Cat Update!

[hellison]

Phoned vet, cat is all stitched up and ready to go home this evening, with all 4 legs still attached and without any of the other the horrors I was imagining last night when I couldn't sleep. She has to wear one of those hood things tho, which means getting the litter tray out from wherever its been lurking, as I don't think she'll fit through the cat flap.

More tablets too. Still the cuts from the last round have healed up nicely so I should be fine ;p

Very relieved she's ok. Didn't realise quite how worried I was til I started shaking phoning the vet.
Also seem to have lost ability to write proper sentences. Cat trauma has turned me into Bridget Jones. V. disturbing.

Comments

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Yay, hooray for cat. :) Has she worn an Elizabethan collar before? We had a hellish time of it with Kizzy when she was spayed... damn highly strung torties.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

No, she's never had one, not even when she was spayed. No idea how she's going to react but I think the worst thing is going to be having to stay indoors, she's not used to that at all.

Even with a huge chunk missing from her leg yesterday she was pottering around the garden with me while I was weeding and jumping on things. So at least there's no tendon/muscle damage.

[hellison.livejournal.com]

How did you manage? Lana is totally freaked out by it (keeps running backwards and walking into things) but she's also trying repeatly to get at the wound, so I daren't take it off. Tho I will have to remove it to feed her, god knows how i'm going to get it back on again.

Also, I have to go to the stables, but I dont want to leave her. Gnah pets.

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Okay. First of all, don't panic. She will run backwards and scrape along, because she's (a) trying to back away from it and (b) has lost the use of her whiskers, which is intensely disorientating and makes her feel like she's somewhere too small for her; she doesn't know where she is and has to adjust. It is horrible to watch. *hugs* The vet told us at first that this would wear off given a bit of time, perhaps overnight. This is the case for most cats. She should be able to eat with it on, she just needs to figure out the knack of it. I'm not sure whether flat plates or bowls with low, curved sides are better for this; experiment to see what Lana gets on better with.

*If she doesn't get over it after a day or so*, you're in the same situation we were with Kizzy - she simply stopped eating and we took her back on the second day for a check-up. The vet thought it was a psychological problem, and advised removing the collar when she was fed, and at any time she could be closely supervised to keep her from biting at the wound.

Do take her to the vet if you're in this situation, to make sure that she doesn't have a post-injury/post-op infection or something.

I spent a lot of time watching her to make sure she didn't pick. What worked well for us was removing the collar, then having Kizzy on my lap - I could cup my hand over the suture (no touching), and she could wash everywhere but there. Not being able to wash also distresses them, or if it doesn't, it certainly distressed *me*. Bloomers... *shudder*

Putting the collar back on is really a two-person job at first - one to hold, one to quickly loop the collar around and do it up. They're designed to be easy to attach, believe it or not. Be careful to do it up tightly enough that she can't just pull it off - standard two fingers inside the collar for safety, though.

I found it wasn't as hard as I'd expected, though, to do it one-handed - if you can just get the collar around her neck, it should disorientate her enough for you to do it up. Try to be behind her so that, when she backs away, she goes into you and not away from you.

If you have to leave her, try and arrange somewhere dark she can hide (a cat carrier with a blanket over it or something; she ought to appreciate it.

Good luck. *hugs*

[hellison.livejournal.com]

thanks! She seems to have settled a bit now, less of the backing up and panicking. She has also already figured out how to eat with it, tho I did take it off to let her eat earlier and getting it back on wasn't too difficult, tho I think she was still too disorientated to fight back!

I think not being able to wash is going to disturb her the most, she's a very clean cat normally and she's been contorting herself into all sorts of shapes trying to get clean. She did manage to get at her tail, which seemed to calm her down a bit. I'll maybe try taking it off for a bit later so she can at least wash her face.

I think we've *both* calmed down a bit now!