usual – and wouldn’t get out of Kate’s room. I was getting really ticked off until I noticed the red urine he’d just deposited in a basket. That’s not good. But I hoped maybe it was just a UTI. The vets offices were closed, of course, so I located our carrier and packed him and Kate into the car and off we went. (Den was out yesterday.)

And so began my 6 hour ordeal. It took me half an hour to get there, and about halfway through the drive a stench hit me. I rolled down the windows and gagged a little. That was definitely not Kate-poop. They took a stinky poo-covered Merlin in the back and I settled into the waiting room. There were clearly a couple of large emergencies ahead of me.

The first 2 hours were fine. Kate was entertaining herself by walking around, babbling, flirting with other people, and just being silly. It got harder when someone arrived with a dog, because then I couldn’t let her just walk around. Hour three I was feeling frustrated and Kate was getting bored. My phone had a crappy signal so I couldn’t even occupy her with videos on my phone (which made her yell, she was not impressed that it wasn’t working and I had to take it back!). The other pet emergencies were still being dealt with, the owner in and out crying that she couldn’t afford surgery, yelling at her sister… it was quite a drama. A part of me wanted to stand up and say, “Yes okay, I realize this is bad and all, but could someone please look at my cat?”

I contemplated calling Den and telling him to come pick up Kate since it was getting close to her bedtime and she needed to go to bed, but finally we got put in an exam room… I figured it wasn’t worth the 30 minute drive for him if we’re almost done. I look back and laugh. I spent 2 hours in that waiting room. Poor Kate. She was so so good, given the circumstances. She played with the doorstopper, some megablocks from the waiting room, she found cords to pull on (I put them up), she found paper towel under the exam table (I let her pull off about 5 squares and shred it – it kept her busy for a good 20 minutes). She wanted up, then down, then up, then down. She nursed a bunch. At one point she spent a good stretch of time sitting in the corner thumping her head against the door (she does that when she’s tired), then laying down and rolling around on the floor. She staggered around drunk-tired. But every time I’d pick her up and cuddle her and rock her and tell her to go to sleep she’d point at something, babble loudly, then struggle out of my arms. Repeat.

My phone was almost dead so I had to turn it off. There was no clock in the room. It was a form of torture, locked in a room with a tired toddler, not knowing what the hell was going on or how long I’d even been there. I wanted to go get the mei tai from my truck but I didn’t want to leave, I knew that would be the moment that the dr popped in. Finally I did run out to get it, tied Kate in, bounced her for a while and she finally gave in to sleep. It was like 10 or 10:30 by that point. We’d been there since 5:45.

Finally I got to talk to the vet. And we waited 5 hours to find out that…. his bladder is not distended so if he does have a blockage it’s just started, but he does have a temp. They could do a catheter and draw urine to send for labs, at the tune of $270+ and it would take 3-7 days to get the results. OMGWTF. I asked for antibiotics on the chance it’s a UTI. I took my cat home and told him to please wait until Monday to get worse. (But it does actually help to know that his bladder isn’t distended – that’s the danger of a blockage. At least I know he’s not in immediate danger.) $140 for that.

In the truck I took Kate out of the mei tai and gently put her in the carseat in the dark; she fussed for a minute then fell back asleep. Merlin meowed loudly the whole way home. I rolled down the windows for fresh air to help with the still-lingering smell of diarrhea. My head throbbed from the jaw-clenching I’d been doing for the past 5 hours. It was midnight when I got home.

When I got home I brought my bag and cat in, then went back to get Kate. She looked around then put her head on my chest. I walked her straight into her room to lay her in her crib – screw getting her changed – and she simply rolled onto her belly and fell back asleep. She’s never done a transfer from car to crib that easily before. Poor baby.

The good news is that Merlin actually seems a bit better today. He’s relaxed, not pacing, not licking. He still doesn’t look well, but he doesn’t look worse, and right now that’s the main thing. I do have to pill him twice a day, and of course he is the worst animal of all four to get a pill into, but I have skills. I’ll still have to take him to our vet on Monday to get him checked out, but I am hopeful that it actually is a UTI and the antibiotics will be all the treatment he needs.

Next time I have nothing to do on a Saturday night I will not be posting that I am bored.