Although she's emerging more regularly, Pandora still seems to like spending time in the cat carrier (now renamed Pandora's Box.) Her haunches are protected that way. Our regular vet thinks it was another cat who attacked her and only managed to get one fang into her. The problem is that fluid is building underneath the wound and it's not draining properly. If fluid continues to leak, I'll have to bring her in on Thursday and he'll sedate her and essentially put another hole lower down in the wound so that the fluid will be able to get out of there.
PAD
Posted by Peter David at July 21, 2003 10:56 PM | TrackBack | Other blogs commentingIt sounds like things are under control, which is good. Something similar happened to a dog I once had, although the wound was larger, and the vet had to install a plastic tube as a drain. Unpleasant, but effective. Best of luck to everybody involved.
The closest experience I ever had was when our first cat, Gus, was shot by some idiot with a bee-bee gun. Hopefully, things will go much better for Pandora.
Best wishes.
We had a similar situation arise when K'ehlar, our dog, got bit by a spider. While it was a frightening experience for all of us (especially K'ehlar...), she did pull through in the end. Here's hoping Pandora's fate is equally healthy.
I may be out of line but, why is your vet making you wait untill Thursday? If it's not draining properly now, chances are it won't get any better by Thursday because the wound will continue to heal up therefore trapping all that nasty infection inside her. Just a suggestion, but I'd take her in tomorrow and get that thing drained out.
Makes sense... she can see them, but they can't see her. That way, random ankle attacks will be much more of a surprise.
I have to concur with Sue.
(I could see the vet's point of view if it was just a question of letting the swelling go down, BUT)
Take Pandora back to the vet now, especially if her nose is hot!
Better safe than sorry.
Good to hear she is getting better. As someone above said, I think you'll know when she's back in the game when you guys start getting attacked as you walk by :)
Anyhoo, I would say take her in right away to get that drained, too. I know the vet has his reasons, and we trust ours, but letting something,like this go for three days? If we did that our cats would shun us.
On the otherhand, they pretty much shun us most of the time anyway...
From 1 cat lover to another - all the best for your Pandora, Peter. Hope all turns out goood in the end.
P.S.: Looking forward to your coming New Frontier follow ups.
OK, I'm a cat freak too, but I find this getting a bit sugary.
If anyone needs an antidote, may I recommend;
FYI: Her Vet did see her Monday and wanted to wait and see about the area with the fluid. He was of the opinion that it might correct itself on its own and that would be preferable to punching another hole in the cat that might get infected. The swelling is less today and she is resting with that flank under her which she was not doing yesterday. So I think we are on the path of recovery.
Kath
Ms. David,
Sounds good. As we all know, resting on the flanks is the cat's natural state. :^>
Admit it you injured your cat so it'd have to go into a carrier so you could call it Pandora's box.(jk)
Hope your cat has a speedy recovery and your vet doesn't gouge you on the bill.
How long have you had this cat...and only now do you name the Cat Carrier "Pandora's Box"?
Who are you..and what did you do with the real Peter David.
Glad to hear the kitty is doing well, Mr. David!
And on a *completely* unrelated note... the "Bibliography" link on this page isn't working. What's up with *that*?
I hope Pandora could recover soon.
Exactly one year ago I lost my cat Mao (she died of cancer at 14).
When Pandora get well, I hope you could answer to my interview proposal, Peter (and don't worry, I can take no for an answer :-)
Best,
Stefano
Dear Mr David
We had much the same thing with one of our cats, and don't get too worried about it. The thing about cats is, they're not supposed to hurt one another - all that howling, groaning and standing their hair up on end when two cats get pissed at one another is intended to say " Mess with me, and I'll hurt you bad ". The idea then is that one or other either backs off or gets bored, and wanders away.
What seems to have happened to Pandora is that on this occassion it hasn't worked and some other cat has gone for her. Since cats have retractable claws, they don't actually use them much and they tend to get rather dirty. Hence when a cat scratches another cat - or you it cuts dirty. Just as happened to Steed - our cat - what happens is that the wound gets horribly messy, but goes no deeper than the skin - all that hair and undercoat tends to block most of the force.
The message is - don't get too uptight, just because it looks messy doesn't mean she's in much pain. Oh, she may act like she is - but cats are drama queens and don't like the idea of having their butts whipped so they tend to either slink off and sulk, or play for the sympathy vote. That will be why your vet is not too worried - although having a sick animal is no fun to us poor owners
Now, if you want real fun, wait til she does what Steed did - tries to mess about with a hedgehog... there were tears before bedtime that day but he bounced back - if a bit shell-shocked.
Best wishes and keep us posted
Delighted to hear that Pandora's on the mend -- good news all 'round.
Cat battles can get pretty heavy-duty when one or both forget that it's mostly posing. We wound up spending something like $2000 (yes, you read that right) on a cat that wasn't even ours a few years ago -- it was a stray who'd come around a lot for food, and after a lengthy absence came back starved to the bone and limping. Between draining the abscesses on both back legs, getting him fixed and vaccinated, AND getting him hip surgery when it turned out the fight had dislocated his hip and we hadn't noticed because we were paying attention to the obvious problems lower down ... well, the bill was big.
He did not remain a stray. (He didn't wind up with us, either, as we already had three and weren't comfortable with a fourth -- but he's with a friend and quite happy.)
Since we've got good reason to believe that he's the father of one of our other cats, though, he did get a name: POP. That's an acronym for Potential Orpheus Parent.
And on that random note ... again, best wishes to Pandora and family.
TWL
human of Pandora, Selene, and Orpheus