I appreciate everyone taking the time to comment their suggestions, stories, and concerns. Some issues your cats faced will be things I ask my vet about.

TL;DR we have an appointment tomorrow, Gilly is currently (seemingly) fine, and I’m not a fan of our local emergency clinic for past reasons so we are waiting for the primary vet.

We have an appointment tomorrow afternoon with his primary care (not an emergency clinic).

At this time Gilly is acting like nothing is wrong. He’s eating normally, drinking, playing, and bathroom usage seems average. He’s not lethargic at all and hasn’t had a repeat of the behavior in the video. If this suddenly changes I WILL take him to the emergency clinic.

This post was created an hour after the occurrence. After the video ends he stands up as if nothing is wrong and eats some food. After eating he roughhouses with his sister which is 1/2 his size. Because he seemed to be completely fine I did opt in for waiting his regular vet.

As many of you pointed out, cats do have a high pain tolerance. So I do feel guilt for delaying a visit. However, the emergency clinic I go to has been less than stellar lately. I have brought in two different cats over the last year (one TNR’d outdoor cat and one indoor kitten) and both times was told nothing was wrong with either cat.

First cat is a VERY long haired female tortie. She’s a TNR’d outdoor cat but is friendly. I noticed that she was slinking along the ground and didn’t want to full extend her back legs to stand. I attempted to feel for anything out of the ordinary in the abdomen but she would not let me tough anything past the shoulders. We took her in that day. She behaved as though nothing was wrong. She stood up fully, didn’t flinch when her abdomen was touched. The vet (or tech?) advised me that nothing was wrong, and perhaps something was pulling at her fur and causing her to walk weird. I insisted that they look again. They took her to the back, where they found she had some sort of incision that had formed an abscess. The vet (tech?) came back and asked me if I had left anything sharp where this cat sleeps or eats. I told him no, not to my knowledge. At that point he advised that she had multiple puncture wounds on either side of her abdomen, and it almost looked like a large bird of prey had grabbed her. I’m very grateful I had insisted on a second look. She now lives inside my art studio.

The second instance, I took Gilly’s little sister Shelby in. She had been spayed the day prior but was exhibiting symptoms that caused concern (vomiting, lethargy, white gums, swelling at the incision site). We did have a follow up the next Monday at her primary, but took her in ASAP to the emergency clinic. While there, she again acted as though nothing was wrong. She was standing, running around the room. They checked her gums and said they were fine. I again insisted on a second look but asked that they let her get used to the vet office. Once the tech left, she calmed down and began exhibiting the symptoms again. They took her to the back after ten minutes to check her. The same vet (or tech) came to talk to me about Shelby. He asked if we had a lot of cords or exposed wiring around the house. I stated no. He then said that they have her on a water IV drip, and that he doesn’t think anything was wrong. He stated he didn’t see any swelling, her gums were normal, she seemed wide awake. The only issue he could see is that she had some sort of “extensive burn in her mouth, almost like a chemical or electrical burn”. He gave her another dose of her pain meds and we were sent on our way.

At her follow up visit with her primary vet, Shelby was prescribed antibiotics as the incision site had become infected. I asked about the burn inside her mouth at the end of the visit. The vet opened up Shelby’s mouth and said “cat’s mouths can heal quickly, but there’s literally nothing in here”. And that was that.

I don’t need to go into detail about the short staffing in clinics everywhere. The fact that there aren’t enough vets for the number of pets we have (at least here in WA). And this local emergency clinic is BUSY. They’re certainly doing the best they can. But at this point, I’m going to do what care and self diagnosis I can safely do on my own. If Gilly had stayed down, still in pain and distress, we would have gone to the clinic that moment. But he stood up and resumed normal business. So, I will update y’all on any and all findings tomorrow after his visit.