stephbg | Another cat health post (Reply)

Sometimes it feels like all I do is look after (and indeed blog about) the cats. There are worse things to spend my time on, but sometimes it gets complicated. Herein I record Buffy's spey and Boris Giles' sundry bacteria, with end notes on Cally's arthritis and Princess' thyroid.

On Monday last Buffy was speyed (desexed) and given her microchip and tattoo. The surgery went well and she was given internal dissolving stitches through the incision on her side. She has the usual crop square of missing fur, and came out sporting an Elizabethan collar, also known as the Cone of Shame. We were given instructions to keep her warm, dry and quiet.

Keeping Buffy quiet – how did that go? Well, the collar lasted about half an hour before she managed to pull it over her head, and take off the bandage around her foreleg. We put the collar back on as tight as we dared but she got it off again almost immediately. We kept a close eye on her wound but she showed no signs of interfering with it, so we just went with the flow.

Over the next couple of days we *tried* to keep her quiet, confining her to the bathroom for periods of downtime, or just separating Boris Giles in the other half of the house to keep them from playing together. Can't say we were wildly successful, but her wound continues to look clean and there's no redness, swelling, or tenderness. Food and water go in, other stuff comes out. All seems well.

On Thursday though she seemed a bit flat, her eyes dull, and even her purr wasn't up to scratch. She made no attempt to run about, and slept most of the time. I was more than a little concerned but by this morning (Friday) she had rallied and was much more like her usual self, albeit at a slightly reduced pace. A slightly reduced pace was what we wanted, although Boris Giles seemed frustrated by her unwillingness to indulge in the usual rough&tumble games of wrestle-chasey. He made up for it by running back and forth all by himself.

To Boris Giles, who has nearly doubled in weight since he came here and is now a healthy 4 kg of young sleek glossy black cat. Shortly after he found the courage to join Buffy at the top of the curtains he started to show a limp, so we thought it likely he'd had a bad landing or had dangled awkwardly from a single claw. He let me feel most of his leg without complaint, and only got a bit twitchy at paw level, but we haven't had him long enough to know if that was normal. The limp came and went, but even when he seemed to be walking well he'd still hold up the paw while sitting.

At about this point I finally confirmed for certain that it was Boris Giles who was the source of the bloody poos I'd been seeing for several weeks, and also that there seemed to be more of it, so I took him in to the vet. So much for a mythical 12 months grace between flu shots. Dr Laura had a good look and could find nothing particularly wrong with his paw. Said his wrist was a bit clicky and agreed that it was likely to be no more than a soft tissue injury. She couldn't find any lumps or bumps in his abdomen, and given his otherwise spectacular health and growth said it could just be "one of those things". We decided to get some tests done, which naturally required the collection of a poo sample, which might take a couple of days, given that we have four cats and they like to bury everything.

But a verified sample was captured that night straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak, and off it went to pathology the next day. Got the results today, which revealed that Boris Giles had Salmonella and another type of bacteria I can't recall just now. Not possible to treat both at once with a combined antibiotic, as this is too dangerous to give to young growing cats. Eek! Apparently it does Bad Things to their developing cartilage. Also not possible to treat both infections at once with two separate antibiotics as he would most probably vomit them up.

So, step 1 is to treat just the Salmonella, with liquid (thank heavens) AB's twice per day. He's very head shy, but we've got our two-person-cat-wrapping medication delivery technique working pretty well, and tonight's first dose went down without fuss. He was talking to us again shortly afterwards, so he wasn't too traumatised. I expect he'll become harder to catch as the days go on. It does mean that for the next two weeks I'll need to get up to do this every morning before Husband goes to work, but I'm usually awake by then, just not ambulatory.

The second infection may just sort itself out, so we'll reassess at the end of the two weeks. It's also more—but not wildly—infectious, and so it's possible he's passed it on to Buffy. She's not showing any signs, but eyes will continue to be peeled.

On Monday Buffy goes back for her 1 week followup appointment from her spey. Not expecting any issues there unless she goes quiet again. Given the timing of everything we really think it was just the soreness from the operation catching up with her. On Thursday we have a double for Cally's monthly Cartrophen shot and the 4 week followup and repeat blood test on Princess' thyroid. I think she's lost more weight, and as a bonus has drawn blood again so yesterday we gave her steroids. Too soon to know if the Feliway is helping her – might need to get a second unit to put in the bedroom, but it's all getting a bit expensive. With the cold wet weather Cally has been extra creaky but I haven't been able to give her as much pain relief as I'd like because she's been throwing up from deep in her gut, which is a limiting side effect of Metacam. Unfortunately Dr Laura will be on holidays for both of these but the vet I'll be seeing is OK, even if we haven't particularly bonded.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm being an over-anxious mother. Then I think, well no, I'm responding to real problems like weight loss, blood of various kinds, and lameness. Things are as they are, and at least this time around Boris Giles and Buffy have insurance.