Whenever Miette lies on her back in a dogish fashion, she's normally OK.
While I was putting the finishing touches on my story about Teddy & Mewsette, my mischievous cat Miette made a weird coughing noise. It was more like a disconcerting wheeze. I quickly checked her out to make sure she wasn’t choking or hacking. While handling her around the head and shoulders, there was this weird pulsing under her skin. It was as if there were dozens of pop rocks or Alka-Seltzer tablets going off. Miette didn’t appear to be in any pain but I noticed her eyes being rather bloodshot.
Somara got more worried so she started searching the Web to see if this was a symptom of something worse. This became an incident of the Internet being helpful and not helpful at the same time. What Somara found led to serious worry then a late-night run to the 24-hour vet over in Round Rock. The pop rock/bubble wrap effect was best described as subcutaneous emphysema: air trapped under the skin. The reason why we drove north like mad at 11 PM was the possibility it being caused by a tear in her trachea which might have happened last week during her teeth cleaning: she had a tube down her throat and she’s over 10 (55 in human years). I retained some skepticism. Should her trachea be torn or ripped, this would’ve happened shortly after Miette came home. The other possibility was more likely, she got one of her front legs trapped in her collar, did a normal cat freak out and this led to an odd expansion of the lungs. However, I love this cat very much and I wasn’t going to risk it because the bubble-wrap sound was noticeable at a short distance plus it had spread to her midsection.
The nice doctor shared my skepticism. Miette had no difficulty breathing so there was a chance this would clear up in two weeks. To be safe, we left her there overnight for observation should a greater emergency occurred. The X-Rays were inconclusive but I could tell the techs had difficulty with Miette, you could see the person’s hands at the top of the picture trying hold her down to get something more accurate around the chest. Once (Tuesday) morning came, I would transfer Miette to White Rock for a final diagnosis.
I had to call in sick to work this morning, fight rush-hour traffic on I-35 south (north was easy) and take her back to our regular vet Dr. Todd. The rest of my day was spent worrying, crying and sleeping as I had been up until 2 AM, then wide awake around 6 AM trying to figure out what I would do. The RR vet said the prognosis looked good. Miette didn’t need anything further and when petted, she did her trademark elevator butt thing some cats do.
One thing I wanted to make clear with Dr. Todd and his staff is that I didn’t blame them if Miette had a tear in her trachea. Firstly, I think it was the collar bit and sometimes, unpredictable things happen. Cats are much smaller than we are, their parts are harder to fix with our big hands and tools.
Anyway, I got the good news around 2 PM today. Still no sign of damage to her trachea. It’s most likely her lungs causing the weirdness. It’s also receding but we need to take her back should this be continuing in seven days. We don’t have to change Miette’s routine, isolate her from the other three cats nor modify her diet. I doubt she’ll be very sociable for the remainder of the week.
Currently, I think she’s close to normal again. Miette is sleeping on her back like a dog, out in the open area of the living room. I won’t declare her 100 percent cured again until she demands me to pet her while I’m brushing my teeth.