As we promised, today we tell the rest of Molly's story, Take it away Mombean!
Mombean: Thanks, Alexi. OK on to the rest of Molly's story. First thing we need to tell you is that Molly was pregnant. In fact she was near her due date when she died. Now, on to what happened.
Molly woke us up early that morning. We knew she was due soon.... so in anticipation of her giving birth, I moved her to the room we use as a nursery. I kept checking on her expecting her to deliver her kittens. She had had kittens before so we did not expect any problems. In fact I planned on just checking on her as I usually do because she usually has her kittens without any problems. Well after about an hour and an a half and no kittens, I began to think something was not quite right. She did cry some which she normally does not do when having kittens. I called the emergency vet and left a message. The emergency vet for this area is also our usual vet. The vet on call then calls back. Well, 15 mins. later there was a phone call but the person hung up. We checked the number. Hmmm? it was from our vets office. Fortunately, the vet called back about 10 minutes later. This time, Dadbean picked up the phone. He gave me the phone and I began explaining what was going on with Molly. It was obvious that the vet was not concerned about Molly. She told us that it would not be good to interrupt her labor. At which point, I said, I am NOT sure she is IN labor. She had had a few contractions but not like she normally does when in labor. The vet still refused to believe me. It was not until I held up the phone so she could hear Molly's cries from down the hall that the vet begin to realize that something maybe not quite right. So after 10-15 minutes of discussing the situation with vet, she FINALLY agreed to see us and told us to come to the vet clinic. So we gathered up Molly and drove to the vet clinic- about a 10 minute drive from our house.
We got to the vet clinic in about 5-10 minutes. We waited .... and waited .... AND WAITED ! We waited for a total of half an hour !!
When the vet drove up, she rolled down the window and talked to us through the window. She told us that she had tried to call us and we did not answer. Well, she had NOT tried to call us. [However, Dadbean did find two "hang ups" from the vet on his OFFICE answering machine as the machine saves the number. Why she thought a librarian would be at work that early in the morning ???? Who knows?? Must also say that there were NO messages on our home phone either!] We got out of our car ready to take Molly inside. She told us then that she could not see Molly as we "had not paid your bill". She told us that this was "policy" and she "had no choice. My hands are tied". We told her that Bill would gladly go to an ATM and get whatever money was needed to pay the bill. We really wanted Molly to be seen as she was in pain and was crying more. I KNEW something was NOT right by this time. Again, she said that her hands were tied and she could not see us. She told us to go to the emergency vet in Elgin. At that point she drove off like a bat out of h%$#. My last words to her as she drove off was that she had just lost a client.
Well, at that point we were wondering what to do as it was now about an hour later from when we first called the vet. We went home and called another vet in town that we knew. (He is NOT the emergency vet but does a have a practice in town). Called and got their answering service. He called us back within 10 minutes. I discussed the situation with him. He agreed that going to the emergency vet in Columbia was the best thing to do. SO off I go to the emergency vet with Molly. Dadbean stayed at home as he had to go to work. The drive to Columbia is about a hour and a half. I got to the address where I thought the emergency vet was located. Well, the emergency clinic had MOVED! Fortunately there was a note on the door with the new address. So off I go again with Molly. It took another 10-15 minutes to get the emergency clinic. When I got there, the staff took Molly immediately. They tried to revive her with CPR and fluids. Alas, to no avail. She died about 7 o'clock that morning- about three hours from when I first called our vet. When I talked to the emergency vet in Columbia, he mentioned the possibility of a twisted uterus (uterine torsion). He also recommended that a necropsy be done on Molly so we know what happened to cause her death. Well, it was agonizing coming home without our beloved Molly. It was also agonizing waiting on the results of the necropsy. The results of the necropsy came two weeks later. The necropsy showed that she had not just one but TWO twists of the uterus. The kittens were fully formed with hair (as we expected as she was near her due date). However the twists in the uterus had cut off their blood supply so they died in utero. We are sad that Molly had to die in this manner. We believe she could have been saved with a hysterectomy had our vet been willing to see her.
I must mention at this point, that this practice has three vets. The vet that refused to see Molly was one of the younger vets and is not very experienced being a recent vet school graduate. We did talk to the senior vet in the practice about the situation. To put it mildly, we are NOT pleased with the situation.
WE MISS YOU, MOLLY! WE LOVE YOU !! WE WILL NEVER FORGET YOU, MISS PURR PURR!!
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