Google is Always Right....But I Wanted them to be Wrong

Yesterday was one of those days where nothing seemed to go right.  The weather has been crappy which put me in a bad mood....my workday was chaotic....and worst of all, when I picked up Lainey from daycare they informed me that they couldn't watch her anymore.  Evidently, she is starting to feel better and is NOT HAPPY about being confined to a kennel ALL day!  Over the past few days she has chewed up many blankets, chewed up two beds, and yesterday she chewed their floor all the way down to concrete.

This of course stressed me out to the max and required me to come up with a Plan B.  For the next couple weeks my little brother has agreed to come over throughout the day to let her out, take her for her walk and do her therapy.  This is a great plan for now, but what am I going to do in a couple weeks when he isn't available anymore???

Needless to say I went to bed last night not in a very good mood....and I let everyone know about it too!

When I awoke this morning I convinced myself that today was a new day and I was going to leave yesterday in the past.  My morning routine was going great, I was right on schedule and had everything planned out for leaving Lainey at home.  Then the unthinkable happened.....

I feed Lainey every morning before we leave so that I can give her a pain pill.  I got all of her pills out and ready and then noticed that she was still eating her food.  I wanted to let her finish eating so that she can take the pills on a full stomach.  I decided that while she finished eating I would brush my teeth and then be ready to leave for work.  I laid the pills on the counter, stepped over my cats (they tend to always be right at your feet at all times), and went to brush my teeth.  When I came back out of the bathroom I went to grab the pills off the counter and there was only "dust" and a small piece of one of the pills left.  By this time I started to panic.  I immediately looked on the floor to see if one of the cats knocked them off the counter, but there was nothing!

I panicked.  The counter is too high for Lainey to have gotten to them so I knew that one of the cats had ate them.  I wasn't worried about the cats ingesting the glucosamine pills, but the pain pill (Rimadyl) is pretty potent even for my 70 lb dog...I couldn't imagine a 9 lb cat ingesting one.

My first reaction was to jump on google to see what I should do and how harmful this could be.  The first post I read stated that Rimadyl is TOXIC to cats and ingested can cause Kidney failure within the first 24 hrs which most of the time leads to death.  I was HYSTERICAL!!!

Due to my hysteria I failed to think straight.  I should have immediately jumped in the car and headed to the emergency vet, but instead, my next reaction was to wake up my husband and tell him what happened.  I informed him of what I found on Google and of course, he tried to calm me down and actually got irritated that I always try to "self-diagnose" everything using the internet.  (About every 6 months I think I'm dying of cancer or any other 100 diseases you don't want). I agreed that I was probably over-reacting and finished getting ready for work.

After 20 minutes I couldn't take it any longer.  I called the emergency vet to get some answers.  Unfortunately....Google was right!  And the kicker to this whole story is that had I tried to induce vomiting within the first 20 minutes the "fast-acting" Rimadyl wouldn't have been completely absorbed by the cat's system, giving us better chances of reducing the side effects. 

After hanging up the phone, I hollered at my husband to "get your ass out of bed and come say goodbye to the cats, because one of them is probably going to die today".  I never said I was calm under pressure.....Although, he did feel pretty bad that he tried to talk me out of the emergency vet in the first place.

Anywho....Both cats are at the hospital (both of them had to go because I don't know which one ingested the drug) and will be there until Monday evening (assuming they live that long).  The doctors tried to induce vomiting but was unsuccessful.  They are currently both on IV fluids in order to try and flush the kidneys.  As of 10:00 a.m. today both of their liver and kidney tests came back normal, but that can change at any time.  They will test again on Monday and call me with the results.  If there is no change, I will be able to pick them up Monday evening.

Although, we still won't be "out of the woods" even if they test normal on Monday.  The first 3 days after ingestion are the most critical, but it can take up to 3-4 weeks for the Rimadyl to be completely out of a cat's system.  They will both go back every few days for more tests and hopefully there will continue to be no changes.

As you can imagine...I am just beside myself.  The guilt is overwhelming...

How could I have been so stupid?  If I had children I wouldn't have just left pills sitting on the counter....I will just die (not literally) if something happens to one of my precious furbabies!

I'm pretty sure I win the award for the most money paid to a vet in a 2 month period.  Between the dogs and now the cats our savings is non-existent!  I'm really hoping that nobody expects a Christmas gift from us this year...

Please pray for my precious babies....