Call it a bird's posthumous revenge. Orlando apparently felt he needed more poultry in his diet, as last Friday morning he caught a bird and brought it inside. After eating the choice parts, he left me with the remains and a pile of feathers. That night I noticed a large swelling on his shoulder. The next day it had not gone down. In the afternoon, either on purpose or accidentally, he punctured it and was licking pus off his fur. The regular vet is not open Saturday so I brought him to the emergency clinic. After a 3 hour wait, the gave him a local anesthetic and cleaned out the abscess, sent me home with a week's supply of antibiotics and told me to put warm compresses on it to facilitate draining. When they clipped his fur, we could see one perfect round hole, no scratches. A fight with another cat would have shown scratches. But the hole is exactly where it would be expected if the bird, before expiring, had nailed him with a talon. Sunday he looked a lot better and rested while I was at the Parade. But yesterday it started swelling again. By coincidence, he had a scheduled appointment on Tuesday. I called and asked if they could see him Monday but they were totally booked. Yesterday the vet said that because the abscess was so large, fluid had pooled and in spoite of the antibiotics the wound had gotten infected. They had to insert a drain, remove infected tissue, and stitch him up. I got another week's worth of antibiotics. I have to clean the wound twice a day, which hurts. He has a big Elizabethan collar on that I need to take off so he can eat, although he does not have much appetite. And he has to stay inside for 2 weeks until the stitches come out. I have a cat door, so all 3 cats are now locked inside so that I could close the kitty door. They are all unhappy and Rudy is howling loud enough to shatter glass. I could say "that will teach you to kill birds" but Orlando is a cat and I can't scold a cat for being a cat.
Glad to hear that Orlando seems to have made it through, and I agree...I'm not positive this will stop him the next time he wants poultry.
Aw, I hope Orlando heals as quickly as possible! I recently lost my cat (Mack) so stomach cancer but he lived a great life. Always had a soft-spot for cats, had one in my life since I can remember. Which cat is in your sig?
Good to hear he's doing ok. Do you mind telling us what the 2 vet bills come to? Did you think twice before committing that much money? I love my animals, but I don't know if I'd commit thousands to save my cat or one of my dogs. My newest dog, I'd probably drop a lot of money to save her if needed.
Orlando is the cat in the sig, ironically with a bird. The two bills together were about $600. It could have been worse; Orlando was cooperative enough yesterday that they were able to use local anesthesia. General would probably have doubled the cost. No, I did not think twice about taking him in. Orlando is only 6. My family is my highest priority. So I don't buy another iPod.
$600 isn't bad for an emergency surgery. I'd probably even drop that much for the dog that I hate, but my family loves.
I am going batshit crazy, keeping the cats inside. Last evening Orlando kept running between front and back doors, meowing full blast. I finally got him calmed down, then Rudy began to howl. He ran out of gas, but Margot, normally a very quiet cat, howled literally all night and this morning. Earplugs were ineffective. Rudy and Margot, siblings, are part Siamese. Anyone who's ever heard a Siamese howl can imagine the racket. This morning I sprinkled catnip everywhere. They calmed down, for about 5 minutes. Then the howls started. I had a talk with Margot, and she calmed, but as soon as I stood up she began to howl again. This is with Orlando at far from full strength and energy. As he recovers, he will probably fight more to go outside. Two weeks of this? I'm going to be in the loony bin! I'm about ready to put knockout drops in their water dispensers. And I really don't think Orlando is associating all this with the bird he killed, so "learning his lesson" is probably not in the cards. Damn, if he wanted poultry, I would have made chicken.
