Well, things are better now, but we've had a bit of a scare with our little Gezer...
Two days ago Gezer (our 2.5 years old neutered cream tabby male) managed to get outside. He is an indoors only cat (with an outside cat enclosure he can get to and from). We weren't too worried at first, because he knows the area and we live in a rural area with hardly any traffic. He has done this before and always returned withing a coupld of hours.
This time it took him more than 24 hours to return which got us quite worried. But there he was back home so we were happy. He seemed very tired and acted strangely. We then noticed that he has no apetite and doesn't eat or use his litter box. Other than that he seemed fine, just kind of tired. He wasn't dehydrated so we gave him the night to see if he gets better. The next day he was no better. We opened a can of wet food which usually he can't resist and he didn't even move! Now we were worried and called the vet. Yesterday was a holiday but we asked for an emergency visit and the vet came to the clinic to meet us.
We were baffled at the symptoms. He was not dehydrated and has no fever. I was afraid of some viral thing (FeLV or such) or some serious liver or kidney problems and I was ready to pay a lot of money for blood works. Luckily, our vet is a good detective
He felt the cat all over and quickly discovered that the cat was constipated. A rectal examination (which the cat hated!) and an internal massage helped relive Gezer within minutes. But we still didn't know what caused this and it didn't explain the cat's strange behavior. So the vet kept looking.
Well, here's what a thougrogh exam revealed - Gezer's paws were hurt quite badly. He had lost several claws and had infections in all his little fingers! Because the claws were retracted we couldn't see it, but as soon as the vet checked the feet, we could see that things were very wrong! Instead of claws he had raw and infected toes... The vet figured he was chased up a tree or something and skidded and hurt all his paws. Then it must have been too painful for him to use the litter box so he avoided it and became contipated. He was in pain and didn't even want to walk over to get his food. Poor little baby!
The vet cleaned his wounds and disinfected them and gave him a shot of antibiotics. Tonight we'll start a course of oral antibiotics as well.
He was feeling much better as soon as we got back from the vet, probably because he defecated quite a lot and was relieved. He even agreed to eat some pastrami! Today he had some canned food, though not a lot. He is still not feeling his best but it looks like he's getting better.
Poor little baby! We will be more careful in the future not to let him out. He's a clumsy cat and not much of a jumper or a climber. His sister Mishmish goes outside from time to time but she is very agile and get along much better.
Just thought I'd share the story. I was very impressed with the vet. He really took the time to solve the mystery and it wasn't even that expensive because there were not tests involved. We only paid for an off hours visit which is not too bad.
Two days ago Gezer (our 2.5 years old neutered cream tabby male) managed to get outside. He is an indoors only cat (with an outside cat enclosure he can get to and from). We weren't too worried at first, because he knows the area and we live in a rural area with hardly any traffic. He has done this before and always returned withing a coupld of hours.
This time it took him more than 24 hours to return which got us quite worried. But there he was back home so we were happy. He seemed very tired and acted strangely. We then noticed that he has no apetite and doesn't eat or use his litter box. Other than that he seemed fine, just kind of tired. He wasn't dehydrated so we gave him the night to see if he gets better. The next day he was no better. We opened a can of wet food which usually he can't resist and he didn't even move! Now we were worried and called the vet. Yesterday was a holiday but we asked for an emergency visit and the vet came to the clinic to meet us.
We were baffled at the symptoms. He was not dehydrated and has no fever. I was afraid of some viral thing (FeLV or such) or some serious liver or kidney problems and I was ready to pay a lot of money for blood works. Luckily, our vet is a good detective
Well, here's what a thougrogh exam revealed - Gezer's paws were hurt quite badly. He had lost several claws and had infections in all his little fingers! Because the claws were retracted we couldn't see it, but as soon as the vet checked the feet, we could see that things were very wrong! Instead of claws he had raw and infected toes... The vet figured he was chased up a tree or something and skidded and hurt all his paws. Then it must have been too painful for him to use the litter box so he avoided it and became contipated. He was in pain and didn't even want to walk over to get his food. Poor little baby!
The vet cleaned his wounds and disinfected them and gave him a shot of antibiotics. Tonight we'll start a course of oral antibiotics as well.
He was feeling much better as soon as we got back from the vet, probably because he defecated quite a lot and was relieved. He even agreed to eat some pastrami! Today he had some canned food, though not a lot. He is still not feeling his best but it looks like he's getting better.
Poor little baby! We will be more careful in the future not to let him out. He's a clumsy cat and not much of a jumper or a climber. His sister Mishmish goes outside from time to time but she is very agile and get along much better.
Just thought I'd share the story. I was very impressed with the vet. He really took the time to solve the mystery and it wasn't even that expensive because there were not tests involved. We only paid for an off hours visit which is not too bad.
