Time just seems to get away from me. I've been working on the last set of holiday cards, keeping on top of paperwork and, well, it always seems as if I don't have the time to sit here and post updates.
And here are most of them.
Bobby survived his dental, but I was told his heart rate got scary fast. They were able to bring it down and Bobby is done being put under anesthesia. Even though his blood values were good, he's an old cat.
Noobie started chasing Rachel. She was okay as long as she stayed in the office, but the minute she tried to step outside, he'd go after her. He actually would stand at the door, just waiting for her to go in or out. She found a good hiding spot outside, but it was good for her, not me. I couldn't reach her. Brian blocked it off and she started spending more time inside. There's a small cat condo on the bottom of the bookshelf and it's behind some plastic storage containers. When I can't find her in the morning, if I shine a flashlight in there, she's there.
Spending more time with her and following her outside, yelling and chasing Noobie if he goes after her. I'm hoping he finally got the message.
He still had his testicles and that was probably part of the problem.
Last Friday Sammy presented as constipated. The kind of constipation that has hard dry stool in the colon, but soft stool gets around it. So, it looked like he had diarrhea, but I knew from previous constipated cats that dry stool was most likely the culprit. He'd been constipated a few weeks previous, but Miralax helped. Friday, he just threw it up. I called the vet and we got him in, he got an enema. The vet took x-rays to watch the passage of the stool and noticed that he has an enlarged liver, which could be a contributing factor to the constipation. We're not doing anything about it, no biopsy or tests. He's eighteen years old, he has that damned feline herpes virus and what good would testing do? There's nothing we can do at this point. Well, he is getting the liver med, ursodiol. He'd gotten that for a couple of weeks back in May when the blood work first showed problems. Now, he's on it for the rest of his life. So, he's on a stool softener, herpes med, l-lysine and Imuquin (for the immune system), and a liver med. And he's supposed to be getting subQ fluids twice a week to help with dry stool.
Yesterday, Noobie had his neuter surgery. I made the appointment last week after he went after one of the other girls (I was so angry with him, the neighbor heard me yelling; I'd never hurt one of the cats, but to listen to me, you'd wonder....)
Noobie has come quite far in his acceptance of us, he runs up to us, let's us pet him, I can pick him up and walk around with him. Lots of headbutting and purring. He's more accepting of me than Brian at this point, but that should change over time. Anyway, one of our concerns was getting him in the carrier and how they'd work with him at the vet. He's not feral, but he was an abandoned cat who had been on his own for quite a while. Carriers were not familiar to him. How would we get him in one?
So, with the addition of Jingles, the cat food feeder is on the patio table. It helped keep Noobs out of the office, where Rachel lives. I made the appointment last week, so this gave me some time to work with carrier and cat. At first I tried putting the feeder in the carrier and nope. Not going to happen. Then I tried propping the door open and having the lid off. I would pick him up and put him in the carrier and he'd walk out the front and eat. I did this a couple of times a day. Then a couple of days ago, I put a blanket in it. He didn't notice.
The vet wanted to meet with us to see how they'd work with him as far as sedation went. Like the vet explained, you don't mask a frightened cat. The carrier would have to be bagged and they'd lightly sedate him, them take him out to do the surgery.
Would we be able to get him in the carrier for transport?
Brian had a blanket close by to cover the carrier. The front door of the carrier was closed. All we needed to do was drop Noobie in the top and get the top closed. And it worked. Noobie went nuts. Until Brian covered the carrier with the blanket. Noobie calmed down.
At the vet's office, they were actually able to get him out of the carrier and onto the table. The vet did a quick exam of him, mentioned his big tomcat jowls, looked in his mouth, his teeth looked good, said he was probably around five years old, then turned him around to check out his testicles. He did not like that one little bit. He jumped off of the table, ran around the room, going to the doors, climbing the walls. The tech was able to get the blanket over him (the one we had the carrier covered with) and dropped him into the carrier and closed it. Bagging the carrier was going to happen.
We left him there and went home. They called less than an hour later. It was done, he could come home in a couple of hours. He was home by one yesterday afternoon. He hightailed it to the back of the yard and we didn't see him for four or five hours. He let me pet him and pick him up. He wanted no part of the house. It was the house's fault for what happened. lol
This morning, he's almost back to normal, runs up to the patio, munches on his kibble. And he's no longer intact. A few months for the testosterone level to drop and I bet he'll be one of the sweetest cats ever.
And I think that pretty much catches you up on the pet stuff for now.