My SASH story started a little over a year ago now. My sweet 11yo cat, Polly, had recently had her teeth cleaned at our regular vet. Her check-up showed she was in excellent health for her age, aside from some early kidney disease markers and her teeth needing a clean (no extractions!). About 36hrs post teeth clean, Polly seemed to be still fully affected by the anaesthetic. She was wobbly on her feet, disinterested in eating and drinking, and wasn’t her usual calm, sweet self. We were lucky this all happened on a Sunday when my local vets were closed because we ended up at SASH emergency. Polly ended up needing urgent care and emergency surgery and we’d ended up at the right place for that. Both of Polly’s ureters were blocked and she needed a SUB device to be placed immediately. The surgery was successful, and she was doing well, it was expected she’d be back home in a week or so.
Unfortunately, the SUB device surgery has some possible complications and Polly ran through each one like it was a checklist! Over the next 4 weeks with SASH, Polly had a UTI, blood clots, cat flu, heart failure, anaemia, and a multi-drug resistant infection. And I’m probably missing some things she went through in that list, every time she had an improvement, she seemed to backslide the next day. I was able to visit her a few times which was great but hard to see her so sick, each time she managed a big purr for me – much to the shock of the staff who’d she’d only ever growl at (sorry). Thankfully, Polly did get to come home, and she is doing really well these days.
For the four weeks that Polly was hospitalised, I received daily (sometimes twice daily) updates about her condition from the staff. I could tell they were as invested in Polly’s health as I was. They were always so kind, caring, realistic, and hopeful. They would regularly ask how I was doing and were always gentle when I was teary. I appreciated their candour when it was looking like we would be making a tough call and their perseverance with a tricky case like Polly’s.
I do want to say a huge thank you to all the staff that worked on Polly, especially Dr Iris Chan, I’m so grateful to get more time with the little monster that I promise is actually a very sweet, funny, and clever old cat. As much as she grumbles and acts like she hates everyone else!
