I've never had a girl cat before - just boys. And boys are pretty easy to desex; for the owner, there really isn't any downtime at all. So I was a little bit anxious for Ava. She is a late spay too, as we have been battling with her health for months, poor little thing. There is still no 'verdict' as to what was wrong - she had bad tummy troubles. And she passed it to Kato at one stage, so it started out as something infectious. But all our testing, including the all-encompassing PCR test (which we did twice!) showed no conclusive results. So we went down the drug trial route, and that helped, and fixed Kato, but Ava was still a bit poorly. We then started on food trials (still ongoing), and she had sufficient improvement to catch up on all her kitten vaccinations, yay! And finally, at 7.5months, she was well enough to be desexed.
So in she went yesterday. I think she spent a rather anxious day, despite capturing the hearts of all the staff at the vet's, who spent time climbing into her cage to give her cuddles! I collected her at the end of the day and she was very subdued in her carry cage.
When we got home, Ava was so relieved! She spent an evening of lavishing me with the most extradordinary displays of love! Her eyes were funny, and it seemed like she had ADD - she'd rub up against me, flop over onto her back, look one way, then the next, scamper into my arms and snuggle in close against my chest and neck purring at a rate of knots and giving my love eyes, then repeat...I put it down to the drugs! She'd had some opiate based pain relief and her eyes were glassy and black. But such a sweet sweet little thing! She hasn't snuggled that close since she was a little kitten.
This morning I was woken by ENORMOUS purrs. Ava was badly congested (but very happy!). We rang our vet just in case, and we are on a 'wait and see' order, with the hypothesis that the flu virus she carried (and gave to Kato - who has been battling it on and off for 3 months) had stirred up due to yesterday's stress. In all other manners, Ava is doing well. I'm trying to divert her play demands into low-key options - she's supposed to be 'resting' (tell that to a Korat!)
Kato reacted in manners I was half expecting - he had a lovely day all to himself yesterday, and lapped up the attention. When Ava came home, he sniffed her over very very closely, and hissed (at the vet smell, not at her). He then spent 3 hours reclaiming the travel cage, by sniffing it over and napping in it! I'm on alert that he doesn't clean her shaved belly or incision site too closely. And that's where I will leave this post, as I now only have one hand...sweet Ava has just climbed into my arms :)
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I thought I'd write this post about our experiences with cats and bee-stings, because Ava finally got stung today, after going after the bees for the last week! Kato also got stung as a kitten - and carries a bald spot on his chin like a 'Guy Falks' goatee. Thankfully, it hasn't happened again for him, so here's hoping the first sting is lesson learned.
With Kato's sting, we saw the sting in his chin. We googled what to do - and tried scraping the sting off with a credit card. It didn't work too well, so husband-man had better success with grasping the sting with a tissue. Obviously, we don't want to squeeze in more venom, so a flicking/scraping action was the aim, although difficult with a cat who doesn't want to be touched. I think we rang the vet, and went with a 'watch and see' option. Some cats, like humans, will react to the poison and need to see the vet asap. In Kato's case, he was obviously quiet, did have some swelling, but no other alarming signs like respiratory distress. Today, with Ava's sting, husband-man went with his instincts and took her in to the vet. So I write about what a vet may do - as I really didn't know if they could do anything for an ouchie that wasn't life-threatening. Ava came out of the bushes scraping at her eye with her paw, and her left eye was weeping profusely. But we couldn't see the sting, so assumed she'd got it out. I gently bathed around her eye with cold water and a little salt, thinking at least this would remove any surface venom smeared on her fur, and possibly bring a little soothing coolness. We noticed her continually licking her nose, and she went and sat very quietly on her chair - too quietly for husband-man's liking. She had also purred under my ministrations (which she didn't really like), so I took that for her own method of pain-relief (cat's may purr to self soothe in times of pain or distress). As I had to leave for work, husband-man made the call and took her into the vet. We learned at least one thing! Look for the sting while looking down, over the top of their head. You can also better see any swelling from that angle. Lo and behold, the sting was still there - not near Ava's eye, but close to her mouth, in her whiskers. Very camouflaged. Our vet deftly removed the sting, checked Ava's temp (normal), and flushed her eye with a dye to check to see if Ava had inadvertently scratched it when she was pawing at her face (she was fine). Our vet also gave Ava a tiny amount of anti-inflammatory, injected in the usual neck scruff. And that's the end of the story - unless we have a further reaction, but all seems to be travelling smoothly. Not all people know what they are talking about. A lot of people ACT like they know what they are talking about.
Most of the time we can pick these people in daily life, but here's the really worrying thing...many people in positions of respect ALSO don't know what they are talking about, do act like they do, and perhaps have other 'interests' that guide their advice. Here's some advice I overheard from the staff of a petstore yesterday in relation to dog nutrition: 'You must feed 90% dry, as there is no-way near as much nutrition in wet food' 'Always mix the wet and dry' Well, there are some big problems with this advice - BECAUSE IT IS WRONG. Dog kibble, like cat kibble, is made from similar ingredients. Not all of these ingredients are 'food'. A lot is rubbish - yes, the actual word GARBAGE is on the approved AAFCO list of ingredients for kibble. I write about this under Cat Food Problems. As to nutritional bio availability, there aren't any studies. There is science to tell us that protein (and other nutrients) is denatured (ruined) at high temperatures, and kibble is cooked -twice -at extremely high temperatures. So sorry, I cannot understand why something fresh, that animals would eat in a natural setting, is not good, and something full of rubbish, substandard ingredients (it's about profit folks), and cooked at extreme heat, is packed full of nutrition! Now the thing about heat that most people know is, it kills bacteria. So many people think kibble is safer to handle and leave around than fresh meat. After-all, it has a used-by date of many years. Unfortunately, we'd be wrong. Countless numbers of recalls and thousands of pet deaths have occurred from pathogen poisoning (often salmonella) FROM KIBBLE. It lives, often in stasis or spores, on the outside surface of the kibble. So heaven forbid you mix it with wet food - what you've done is give it a growth medium and served up a potentially deadly case of food poisoning. And it's not just contamination from the food processing plant that results in such pathogens coating the kibble. The actual ingredients, for example condemned grains, have moulds and bacteria that have produced toxins in their growth (endotoxins), and these toxins SURVIVE the heat - and pet food manufacturers don't test for them. So, WHY would a pet store employee give such advice? Well, here's some guesses - they have no qualifications in canine or feline nutrition (and gee, most VETS don't have this either, so why would they?), and they are educated by the pet food people who want them to sell their food (ah...sound familiar to vets who also profit from the sale of pet food?). If you are reading this and thinking, well, why should I believe any of this over what my vet/pet store person/parents/pet food sales rep have said - WELL DONE. You SHOULD question every bit of advice that impacts on your or your pet's life. We have to do it for ourselves, as we know not all doctors give you the best advice, so of course we should do this for our pets. We should think. We should ask questions and test if that source does know their stuff (hint, if they answer like a politician, they don't!). We should research. My sources for the above information are all included in my post 'Good Nutrition, the Foundation of Good Health' under Cat Food Problems. If you would like detailed reading on Feline Nutrition, a good place to start is this site written by an experienced Vet: http://www.catinfo.org/. Remember, dogs and cats are different. So here's a site informed by a vet who has worked closely with dogs and his recommendations for feeding: http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/whatisrmb.php. Dr Tom Lonsdale also fights to expose the pet food industry's dirty little secrets - in Australia. Some of his story is here: http://www.rawmeatybones.com/pdf/WhistleBlowers%20Australia.pdf |
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