I booked Peanut for neutering and hernia repair surgery on Thursday and unluckily chose a day that coincided with a period of extreme cold because we are nearing midwinter here and a cold front arrived on Thursday morning. I really feel for him with his shaved belly.
Peanut has an umbilical hernia which is caused when the muscles that surround the opening for the umbilical cord, which supplies nutrients to the unborn kitten, do not close completely after birth. In extreme cases, the opening is large enough for a kitten's intestines to protrude through the opening and that could be life threatening. Peanut's opening is very small and seldom causes problems unless some abdominal fat is caught in the opening. Prevention is better than cure so hernias are normally repaired at the same time that a kitten is neutered or spayed.
After: a small incision with 3 stitches
He came home and all seemed well until this morning, when I woke up to find the Peanut had succeeded in pulling out 2 of the 3 stitches. Luckily, the wound did not open, even though it's only 2 days old. I panicked and called the vet. She reassured me that if the wound had not opened, it wasn't necessary to restitch it. Instead, Peanut earned himself the cone of shame....
...a device universally despised by pets and he is no exception. I didn't put it on him in the beginning because none of my other spayed cats have pulled their stitches out and I know how much cats hate this device. It has him catching the rim on various surfaces and walking backwards. Sigh.... It's likely that the cold had a role in his stitch-removal antics but he is also just an antsy character. His vet thinks that 5 days will be sufficient. It's going to be a long 5 days.
Yoda has been hanging around the house down the street because he's annoyed with me for offending his dignity by making him take a pill everyday. The cold has brought him indoors and here he is hanging out in the spice cupboard. He's hoping to find catnip in there.
The white bottle in the front contains L-Tryptophan, a supplement I use to keep him more even-tempered although he'd prefer catnip