crandc
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Call it a bird's posthumous revenge.
Orlando apparently felt he needed more poultry in his diet, as last Friday morning he caught a bird and brought it inside. After eating the choice parts, he left me with the remains and a pile of feathers.
That night I noticed a large swelling on his shoulder. The next day it had not gone down. In the afternoon, either on purpose or accidentally, he punctured it and was licking pus off his fur. The regular vet is not open Saturday so I brought him to the emergency clinic. After a 3 hour wait, the gave him a local anesthetic and cleaned out the abscess, sent me home with a week's supply of antibiotics and told me to put warm compresses on it to facilitate draining. When they clipped his fur, we could see one perfect round hole, no scratches. A fight with another cat would have shown scratches. But the hole is exactly where it would be expected if the bird, before expiring, had nailed him with a talon.
Sunday he looked a lot better and rested while I was at the Parade. But yesterday it started swelling again. By coincidence, he had a scheduled appointment on Tuesday. I called and asked if they could see him Monday but they were totally booked. Yesterday the vet said that because the abscess was so large, fluid had pooled and in spoite of the antibiotics the wound had gotten infected. They had to insert a drain, remove infected tissue, and stitch him up. I got another week's worth of antibiotics. I have to clean the wound twice a day, which hurts. He has a big Elizabethan collar on that I need to take off so he can eat, although he does not have much appetite. And he has to stay inside for 2 weeks until the stitches come out. I have a cat door, so all 3 cats are now locked inside so that I could close the kitty door. They are all unhappy and Rudy is howling loud enough to shatter glass.
I could say "that will teach you to kill birds" but Orlando is a cat and I can't scold a cat for being a cat.
Orlando apparently felt he needed more poultry in his diet, as last Friday morning he caught a bird and brought it inside. After eating the choice parts, he left me with the remains and a pile of feathers.
That night I noticed a large swelling on his shoulder. The next day it had not gone down. In the afternoon, either on purpose or accidentally, he punctured it and was licking pus off his fur. The regular vet is not open Saturday so I brought him to the emergency clinic. After a 3 hour wait, the gave him a local anesthetic and cleaned out the abscess, sent me home with a week's supply of antibiotics and told me to put warm compresses on it to facilitate draining. When they clipped his fur, we could see one perfect round hole, no scratches. A fight with another cat would have shown scratches. But the hole is exactly where it would be expected if the bird, before expiring, had nailed him with a talon.
Sunday he looked a lot better and rested while I was at the Parade. But yesterday it started swelling again. By coincidence, he had a scheduled appointment on Tuesday. I called and asked if they could see him Monday but they were totally booked. Yesterday the vet said that because the abscess was so large, fluid had pooled and in spoite of the antibiotics the wound had gotten infected. They had to insert a drain, remove infected tissue, and stitch him up. I got another week's worth of antibiotics. I have to clean the wound twice a day, which hurts. He has a big Elizabethan collar on that I need to take off so he can eat, although he does not have much appetite. And he has to stay inside for 2 weeks until the stitches come out. I have a cat door, so all 3 cats are now locked inside so that I could close the kitty door. They are all unhappy and Rudy is howling loud enough to shatter glass.
I could say "that will teach you to kill birds" but Orlando is a cat and I can't scold a cat for being a cat.
