AMAZON

Friday, July 06, 2007

Alex Stuff

Alex has discovered that the coolest place in the house for day-time napping in the doorway to our spare bedroom

Last Tuesday was a full day for Alex, the cat I serve. He had this third trip to see his vet since he and I were reunited. He has been scratching or licking—neither the vet nor I am sure which—his skin. His beautiful coat is torn away and there are gashes in various stages of healing on his neck, head, and back.

Tuesday the vet ran five more tests on him, with negative results. She still doesn’t know what’s behind his tearing at himself, although a lot has been ruled out. He received several shots during this trip to the vet plus antibiotics, which I give him twice a day.

Another concern I had about my little fellow is that he seemed to me to be “off his food.” He was eating much less than I have ever known him to eat and he hardly touches his water. That was of special concern because, without air conditioning—repair is financially not feasible since the repair estimate is almost $3,000.00—the temperature inside our house seldom drops below 80 (F).

However, I must have been mistaken about Alex not eating. Tuesday he weighed in at the vet’s at 10.2 pounds. That’s well above the 9.4 pounds he weighed just a few week’s ago.

In the days since Alex’s vet visit I have noted that he is eating (although he’s as picky about his food as ever), although I can’t confirm he is drinking water. He doesn’t act ill, although I have noticed him at times still licking his coat very hard. (The vet told me that a cat’s rough tongue can do as much damage to a coat as its claws).

When Alex and I returned from the vet visit, I captured the little bugger, held him in my arms as I would hold a baby, and tried to get the dropper of antibiotic into his mouth. I didn’t hold him tightly enough: he jumped from my arms onto my desk and literally cleared everything off of it (and onto the floor) before I recaptured him and was able to get the medicine into his mouth. Since then I’ve had no trouble administering the medicine. Alex seems to like its taste!

Tuesday night we had one more adventure. About midnight, Alex and I were cooling off on our front porch when some revelers a few houses away set off a series of firecrackers. Alex jumped from the porch and ran across the street (without looking either way) and disappeared behind a house. I remained on the porch with the door open, calling him. During a short break in the firecracker noise, Alex ran back across the street, straight through the door into the house, and hid under the kitchen table. I followed him inside, sat at the table, he jumped into my arms, and I held my dear friend until the merrymakers decided to stop setting off all those BANGS!


16 comments:

  1. alex likes medicine? ..probably it's flavoured with yummy cat food i guess :)

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  2. hope Alex gets well soon.xx pinks

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  3. I know what you mean about giving medicine to cats.I have two cats Bronte and Holly. Not long ago one of Bronte's eyes seemed flat in appearance rather than convex.
    It turned out that the lens was punctured and he had to have three different kinds of eye drops and an oral antibiotic four times a day for two weeks.
    Luckily we managed to save the eye, but to this day if he sees anything that looks like a dropper bottle he takes off and hides, even if it's medicine for the dogs, he's outta here!
    I hope the vet soon arrives at a diagnosis and has Alex all better.

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  4. ` I'm glad Alex didn't run away for good! Stupid firecrackers. I hope he gets better. Now that I think about it, my cat didn't. So I hope he fares better!

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  5. I hope he gets better soon. If he's not drinking you'll know about it, especially when its so hot.

    Give him a big cuddle for me.

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  6. Alex is ill? I do hope he gets well soon.

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  7. Is he drinking out of the toilet, Nick? My cats do that, despite having fresh water in their self-waterer every day.

    Hugs,
    Laurie

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  8. I hope that Alex is ok - Take care and good luck trying to keep cool!!

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  9. poor kitty u take good care of alex, ok

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  10. Nick, Alex might be a bit anxious after your enforced absence from one another...cats are very sensitive creatures and this could be one way his anxiety is manifesting itself.

    Glad he likes his medicine, though. He could be drinking at night, too.

    Hope he comes right soon.

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  11. Cats are notoriously hard to treat. My vet told me about all they can do is go with the "shotgun" approach- give them medicine for everything, and hope one of them is the right one.

    You can see if he's drinking water by pulling the skin up behind his neck. If it pops right back into place, he's hydrated; if it goes down slowly, he's not.

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  12. Hi Nick ~~ I am so sorry Alex isn't feeling the best and thus causing you to worry. not to mention vet bills.
    I hope things soon come good again.
    Thanks for your comments, glad you liked the story and also the photos.
    I couldn't get any on tonight,
    Take care of yourself as well as Alex. Regards, Merle.

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  13. I don't like fireworks, either.

    I know little kids have cherry and grape flavored medicines. Maybe cat medicine is tuna flavored?

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  14. Ours drink out of the toilet. They prefer either that or a slightly dripping faucet.

    Hope your not so little guy is okay.

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  15. Fireworks are a hard thing for a lot of pets, I don't blame them, those suckers are loud. And they must be pretty scary when you don't know what they are or why they're happening.

    I'm just so happy that you guys are back together again. :-)

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