Our Family

Our Family

Monday, December 29, 2014

Bella's Emergency

Since I got out of school on Thursday, December 18th, it has been a crazy and busy time. For someone who is on bed rest due to high blood pressure, I can't handle any kind of excitement, stress, or anxiety or my blood pressure really goes up it hasn't been that calm around our house.

One of the "exciting" things that has happened over the past week, was Friday morning I let Bella in the house like normal. She ate her breakfast and we were going about our normal day. Madalyn came into the den and was holding Bella. When she put her on the floor she started making this meowing sound ( it really sounded like she was talking to us) that I had not heard before. She did it three times and the next thing I know, she starts throwing up. And she threw up and threw up. I was trying to get her to the kitchen floor or get her outside on the porch, but she kept slipping through my hands and she would run back to that same spot and throw up. I was finally able to get her to the porch when I noticed she had thrown up something besides food. (Now, I normally handle things like this with no problem, but that morning I was gagging myself. So I called Kevin's mom-who was coming over anyway to help take down my Christmas tree and house decorations to come over and help clean up Bella's mess.)  She picked up the thing that Bella threw up and it was about 3-4 inches long and it was a pink ribbon that Madalyn uses to play with.  7 Hours later Bella started throwing up again, but no ribbon this time. I realized that since she was throwing up again, something was wrong. She wasn't able to keep her food down, so I thought she might have some kind of blockage. Well, being Friday afternoon at 4:30 no vet is open around here so I called the emergency vet in Augusta, GA to get their opinion. When Kevin got home at 5:00, he got Bella and took off to Augusta.  She threw up again in his truck on the way over there and again in the waiting room.  They did an X-ray, and Kevin said you could see something in her stomach and something in her intestines. So early Friday morning they did emergency surgery on her (they also went ahead and spayed her at our request because we had not gotten that done yet and she had already been in heat 4 times. We didn't want her to have kittens.) They finished the surgery around 3:00 am, but we didn't know anything until I called Saturday morning to check on her. (Kevin had gotten home at midnight).  They removed about 3-4 inches of ribbon from her stomach and a foot of ribbon from her intestines. She had eaten about 2 feet of ribbon. If it had not been surgically removed, she would have died. This wasn't anything that she could have passed because it was wrapped around her intestines. Since I was 5 years old, I've had a cat and I have never had one eat ribbon or string before, a dog, yes. But the vet acted like it was a fairly common thing. Needless to say, no more ribbon, string, or anything that Bella can swallow for her to play with. I didn't see her eat the string, so I don't know if it happened Friday morning or if it had been in her system longer than that. Kevin picked her up Sunday at lunch and she seems to be doing good. She's very happy to be home.  She has staples that will have to be removed next week and I have several medications to give her for the next several days. I am just thankful to Kevin for taking her. What Daddy's are willing to do to keep their little girls happy. :0)

We laugh and say that Bella has one of the most expensive pieces of jewelry in the house...her necklace or collar really. She has to wear this until the staples are removed so she doesn't try to get the staples out herself.

Her incision. She has 12 staples I think. I feel her pain..I've been there and will be there again in 8 days or less.

The Culprit: Pink Cowgirl Ribbon
This was what they took out of her. And remember she threw up about 3-4 inches on her own.



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