- Joined
- Feb 11, 2016
- Messages
- 116
- Purraise
- 69
Tybalt is my first cat. I adopted him when I was nineteen and he was one or two. Now he is about 14-15.
Backstory is below, but if you want to get to the current issue, you'll find it under a bold heading. I talk a lot.
A little less than a year ago I noticed a lump on the side of his face - not in the gum/jaw, basically in the skin. We did the usual process of elimination with antibiotics, and a biopsy was inconclusive. He'd also developed a relatively mild heart murmur. Cardio determined nothing really exciting.
All the while, it grew at a really slow pace.
Then he actually *did* get an infection, a rapid one that blew up his face. Got that handled (I actually had them aspirate the infection to give him some relief), and scheduled him for surgery. He had the surgery, and it was a nightmare. By this point he had gone from being the model cat you'd use for training new people to that cat *no one* wants to handle.
Giving him his antibiotics, pain meds, and laxative (constipation was pretty bad for awhile) became a battle. I pride myself being good at this. The problem is that he developed a habit (skill?) of waterfall saliva production before I could get the syringe into the mouth. There was no way to avoid it, and I was terrified of choking/aspirating him. I was in tears several times a day. He got hand shy. I called the vet and they offered to teach me how to give medications.
(a few months after he was adopted.
not a big hugger...)
Backstory is below, but if you want to get to the current issue, you'll find it under a bold heading. I talk a lot.
A little less than a year ago I noticed a lump on the side of his face - not in the gum/jaw, basically in the skin. We did the usual process of elimination with antibiotics, and a biopsy was inconclusive. He'd also developed a relatively mild heart murmur. Cardio determined nothing really exciting.
All the while, it grew at a really slow pace.
Then he actually *did* get an infection, a rapid one that blew up his face. Got that handled (I actually had them aspirate the infection to give him some relief), and scheduled him for surgery. He had the surgery, and it was a nightmare. By this point he had gone from being the model cat you'd use for training new people to that cat *no one* wants to handle.
Giving him his antibiotics, pain meds, and laxative (constipation was pretty bad for awhile) became a battle. I pride myself being good at this. The problem is that he developed a habit (skill?) of waterfall saliva production before I could get the syringe into the mouth. There was no way to avoid it, and I was terrified of choking/aspirating him. I was in tears several times a day. He got hand shy. I called the vet and they offered to teach me how to give medications.
(a few months after he was adopted.
not a big hugger...)