Author Archives: Charles Huss

Health Update For Chris

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I brought Chris back to the vet on Wednesday morning. The plan was for them to clean his teeth and remove the ones that needed to be removed. They gave me an estimate of around $640 (which is on top of all the money already spent). That estimate was a worse case scenario and it was possible it could be lower if they removed less teeth.

They said it could be as early as noon and as late as four when he would be ready to be picked up. I stayed home from work that day because I didn’t want him waiting any longer than necessary to get out of there. They called after two and said he was awake and would be ready for pick-up at four. I was there at 3:55.

They told me they had to remove eight teeth but I just noticed the bill says 4 major, 2 simple, and 1 minor, which I add up to be seven. I assume molars are major, incisors are minor, and canines are simple. The bill came to $668, which was worse than worse case. I went home with a bag full of medications including several syringes pre-filled with a pain medication called Buprenorphine, another pain and inflammation medication in tablet form called Onsior, and an antibiotic in capsule form called Clindamycin.

When Chris got home he found his way to our bed and hung out there. He was still wearing a bandage that I needed to keep on him for the next hour.

I am not a fan of medications and try to avoid them whenever possible but sometimes I can except them. With that in mind I gave Chris his pain medication because I wanted to ease the pain he must have been feeling after the anesthesia wore off. I did not give him the anti-inflammatory because I didn’t want to shove a pill down his throat and I didn’t think two pain killers were necessary. I also don’t like antibiotics because they screw up digestion which leads to all kinds of problems, but I understand that an infection could be potentially worse so I accept it and hope to fix digestive issues in the future.

The antibiotics are in capsules. I didn’t want to force the capsules down his throat any more than the tablets so I bought several cans of tuna with the hope that I could mix it in with the food. I didn’t give it to him Wednesday because he would not even eat, or drink, his favorite heavy cream. I even tried whipped cream with no luck. By Thursday Chris did eat a small amount of Tuna with his antibiotics but by small I mean miniscule. He did seem slightly more active Thursday and I did see him drinking water a couple of times.

Friday he ate half the tuna I gave him, which wasn’t much but it was more than yesterday which was more than Wednesday. I watched him eat and he didn’t seem to be in pain from it so I decided after two and a half days I can probably stop with the pain meds. I will continue with the antibiotics. Several websites I have read suggest antibiotics are unnecessary after extractions but I will continue with it for awhile since he has only received a half dose these last couple of days.

I have heard from other cat parents who say their cats were back to eating normally a day after teeth extractions but as I write this on Friday afternoon, Chris has only eaten a small amount of tuna today and none of the cat food I tried to give him. My concern is that whatever was making him puke over the weekend has never been addressed. The vet never found a cause and said sometimes pain can make a cat sick. I hope that is all it was.

We have been letting Chris sleep with us since the puking started to be noticeably bad, which was probably around last Friday evening. Normally we can’t let him stay with us because he can be a huge pain in the but. You may remember this example which is similar to what happens in the middle of the night.

Chris has been relatively good but he still starts his annoying behavior around three or four in the morning. Thursday and Friday morning he was especially annoying but instead of biting he spent a lot of time rubbing his face on my face, which he didn’t really do before. Normally, he will put his nose against my nose and then bite it. This time, instead of a bite I got a face rub. He only bit me once or twice so lightly that I could barely feel it. Perhaps that is where his teeth are missing or maybe it hurts to bite. I don’t know.

The other thing that has been happing is that while Chris has been spending a lot of time on our bed, Frankie has spent a lot of time hanging out with Chris. He must sense that Chris is not feeling well and feels bad for him. Of course, that is just a wild guess but whatever the reason, I like it.

Lastly, I would like to that all for your concern this last week or so. You are all appreciated.

Photo Friday: Basket Case

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Frankie is attracted to our laundry basket like flies to shoot I lost my train of thought. Anyway, when I bring it in empty he has to get inside of it. Usually he tips it over but this time I had the cover open so he just jumped inside. Of course, Floki had to investigate what he was doing.

In other news, Chris had several teeth pulled on Wednesday and is doing okay. My main concern is that as of Thursday evening, he has not eaten anything for about three days. They did say that he would lose his appetite after anesthesia for 12 to 24 hours but it has been more than 24 hours as I write this. I will write more about it on my next post.

More Health Issues for Chris

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Chris will be ten in a few months and up until recently, he never went to the vet for a health issue. I think the first time was from an eye infection that Floki passed on to Frankie and Chris when we adopted Floki a couple of years ago. The next visit was a couple of weeks ago after The Catfight of the Century. Last week I reported that Chris had a cold. By the end of the week the sneezing and sniffling had mostly ended but then the vomiting started. All weekend Chris ate very little but threw up a lot. I called the vet first thing Monday morning and made an appointment for him that afternoon.

