Posts I couldn’t post about having a sick cat without posting an update when I knew more.
Over the weekend Nougat perked up a bit and was less lethargic, which means that she was even wobblier as she tried to do more. She was eating like a horse – which she usually does to create extra body-heat to compensate for having so little fur.
Nougat had an anaesthetic and a full body x-ray yesterday. There was nothing nasty found in her spine or hips. Her right inner-ear however is full of yukky stuff that showed up on the x-ray as a white swollen mass behind her eardrum. This is sort of good news, as when there is not an obvious problem in one side like an ear infection, this kind of balance loss is usually caused by something central – often a brain tumour.
The treatment is either very strong drugs or getting the eardrum punctured by a specialist who then taks a biopsy and cleans out the yuck. She has been sick on and off with this for eight months – so sick that we did not think she would get through it twice - so we are going to give her time to recover and then probably go for the operation.
She had a couple of old-cat skin lesions removed at the same time as the x-ray, so has 16 stitches at the moment – eight under her right foreleg and eight just above her tail on her back. We have three different medications to give her – one liquid that must be taken with food once a day, a pill twice a day and another liquid that we gave her for the first time when she returned from the vet. We have another ten days of this one, which has the side-effect of making her foam at the mouth and call up her Cat Mafia friends to take out a contract on her owners…. We also have to wash out her ear with a special ear wash for the next 10 days.
Thanks to modern veterinary science, as well as a showbag of medications, we also took home a CD with Nougat’s x-rays on it… not sure how I feel about that…in fact I feel almost like I am invading her privacy by putting the image above here…
We just need to get her through the next few days without splitting her stitches or splattering herself on the tiles. She has already tried to jump up on to a desk, missed her footing and landed flat on her back right where her stitches are. Luckily someone will be with her for the rest of the week. I do not think she will enjoy the collar of shame that the vet gave us for her to wear when noone else is around.
Post number 8 for #blogjune 2011
Having gone through the collar of shame with one of our cats recently, I can understand your reluctance, but it really does help with a faster recovery. Really glad to hear that its not as bad as it could have been and wishing you all the luck in the world with administering the various medications – I know how difficult that can be.
Kathryn please keep on giving us updates about Nougat.In the past when our cat needed to have pills, I would roll her up into a towel (like a baby) and have my husband hold her while I give her the pill. I also blew softly into her mouth encouraging her to swallow it. I hope that the next 10 days will go very quickly and that she will get well soon so that she can have the operation. Good luck to you both!
The best of luck with your cat. I too have two cats with health problems at the moment. I have been feeding a wild cat for a number of years and he is very sick at the moment. I took pictures to the vet who believes that he has FIV (feline version of AIDS). She advised me to try and trap him and bring him to her for euthanasia. (I really hate the idea as despite his total resistance to all my efforts to tame him, I have grown very fond of him). Our indoor cat is also very out of sorts and I fear he has a bladder infection. Getting him to take his antibotics is a nightmare but I find the Pill popper to be a life saver (and hand saver from the scratches). You get so fond of them and I hate to see them ill.
Can I has cat?