Don’t Say the V Word in Front of the Cat!

Last week Bruno (Cat No.3) seemed a little under the weather, but by Sunday he had cheered up a bit. We just put it down to the sudden change in the weather. However, on Sunday evening Mrs. T-E noticed that his left ear seemed to be weeping and by Monday morning his left eye had joined in as well.


After work Monday we took him to the Vets to have him checked over. We had chosen a different vet as our usual one has become increasingly more expensive over the years and friends of ours recommended another local one. We called them and they told us that they have first come, first served sessions every evening between 6 and 7.

When we arrived the waiting room was packed to the rafters. There were 3 cats and 5 dogs in front of us and others kept arriving as we waited. Two of the dogs were fitted with lamp shades, in various states of disrepair and one of the others had a very nasty looking chest wound. In all it was pretty lively in there and Bruno purred the whole time, occasionally pawing Mrs. T-E through the bars of his box as if to gain some attention. Eventually it was Bruno’s turn to be seen and we were beckoned into one of the side rooms.

The Vet poked, prodded and generally examined the poorly lad. The whole time Bruno wriggled and struggled and flatly refused to let the Vet stick her fancy torch thing in his ear. He even had to be weighted in his box, which told us that he was a tiny bit heavier than he should be. She didn’t seem to worry about this as he’s a large cat anyway. Apparently the average weight for a cat is 4kilos and Bruno is 6Kilos, but he’s not fat. Smudge (Cat No.1) only weighs 2.5kilos, which we know is too low, but due to her age (19 years) is not uncommon.

He has his temperature taken (1 degree high) and received injections of anti-biotics and pain relief. The conclusion of the vet was that he had received an infection, possibly from a wound to his ear and was put on a weeks course of Penicillin tablets. See also recommended using cold Tea (no milk or sugar) to clean up his ears and eyes as required. I always knew that Tea could cure anything except drowning.

With Smudge, tablets have always been an issue. Hiding them in food has never fooled her, so we have got very good at holding her upside down and feeding them in manually, which is a 2 person manoeuvre. I didn’t relish the thought of doing this with Bruno, as 3 of us couldn’t hold him still at the Vets. Fortunately he has fallen for the “Small pieces of ham, wrapped around the tablet” trick and he seems to be making a slow recovery. The cold tea for cleaning his ears and eyes also seems to work. Although on the first attempt he had a sneezing fit and continues to wriggle quite a bit.

Currently we are keeping our fingers crossed that he will make a speedy recovery and can return to his favourite hobby of worrying the birds in the garden very soon.


Regards



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