Right after Thanksgiving, I adopted a cat who’d been in a shelter for ten years. Needless to say, it has taken some adjusting to get him used to being in a home.
Essentially, he’s been hiding in the closet for two months. He lets me pet him, but only if he’s in the safety zone of the closet. Just this past week or so, he has been brave enough to hang out in the open when I’ve been nearby, but he dashes for the closet if I get too close.
I knew when I adopted him that he needed a dental cleaning–something that could have been done before I took him home, but, long story, I elected to take him “as is.” Last night as I was petting him, I realized the towel underneath his mouth was sopping wet. Argh! Drool! Sure, maybe it’s the kind of drool that some cats ooze while being petted, but, given the fact that he could knock you over with his breath, and the fact that the towel was soaked and I’d only just begun to pet him, I figure it’s something to do with his dental disease (and pray it isn’t something worse).
They told me when I adopted him that I could probably put off his teeth cleaning for three to six months. It’s been just over two and I think I’m gonna have to suck it up, like NOW. So, yay! All the trust I have built up with him will be thrown out the window as soon as I grab him and drag him to the vet. *sigh*
My only hope is that his teeth are making him feel so crappy that it’s affecting his behavior, and once he gets some sparkly whites and some antibiotics, he’ll feel better and become a whole new cat. Knock on wood.
Feb 14, 2010 | | Animal Tales
Alternate title: Polyphagia + Pruritus Sucks
So Cat Mandu’s head is healing, slowly, from the previously mentioned eosinophilic-crapola-flareup. Yay for steroids.
The downside of steroids is that one of the side effects can be polyphagia, a fancy word that means “I want food. All. The. Time.” Granted, one of Cat Mandu’s great loves in life is whatever food she can get her paws on, so this isn’t entirely new to us, but lately it’s gotten more insistent and annoying.
Couple that with the pruritus (fancy word for itching) from her eosinophilic-crapola-flareup, and you have a downright menace to society. Why? Because she knows that if she starts scratching a lot, I will stop whatever I am doing and put salve on her itchy spots. And her reward for sitting through the uncomfortable salve-slathering treatment is usually a little piece of freeze-dried salmon.
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Jan 30, 2010 | | Animal Tales
I went to the pet store this week for three things:
1) some ear wash
2) food for two different cats
3) to poke around
When I am in a pet store, and I have time to kill, I like to take my time and look at every single product. I read the ingredients, look at how much they sing to me from the shelf, that sort of thing. Why? I figure if I’m going to be a veterinarian, I better be really familiar with as many products as I can be, from a client’s perspective.
This behavior of mine, apparently, makes store clerks nervous.
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Jan 23, 2010 | | Animal Tales
Poor pooky in the ProCollar is ready for her voyage on the Titanic.
In my quest to prevent Cat Mandu from scalping herself, I purchased way more e-collars (see
this post) than was necessary.
I first tried the ElizaSoft Recovery Collar, and, although she tolerated it WAY more than the Comfy Cone, she still didn’t like it all that much. The material is sort of like a very thin tarpaulin, and it held its shape nicely, away from her head, but it still obstructed her peripheral vision, and caused her to shake her head a lot.
Next, I tried the ProCollar, and, yes folks, we have a winner. It effectively stops her from scratching her head, and most the time she doesn’t seem to notice she has it on. It does pose a problem when trying to maneuver around objects, but since it doesn’t obstruct her peripheral vision, she seems to find it much more tolerable than the others.
Now if we could just get the @&$!* miliary dermatitis to heal, we’ll be golden.
Jan 10, 2010 | | Animal Tales
Remember Mr. Tabby, the little cat I drove across two states for?
He and I are featured on the Best Friends website today… lucky us! I was really impressed with what a nice job the Best Friends staff did.
There’s even a video (and if you watch Mr. Tabby’s face closely, you can see that he isn’t as happy about the whole thing as I am…)
After being at Best Friends for 10 years, he is still pretty freaked out about having been thrown in a car and dumped in a house! He’s been living in my closet, but he comes out to eat & use the litterbox, and there is evidence that the catnip toys get attacked at night. 
I adore him.
Jan 06, 2010 | | Animal Tales
