A few weeks ago I was ready to leave for work on a Monday morning when suddenly I noticed something odd on the floor. Bending down to pick it up I realized it was something that was better suited for the litter box. However was was making me curious wasn't the fact that it was a piece of poo, but that it appeared to have part of a worm woven into it. .... One of my cats has WORMS?! Oh good grief! With five cats... how am I to know whom has them??
I consulted a friend that I have who works at an animal shelter in the area and she said that if I came in then she could give me enough doses of a liquid medicine they have that I can give to my cats. No charge, and it'd be enough to give all five of my cats a dose - since there's no way to know who has the worm, they'd ALL have to get some.
So I got the medicine the next morning on Tuesday, came home and gave them all a small dose. I figured that would be the end of things and that whomever was the culprit would be cured and there would be no further developments. How wrong I was!
That evening when I returned home from work I noticed that Whiskers was a bit more standoff-ish than what I would expect from any of my pets. He wasn't very socialable, didn't want much attention, and seemed to prefer being off to himself. I just figured it was a case of him being 'attitude' and being upset at me having given him the stuff. The next morning on Wednesday morning it was the same thing from him. However, I began to observe something else. An odor. An aroma. It wasn't the stink of a litter box, and it wasn't the odor of the garbage in the waste basket gone bad. I even smelled the odor after I took a shower that morning, so it clearly was not me. What was that smell?!
That night I got back from work and came in the door. Instead of being greeted by some or all of the cats, some of them were crowding around me looking for food or attention of some sort. But Whiskers? He was standing over by the door to the bedroom. He was keeping his distance and it was beginning to make me worry that something wasn't quite right. As I approached him, he did a turn-around and walked back into the bedroom, and then right into the bathroom. Now, THIS was getting really odd. I went into the bathroom to see what was wrong with him.
Whiskers wanted to sit or lay down on the bath mat on the floor and just remain still and not move. It wasn't until he rolled on his side that I saw a bit of blood under his tail. Further inspection led me to discover that he was bleeding from some sort of wound or something, and there was even a bit of oozy discharge. This was REALLY making me freak out at this point. WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MY CAT?!?! It was so late at night that I couldn't do anything about it then, so he'd have to wait until the morning before I could call the local vet.
Unfortunately it caused me to want to isolate him so he wouldn't have any more complications, so I had to lock him in the bathroom with his own litter box and food. Not wanting him to be in the dark all night, I even left the bathroom light on. So for the rest of the night I worried and worried about my cat, and also was bothered by the sound of the bathroom fan that I could clearly hear going. That and the subtle light peeking out from the frame of the bathroom door that was closed.
The next morning I got him into the vet. The vet tech determined in a prelim examination that he may have had a bite wound or something of some sort that was needing to be cleaned out. So they were going to keep him overnight for further treatment and I could pick him up most likely the next morning. So I went home wondering who could have bit Whiskers in the ass to cause such a wound. The only cat I could suspect was Sylvester. Since he's the one most likely to cause havoc and create chaos.
However the next day at the vet told a different story. After shaving down his bottom, examing and treating him further, I was told that it was an abscess that ruptured. It actually ruptured in 3 places, but that it had been draining well. His at-home treatment would include being given an antibiotic pill twice daily, as well as a butt-bath in epson salt-water twice daily. I would have to do this for a week until his check-up a week later.
Oh joy! Imagine the fun that we had for 7 straight days, 2 times a day... dragging Whiskers into the bathroom where I sat flat on the floor on my butt, and basically held him sitting down in a wash pan that was filled a few inches with warm water mixed with epson salt.
All in all his butt began to heal as the days progressed. To this very day it's basically healed all over where the incisions or openings were and his butt looks like ... well, his butt should. He's back to his normal self and is back hanging around me all the time, picking fights with the other cats, and being his normal "Whisker-self".
So what's with the 10-bucks-a-pound medical care statement about? The initial visit and treatment, plus the cost from the check-up a week later totaled just over $160. Whiskers, according to that same visit, was weighed in at just over 16 pounds. (I think it was like 16.3 or 16.4 that he weighed-in at). So since then it's been a subtle joke that in order to take Whiskers to the vet to get his butt taken care of.... it figured out to just about $10 bucks a pound. 16 pound cat, $160? $10-a-pound!.JPG)
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