When we arrived there was a women there with a small dog that looked somewhat like a Pomeranian but not exactly. This dog was a major barker. She barked at me when we came in and then she discovered Chris in his carrier and started barking at him. I was annoyed so I can imagine how Chris felt. She did bring the dog outside for a couple of minutes but then brought her back in and the barking continued. Thankfully, we got ushered into an exam room before too long.

I immediately opened the door and let Chris out.

The vet tech then came in and asked several questions about Chris and then weighed him. He weighed 17.3 pounds. Down from 18 pounds two weeks ago.

The vet came in and asked several of the same questions and examined Chris. He couldn’t immediately tell what was causing the vomiting but he did point out that Chris’s teeth were inflamed and he would need to have his teeth cleaned and probably some would need to be extracted. He also said he had an ear infection. This was a different vet than the last one who also saw the problem with Chris’s ears. That vet cleaned his ears but she didn’t offer a plan to get rid of the problem.

I vaguely remember shortly after we adopted Chris a vet told us some cats are prone to these ear polyps and indicated there wasn’t much that could be done about them but gave us a cleaner for them. Since then we have been cleaning Chris’s ears periodically. I told the vet that the other vet said that it couldn’t be cured but this vet said that wasn’t true. I did just look it up and the first thing I read said it could only be cured with surgery so perhaps Chris has something different.

The vet wanted to do the same blood test over again and a couple of other tests along with a test on his ear bugs. I didn’t understand everything he was saying but I do remember one test was related to his pancreas. He left the room to work up a plan, so we waited.

After a while someone came in with a plan and I decided against paying for more blood tests that we just took. I did agree to the other tests and I said it was okay to give him a shot for nausea but I did not want to bring home pills for that. I have personally experienced cats going downhill after starting medication so I like to keep that to what is absolutely necessary. I did get a medication for Chris’s ears. If the vet is right and this could cure him then I think it is worth a try.

I asked if they could clean his ears and give him the first round of ear drops while they were doing their tests and they agreed. They took Chris away and it wasn’t long before I heard loud sounds of a cat in distress coming from the other room. The tech came back in with Chris a minute or two later and said they were only able to clean one ear and didn’t put in the medication because Chris was resisting too much. They sad they would clean his ears when he came in for the teeth cleaning.

We waited around for a little longer, for what, I don’t know.

We were then cleared to send the vet’s kids to college pay our bill. I did that and brought Chris home. I forgot to make an appointment for his teeth so I called and made it for next Wednesday.

When I got home I let Chris out of his carrier outside. I figured I would do something good for him after what he went through.

Rose was upset that I didn’t make an appointment for his teeth this week but the vet wanted to give him time to feel better. Plus all the test results are not back yet. Despite that, Chris has eaten almost nothing since returning yesterday so Rose called the vet to try to get him in as soon as possible. We are waiting for a call back from the vet who is probably in surgery this morning.

Rose’s sister, Felice, works for a vet and the two of them talked about Chris last night. Felice said that at ten years old Chris would be considered a geriatric cat and these teeth issues are quite common in older cats. I thought it was not uncommon for cats to live fifteen years or more so geriatric seems a bit premature to me. At least I hope it is. I do understand why these teeth issues are common though.

Some people believe that dry food is good for a cat’s teeth. Even the vet said so when I said I would need to try harder to get Chris off the dry food after his teeth are gone. He said dry food is good for their teeth. I don’t believe that. I think what is good for a cat’s teeth is what nature intended, chewing on bone. Unfortunately, since our cats don’t eat live mice, their opportunity to chew on bones is virtually non-existent. I suppose I could give them raw chicken wings (cooked bones are dangerous) but they have become such dainty eaters that I don’t think they could handle it.

I won’t lie, I am worried about Chris. I know anytime you give someone anesthesia there is a risk. I also know he will be given antibiotics which will kill off his good bacteria and cause problems down the road. I did order probiotics for cats so hopefully that will help when the time comes. In the meantime, I will try to look on the bright side and hope this is the beginning of Chris getting better, not worse.

The Lucky Unlucky Cat

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This is a story about a cat I called Lucky. At the time I did not realize how wrong I would be about choosing that name and also how right I would be.

It started on a Saturday Night, October 8, 2005. Our neighbor across the street, Doug, called and said there was an injured kitten under my wife’s car and it was hissing when he tried to get close. Of course, the last thing we needed was another cat (we had six then) but we couldn’t leave it there.

I went outside and tried to coax the kitten out from under the car but she was not going to budge. I didn’t know the sex of the kitten at the time but we found out later it was a female. Her front paw looked broken and she had a hard time moving. She hissed at me a few times, probably because she was scared, but she never tried to bite me.

