Thanks for chiming in! COTH always benefits from the experience of their contributors.
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Whew ok I’m home and he’s settled. I needed the computer to type out the update. So I hadn’t heard anything all day so headed to pick him up at 4:30 when they said he would be ready. The vet called around 4:20 to talk about the surgery. The woman who was originally going to do his surgery was doing a bowel surgery on another pet that didn’t go as planned and took significantly longer than expected so this guy took Mobile’s surgery which means his surgery was pushed back later than planned.
He was very thorough and did the neuter and tail amputation. Then he noticed the funny scabs he had above the tail and investigated and found out there was a puncture there and some of that tissue was dying. He took out all of the bad tissue and stitched up that area as well. Mobile got a heavy duty injectable antibiotic and two oral pain medications for me to give him for awhile. Because of that damage he saw inside he’s 100% certain he was attacked by something and managed to get away. We know there’s a fox in the woods back behind us so maybe that, or some other wild animal.
As discussed above by DawnJL his body temperature was low and not coming up like they wanted. They kept him another hour and after talking to me felt comfortable letting him leave…right at 5:30 in Northern VA rush hour traffic. SO we had a wonderful sweaty hotbox of an hour and a half plus commute home. By that time he was warmed up, had gotten over the panic of his cone and seemed good. We put a safe oil filled heater in the office on low and closed off the ac vent to keep that room a bit warmer overnight into tomorrow. He is already running around, purring and acting happy. They wanted him in a crate for 2 weeks. It would be really hard to do that in that room so I’m going to see how he does. I removed literally anything that he could jump onto and put away the toys so it’s just a boring box right now.
He’s due for his next vaccine next Monday. I am going to switch it from a tech visit to a vet visit with my main vet, not the one who has been seeing him to have her check the area and see if he needs more antibiotics for the puncture area. I’m honestly disappointed in that vet for not catching the puncture even when I pointed out the scabs and still swelled up area. She was the one who was available right when we found him and I try to stay with the same vet but I think my main vet will be better. Then a week later he’ll have another appointment to have stitches out. The litterbox is clean I’ll breathe a huge sigh of relief if he’s able to use it and control his bowels.
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The little spots on his skin that match his fur are just too adorable.
So glad he is home and on the mend.
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Bless him!! Continued jingles for quick healing, normal litterbox use and no shenanigans!
He should be feeling better soon. No more infection or having a dead or dying tail dragging behind.
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I’m so relieved! I hope he rests & does well in the litter box. I’m glad you had a different vet & they caught the infection. It just shows you how resilient he is to be so spunky & dealing with all that. I didn’t think he could get any cuter, but that cone OMG! He’s the cutest cone head ever!
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The surgical site does look kind of red and hard to look at. But you can tell by the look on his face and how he’s acting that he’s doing fine. It’s just a matter of getting over the surgery now.
I’m so glad he wound up with you. I don’t know what happened to him but he is such a lucky cat, seriously, I didn’t know what to think when I saw the x-rays with that whole chunk of his spine gone. it was mind boggling.
And look at him now. 
. GOOD ON YOU for how you’re helping him, thank you.
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Well it’s going to be a fun 2 weeks 
cone = 0 Mobile = 1. While the cone was already off I fed him dinner which he wolfed down and then I put the cone back on tighter. He then proceeded to use it as a shovel to get his dry food DH and I were laughing so hard we cried. Honestly I think he’s already feeling better and in less pain and that’s why he’s so perky happy.
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Another kitten suffers in a COTHer’s care! What will PETA say?! 
(I hope this is the worst of his recovery!)
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So glad he is home and all went well. He does not seem the least bit perturbed. He’s just too cute.
Thank you for caring for him! I see many years of love and laughter with him.
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So glad the adorable little stinker is home and feeling well! Fingers crossed for normal litterbox use and an uneventful recovery!
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You could try one of these, I used one on my latest kitten spay and it worked well, would just have to be sure he couldn’t reach around.
He’s precious and I hope the healing is quick!
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I’ll buy it for you just to see a picture of him wearing it! 
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I actually asked the vet about that and they said it usually doesn’t restrict them enough. The kittens can bend so far only the true plastic cone keeps them from reaching around.
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Darn it, I had hoped it might be a good solution.
The cone can be a struggle for everyone, my kitty could not function in one. She did well in the tube, but of course different cats and surgical sites.
It seems to depend of course on cat shape and tube size ratios.
There are recovery suits that tie on top that are good for some cats, but I don’t think that would help little Mobile either.
Rats!
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So glad he is home and healing. 
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He used the litterbox!!! woohoo what a freaking relief. He’s feeling fantastic this morning wanting to ricochet around playing. I’ve taken up all toys except ones attached to something so it doesn’t encourage him to run. I’m also taking the cone off while I’m working because so far he’s not trying to do anything with the suture site. I will obviously put it back on when I leave the room. I do have a cold laser at home and if I can get my husband to hold him still enough we’re treat the surgery site to help it heal faster.
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So glad he used the litter box.
I can’t wait to see how cute he is as he heals up.
I would not be too upset about the vet not figuring out there was a puncture wound there.
The vet doing the surgery had the benefit of a sedated cat that they could manipulate without hurting the poor thing. The regular vet would have caused Mobile unnecessary pain trying to peel back those scabs to find the puncture wound.
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I have other reasons to not be as happy with that vet. She would only examine him in the back room even when I requested to be present so I could see where he was painful…kind of important to the caretaker to know what the normal spots and level of pain are to see if they change over time. The very first visit I said his tail is dead there is no sensation etc. She brushed me off said it looked like an abscess and prescribed antibiotics. The second visit she was surprised that the tail wasn’t magically fixed?? I told her initially that you could pinch his tail as hard as possible and he had no reaction so the nerves were obviously not working, to my knowledge there’s usually no fixing that. I certainly wouldn’t refuse to see her as a vet in an emergency but I’ll just transfer him over to my regular vet who I absolutely love.
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