I'm working with a difficult patient and have been for the last few days, but I'm finally making progress.
This was a feral kitten I captured a few months ago who has lived in my home since then but has generally avoided human contact. Clarence would roughhouse with the other cats but ran away when we approached him. Then he disappeared for a few days. We thought he was just hiding but became concerned; we found him in the bedroom closet.
He had a bad eye infection and a wound to the side of his head; the wound was on the left and it was his left eye that was matted shut by pus and blood. He was also showing some signs of a respiratory infection--nasal discharge mostly, no soggy breathing--and he was dehydrated. He was so debilitated that he barely resisted when we handled him.
The first issue that needed to be addressed was his dehydration. He was not drinking on his own. In a clinical setting a dehydrated cat would be given 100 to 200ml of fluids by means of a suspended bag, tubing and a needle--I had no such equipment.
A cat has fairly loose skin--this allows you to scruff them but also permits greater flexibility in treating them. If you pull on the skin at the back of the neck and it quickly bounces back you're dealing with a healthy cat--if it slowly returns to form the cat is likely to be dehydrated.
A cat also has an extremely vigorous immune system capable of fighting off some serious infections--I've seen enough cats recovering from nasty bite abcesses to appreciate that. But a dehydrated cat is a weakened cat, so addressing that was paramount. And all I had was a 1cc syringe. So every three hours for the last few days I'd give him subcutaneous injections, 10ml at a time, while applying antibiotics. Before doing any of this I made sure his claws were trimmed.
Animax was applied to the wound on his head. The eye still needs to be regularly cleaned as there is still a blood and pus discharge, but it's abating. The eye itself appears to be undamaged, leading me to think the infection was in the surrounding tissue.
Clarence's appetite has returned, and he's been getting canned food with lysine mixed in. This morning it looked like he was finally drinking on his own. I intend to complete the course of antibiotics (including liquid Clavamox) for the next few days; I'll watch him to see if he still needs fluids.
While we've been doing all of this we're also working to socialize Clarence. He needs little restraint and usually just curls up and purrs when being held. I'm really interested in seeing how he reacts to us once his medical treatment is done....
This was a feral kitten I captured a few months ago who has lived in my home since then but has generally avoided human contact. Clarence would roughhouse with the other cats but ran away when we approached him. Then he disappeared for a few days. We thought he was just hiding but became concerned; we found him in the bedroom closet.
He had a bad eye infection and a wound to the side of his head; the wound was on the left and it was his left eye that was matted shut by pus and blood. He was also showing some signs of a respiratory infection--nasal discharge mostly, no soggy breathing--and he was dehydrated. He was so debilitated that he barely resisted when we handled him.
The first issue that needed to be addressed was his dehydration. He was not drinking on his own. In a clinical setting a dehydrated cat would be given 100 to 200ml of fluids by means of a suspended bag, tubing and a needle--I had no such equipment.
A cat has fairly loose skin--this allows you to scruff them but also permits greater flexibility in treating them. If you pull on the skin at the back of the neck and it quickly bounces back you're dealing with a healthy cat--if it slowly returns to form the cat is likely to be dehydrated.
A cat also has an extremely vigorous immune system capable of fighting off some serious infections--I've seen enough cats recovering from nasty bite abcesses to appreciate that. But a dehydrated cat is a weakened cat, so addressing that was paramount. And all I had was a 1cc syringe. So every three hours for the last few days I'd give him subcutaneous injections, 10ml at a time, while applying antibiotics. Before doing any of this I made sure his claws were trimmed.
Animax was applied to the wound on his head. The eye still needs to be regularly cleaned as there is still a blood and pus discharge, but it's abating. The eye itself appears to be undamaged, leading me to think the infection was in the surrounding tissue.
Clarence's appetite has returned, and he's been getting canned food with lysine mixed in. This morning it looked like he was finally drinking on his own. I intend to complete the course of antibiotics (including liquid Clavamox) for the next few days; I'll watch him to see if he still needs fluids.
While we've been doing all of this we're also working to socialize Clarence. He needs little restraint and usually just curls up and purrs when being held. I'm really interested in seeing how he reacts to us once his medical treatment is done....