The 10/100 Pound Cat
My youngest cat, NeeNee, got her splint off today after being the innocent victim of recent visitors. She had a badly broken leg and was in the splint for eight weeks. The top of her poor little paw is a scattering of black fur, dirty white toes, and rubbed VERY RAW, RED, AND SWOLLEN. The vet took the the splint off, washed her leg, and she was aggressively chewing on it immediately. So much so that she had it bleeding withing seconds.Now I have give her a dropper-full of antibiotics twice a day. I've given shots to cats, rabbits, pigs, dogs, sheep, and horses and I've even helped to brand cattle. I consider myself a wiz with handling animals but I've never encountered anything like this...
It takes two people to hold down this little blind ten pound cat to wash her and give her medications. She has jaws of steel that clamp shut like a trap to prohibit the passage of the eyedropper full of antibiotics. This is a mountain lion disguised as a domestic house cat. My roommate has to hold her by the scruff, grab both back legs, we wedge her between us against the couch cushion, and then I take both hands to open her mouth and put the dropper contents in. Just try and picture that one....
Because it just gets better...
Her leg and paw have to be washed EVERY DAY NOW. We lay the beach towel down on the bathroom counter before we attempt to wrap NeeNee in as a kitten burrito. Hopefully, before she has a chance to figure out what's going on, we once again secure the rear paws and my roommate lays on NeeNee with just enough pressure to keep NeeNee from going off like a roman candle when the water is turned on. We estimate that this would ultimately require approximately 2,500 psi and both of us combined don't amount to that much and in the end, we would end up with a kitten pancake so we do the best we can, hopefully without incurring injury to any parties involved.
Once the leg and paw are thoroughly washed (but before we dry off ourselves, wipe the pools of excess water from the counter and mirror, and apply the neosporin and band-aids to ourselves), we take the dry portion of the towel that is now half soaked and dry off her leg, and then we put on the VERY dreaded lampshade.
We tried putting the newborn sock on her leg (pink of course) and securing it with first aid tape (the first alternative) but God expressing as this little creature continued to gnaw so relentlessly at her paw and leg THROUGH THE SOCK that we had to resort to the hated Elizabethan Collar. Never in my life have I seen a cat (or any creature) pout SO SEVERELY as when she finally comes to rest after all this is concluded. You would think that we have removed her reason for living and insulted her family line at the same time.
So, we hoping that now that the splint is off that the leg and paw will heal within the next week and we can try removing the lampshade little by little. We have to watch that especially carefully since when we take it off now, she goes after her paw like a wild lion goes after a fresh kill - seriously, growls and all. Hopefully, once it's all healed, that urge will go away.
We're all retiring for the day.... between the lot of us, wet, scratched, collared, bloody, pouting, and exhausted.... and this is just day one of this phase.
Oy.
It takes two people to hold down this little blind ten pound cat to wash her and give her medications. She has jaws of steel that clamp shut like a trap to prohibit the passage of the eyedropper full of antibiotics. This is a mountain lion disguised as a domestic house cat. My roommate has to hold her by the scruff, grab both back legs, we wedge her between us against the couch cushion, and then I take both hands to open her mouth and put the dropper contents in. Just try and picture that one....
Because it just gets better...
Her leg and paw have to be washed EVERY DAY NOW. We lay the beach towel down on the bathroom counter before we attempt to wrap NeeNee in as a kitten burrito. Hopefully, before she has a chance to figure out what's going on, we once again secure the rear paws and my roommate lays on NeeNee with just enough pressure to keep NeeNee from going off like a roman candle when the water is turned on. We estimate that this would ultimately require approximately 2,500 psi and both of us combined don't amount to that much and in the end, we would end up with a kitten pancake so we do the best we can, hopefully without incurring injury to any parties involved.
Once the leg and paw are thoroughly washed (but before we dry off ourselves, wipe the pools of excess water from the counter and mirror, and apply the neosporin and band-aids to ourselves), we take the dry portion of the towel that is now half soaked and dry off her leg, and then we put on the VERY dreaded lampshade.
We tried putting the newborn sock on her leg (pink of course) and securing it with first aid tape (the first alternative) but God expressing as this little creature continued to gnaw so relentlessly at her paw and leg THROUGH THE SOCK that we had to resort to the hated Elizabethan Collar. Never in my life have I seen a cat (or any creature) pout SO SEVERELY as when she finally comes to rest after all this is concluded. You would think that we have removed her reason for living and insulted her family line at the same time.
So, we hoping that now that the splint is off that the leg and paw will heal within the next week and we can try removing the lampshade little by little. We have to watch that especially carefully since when we take it off now, she goes after her paw like a wild lion goes after a fresh kill - seriously, growls and all. Hopefully, once it's all healed, that urge will go away.
We're all retiring for the day.... between the lot of us, wet, scratched, collared, bloody, pouting, and exhausted.... and this is just day one of this phase.
Oy.
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