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- Nov 21, 2016
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Hi everyone, I'm reaching my wit's end with what to do with my cat. This is going to be incredibly long, as the situation is complicated (because cats are complicated). You can skip to the last three paragraphs if you don't want to read the whole backstory, but here's the situation:
About a few months ago (I'd say around early summer) I had to close the door at night because my cat Blixa was interrupting my sleep too much. I've only had her since February, she was a rescue and she's only a little over a year old, and she has some serious trust issues. She didn't seam to mind the closed door, but a month ago, she sarted rubbing her nose up against the bottom of the door, trying to get it open, and it only got more and more aggressive and persistent, and she was losing more and more hair on her nose. Once I put 2 and 2 together, and realized that it was the closed door that was causing the little mark on her nose, I started sleeping with the door open again.
However, 1.5 weeks ago, my boyfriend (who lives in another city but spends a week at a time here) was visiting and noticed that her nose was getting worse and that even though she wasn't rubbing it against the door anymore, she must've been rubbing it because it was irritating her. Blixa loves my boyfriend, he was the one who fed her when she was living outdoors and he was the one who rescued her back where he lives, so she doesn't have a problem with him, but the two of us have our own little routine. I work from home, so Blixa and I spend a lot of time together and she is definitely the most affectionate and quiet and peaceful when it's just the two of us, and sometimes when he visits, he disrupts that routine a little. So we chalked up her worsening nose to stress with him being around (i.e. losing her place in bed, getting less attention from me, enduring more absences during the day when my boyfriend and I go out).
One day when we returned home from running some errands, we noticed her nose was full-on bleeding so I took her to the vet and they said she was super healthy and there was nothing internal causing her to scratch at her nose, and that it likely was just a result from the friction of the door and now it was irritated and she had a bacterial infection, but it wasn't uncontrollable. I asked for pills because the last time she had an infection, which she got after her spaying about 2 weeks I adopted her, they gave us the liquid antibiotics and it was impossible to get it down. Anytime I tried, she would just spit it back up, and eventually, she became afraid of me and stopped trusting me. Medicating her stressed her out, she didn't eat for over 7 days, and eventually, my boyfriend and I decided to stop, as the stress was causing her to lick her wound further, exacerbating the situation, and within a day of stopping the medication, her wound was healing and she was returning back to normal. Which is why we thought the solid pill this time would be a better solution. No luck. We tried to hide it in wet food - she eats around it - we stuck it to a treat with some bacon grease - she ate everything but the pill. When I do it manually, she acts calm at first and then as soon as I get my hand even close to her head, she does this insane full-body jerk and runs away, and then for the next several hours, I'm met with distrust, fear, and a refusal to eat.
We decided to use the first infection/medication as a guide for what to do this time so we stopped trying to pill her and hoped that if we provided the most stress-free environment possible, she would stop licking/pawing at her nose. My boyfriend left last week and so it's just been the two of us the past few days and I thought that a return to our routine would put her at ease. The other day I was incredibly busy running around and I came home to her with a bloody nose again, she must've been stressed out by my absence. The next day I went to the vet and got some HIbitane antibiotic ointment, thinking perhaps even some salve for her nose would help, but she won't wear the cone, she escapes out of it immediately. I've tried dabbing a little bit of the cream, watching her intently for a while, making sure she doesn't ingest it, and then wiping it off, but I don't know if that's doing anything.
For the past 2 days I've been giving her my undying attention and love, I haven't left the house, and she's been connected to me at the hip, cuddling in bed with me all day and night, and her nose started to look better. Today, she's kind of returned to her old self, which is being her usual needy self while also intermittently being playful and independent, which I took as a good sign. But her nose was looking incredibly raw today. I believe it had started to scab and she picked at it, and then tonight, I noticed it was swollen, which I believe is a sign for a more serious infection and I feel like it is now actually worse than it was when I brought her into the vet. I feel irresponsible by not giving her the medication but every time I fail in my attempts, it takes me forever to regain her trust, there is no way I can do this for 2 weeks. My boyfriend isn't here, my mother (the only family member I have in this country) is on vacation, my best friend is also on vacation. I am alone and I just cannot do it myself. I can't afford to hire someone to come and give her her medication. There's the possibility of taking her to the vet twice a day as it is right across the street but even if I can successfully do that for one day, there is no way she will trust me the next.
I don't know what to do. Do you think love and affection will work? I keep thinking if I make things easy for her, she'll heal on her own, but I don't want to be naive or neglectful. I just don't know. I'm going to get some pill pockets tomorrow but she's such a smart cat, I have a feeling she'll eat right around it. If I have to give her the meds one way or another, I will, I'll do my best, but I just want what's best for her and sometimes scaring her shitless just makes things worse.
Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it. And any help will be appreciated as well.
Jenn
About a few months ago (I'd say around early summer) I had to close the door at night because my cat Blixa was interrupting my sleep too much. I've only had her since February, she was a rescue and she's only a little over a year old, and she has some serious trust issues. She didn't seam to mind the closed door, but a month ago, she sarted rubbing her nose up against the bottom of the door, trying to get it open, and it only got more and more aggressive and persistent, and she was losing more and more hair on her nose. Once I put 2 and 2 together, and realized that it was the closed door that was causing the little mark on her nose, I started sleeping with the door open again.
However, 1.5 weeks ago, my boyfriend (who lives in another city but spends a week at a time here) was visiting and noticed that her nose was getting worse and that even though she wasn't rubbing it against the door anymore, she must've been rubbing it because it was irritating her. Blixa loves my boyfriend, he was the one who fed her when she was living outdoors and he was the one who rescued her back where he lives, so she doesn't have a problem with him, but the two of us have our own little routine. I work from home, so Blixa and I spend a lot of time together and she is definitely the most affectionate and quiet and peaceful when it's just the two of us, and sometimes when he visits, he disrupts that routine a little. So we chalked up her worsening nose to stress with him being around (i.e. losing her place in bed, getting less attention from me, enduring more absences during the day when my boyfriend and I go out).
One day when we returned home from running some errands, we noticed her nose was full-on bleeding so I took her to the vet and they said she was super healthy and there was nothing internal causing her to scratch at her nose, and that it likely was just a result from the friction of the door and now it was irritated and she had a bacterial infection, but it wasn't uncontrollable. I asked for pills because the last time she had an infection, which she got after her spaying about 2 weeks I adopted her, they gave us the liquid antibiotics and it was impossible to get it down. Anytime I tried, she would just spit it back up, and eventually, she became afraid of me and stopped trusting me. Medicating her stressed her out, she didn't eat for over 7 days, and eventually, my boyfriend and I decided to stop, as the stress was causing her to lick her wound further, exacerbating the situation, and within a day of stopping the medication, her wound was healing and she was returning back to normal. Which is why we thought the solid pill this time would be a better solution. No luck. We tried to hide it in wet food - she eats around it - we stuck it to a treat with some bacon grease - she ate everything but the pill. When I do it manually, she acts calm at first and then as soon as I get my hand even close to her head, she does this insane full-body jerk and runs away, and then for the next several hours, I'm met with distrust, fear, and a refusal to eat.
We decided to use the first infection/medication as a guide for what to do this time so we stopped trying to pill her and hoped that if we provided the most stress-free environment possible, she would stop licking/pawing at her nose. My boyfriend left last week and so it's just been the two of us the past few days and I thought that a return to our routine would put her at ease. The other day I was incredibly busy running around and I came home to her with a bloody nose again, she must've been stressed out by my absence. The next day I went to the vet and got some HIbitane antibiotic ointment, thinking perhaps even some salve for her nose would help, but she won't wear the cone, she escapes out of it immediately. I've tried dabbing a little bit of the cream, watching her intently for a while, making sure she doesn't ingest it, and then wiping it off, but I don't know if that's doing anything.
For the past 2 days I've been giving her my undying attention and love, I haven't left the house, and she's been connected to me at the hip, cuddling in bed with me all day and night, and her nose started to look better. Today, she's kind of returned to her old self, which is being her usual needy self while also intermittently being playful and independent, which I took as a good sign. But her nose was looking incredibly raw today. I believe it had started to scab and she picked at it, and then tonight, I noticed it was swollen, which I believe is a sign for a more serious infection and I feel like it is now actually worse than it was when I brought her into the vet. I feel irresponsible by not giving her the medication but every time I fail in my attempts, it takes me forever to regain her trust, there is no way I can do this for 2 weeks. My boyfriend isn't here, my mother (the only family member I have in this country) is on vacation, my best friend is also on vacation. I am alone and I just cannot do it myself. I can't afford to hire someone to come and give her her medication. There's the possibility of taking her to the vet twice a day as it is right across the street but even if I can successfully do that for one day, there is no way she will trust me the next.
I don't know what to do. Do you think love and affection will work? I keep thinking if I make things easy for her, she'll heal on her own, but I don't want to be naive or neglectful. I just don't know. I'm going to get some pill pockets tomorrow but she's such a smart cat, I have a feeling she'll eat right around it. If I have to give her the meds one way or another, I will, I'll do my best, but I just want what's best for her and sometimes scaring her shitless just makes things worse.
Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it. And any help will be appreciated as well.
Jenn