I put some dry food near her and she ate it all, so I gave her some wet food and a little water. She was very hungry and thirsty. Since I couldn’t get her out from under the car, I decided to move the car. I very carefully backed it up while Rose and her son’s girlfriend watched for any movement. Rose threw a towel over her as soon as the car was clear and we very carefully moved her to the garage.

We got her into the garage and put her on a couple of towels. That’s when we noticed a chunk of skin about the size of a quarter, maybe bigger, missing from her hind quarter. She also had cuts on one of her ears and it looked like her jaw was slightly out of alignment. We suspected right away, but we knew then, that a car hit her.

Lucky

Rose put some antibacterial ointment on her wounds and we moved her near the door and made a make-shift barricade around her so she wouldn’t hurt herself further in the garage. I gave her some food and water and checked on her a few times before we went to bed.

At the time we were raising two boys and six cats and did not have money to spare so a large vet bill for a stray cat was not in our budget. Because of that, we decided to bring her to the SPCA in New Port Richey, Florida, which opened at noon the next day. We got there when they opened and they turned us away before we even got to the door. They said they had no vet on duty and they were full. Vet or no vet, full or not full, they were still in a better position to help an injured cat than I was and should have done something. Since then I have not been a fan of the SPCA, even though I know I shouldn’t judge because of one incident.

Rose was very upset and said to the person at the SPCA, “What are we supposed to do, put him back on the side of the road?” They did give us a list of vets in the area and I called a place called Little Animal Hospital, which was named that because they were on Little Road. They told us to bring the cat in, which we did.

When we got there they took the cat in the back while we waited in the front. We noticed there was a big window showing a room full of cats that needed to be adopted. It was nice to know that they cared enough to do that. A few minutes later we were called to the back where we spoke to the vet.

She told us her foot was broken and would need to be amputated. There was also unknown internal injuries. We didn’t even ask about the cost because we knew that the surgery, combined with all the other rehabilitation costs, as well as the costs of getting her spayed and immunized would be way more than we could afford. Our other choice was to have her put to sleep. I didn’t like that idea but there seemed to be no other choice so we agreed to that, paid the $73 bill and left feeling horrible.

On the way home I told Rose we made a mistake. This little kitten needed us to save her and we failed. We should have arranged to make payments or something. Rose agreed with me but it was too late.

Around the same time, Rose’s Mom was looking to adopt a cat so Rose told her about the cats at the vet’s office that were for adoption. She found a Maine Coon cat there that she adopted and named Monkey.

Monkey

She also came back with a story that we were very happy to hear. Our little girl lucky was not Euthanized. The vet decided to try to save her. They did not amputate her paw either. She did require a lot of rehabilitation. Just using the litter box required human help for many weeks until she healed. I do not know what happened to her after that but I was very glad that the story had a happy ending.

Photo Friday: Creek Ratz Cat

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All my recent cat photos are still on my camera and Chris is on my lap so I decided to look through old photos for something to post today. As some of you know, my wife and I spent 16 months in Myrtle Beach between mid 2009 and late 2010. It is where we adopted Chris late in 2009. While there we enjoyed going to a place called Murrell’s Inlet.

Murrell’s Inlet had several shops and restaurants, one of which was called Creek Ratz. We liked eating there but I also enjoyed the company of a stray cat that was a regular visitor at the restaurant. I would always order a salad with grilled chicken when he was around and then slip him most of the chicken.

Creek Ratz Cat March 23, 2010

Have You Seen This Mouse?

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We have literally dozens of toy mice in our house but Floki only likes one of them. Actually, “like” is too weak of a word. He loves this one mouse. I often see him chasing it around the house and sometimes the play will last for a half-hour or even longer.

The problem is, the mouse gets lost quite often. My wife is always telling me to “find Floki’s mouse.” The fist place I look is under the coffee table, which has an opening big enough for a mouse but not big enough for the Siamese cat that’s chasing it. I also check under the beds, under the sofa, and in the closets. Sometimes it’s hiding in the closet.

While I am looking, Floki follows me around, waiting for me to find it. Sometimes I think he knows where his mouse is but he enjoys watching me look for it. I think that because there have been a few times when I couldn’t find it and gave up. I would then see Floki playing with it an hour later.

I want to buy a few more of the same mice but a web search revealed no results. I was hoping someone out there could help me identify who makes it so I can by more. Here is what it looks like.

It has a furry cover around what seems to be a plastic interior. It is not soft like some stuffed mice although the plastic is probably hollow so it has some give to it.

If you have seen this mouse please call Crimestoppers let me know in the comments. If you haven’t seen it, tell me about another mouse that your cat loves.