While Pedro’s reunion was a happy one, it turned out he wasn’t out of the woods, so to speak, yet. As you may have gleaned in my previous posts, Pedro went on a ten day walkabout and got lost in Singapore. He came home, looking battered and bruised, but little did we know how bruised he really was. Friday night, Pedro stumbled out into the kitchen for dinner, after having slept all day under my bed. We noticed blood on his cheek, and on closer inspection, we realized he had an infection that had abscessed. We rinsed it off, and got a better look. We could clearly see what appeared to be two fang marks, which we hadn’t noticed before due to his long fur. We don’t know if it was a snake bite, a rat bite, or another animal, but clearly something had gone after him during his walkabout.
We called a vet, at 10 pm, because it looked really bad and was oozing an incredible amount of blood and pus. I have never seen anything quite like it, even when Isabel had MRSA and IV antibiocs. This was really serious. The vet had to admit him and do surgery at midnight. The poor vet was on a date, and he brought her along! Hopefully she was impressed with his healing abilities!
He cut open his cheek, and apparently it was infected on his entire cheek. He had to be cut open in two places. The vet cleaned him up, sutured his cheek back together, and put him on an IV and antibiotics. The next day, he was fighting, but the antibiotics had started to kick in and the infection was showing signs of healing. Today, after three days in the hospital, he is still not out of the woods and will spend at least two more days under the vet’s care. The vet says he is looking better, he is eating, but he still has some pus so they want to make sure the infection clears before releasing him.
Pedro truly has nine lives. I suppose he finally came home because he got hurt. Joel said he hardly complained in the cab to the vet. Little did I know his subdued and quiet attitude was really due to his illness, not to a change of heart. I only wish I would have noticed sooner. When I look back at the picture I took the other day of him, it is obvious to me that his cheek was swollen. Poor Pedro, let’s he he pulls through. It is too quiet here.
