Joy

Pete is home!

Turns out he'd eaten a corncob recently (squirrels drop them in the back yard, and believe me, I'll be scanning the yard more frequently) and it got lodged at the start of his intestine. He has an incision running from his breastbone to his groin and more staples than I've had time to count, but he is home, he is healthy, and he is eating.

We took him to the MSU Veterinary Clinic on Saturday morning, and they took a detailed history and gave him a very thorough physical exam. I can't recommend them highly enough. At that point we were thinking it was ibuprofen toxicity (terrible misunderstanding with our regular vet) and at first the bloodwork and urinalysis bore that out. Everything indicated his kidneys were shot and he was in renal failure.

Then the vet called back. Corncob on the xray? His blood values had improved with the fluids they were giving him, and they'd improved again by the time the surgeon called back that evening to confirm, yes, corncob. There was a good chance that a lot of what the earlier bloodwork showed was due to dehydration, so we said please go ahead with the surgery.

And he came through very well. Corncob, out. No real damage to the intestine. Some aspiration pneumonia from vomiting while laying down, but he's on antibiotics for that and it's looking good.
Once recovered, he and I are going to have a very serious talk about one can and cannot eat from the back yard. Hint: NO CORNCOBS.