busybee fluffy rambles

I forgot to post about it here but Tyler’s problem turned out to be much simpler: he had fleas. A really bad case of them, which should have been obvious to me, but I am apparently oblivious to the difference between “he is unable to clean himself” and “the crusty junk all over his hindquarters is flea poop.” And the pain was just because he was super overwhelmed by, y'know, having bugs crawling all over him and biting him.

He is now on flea medication, as is Fiona (even though she never got infested, better safe than sorry), and he’s back to his old cuddly self. I also thorogughly combed him and disposed of so many dead fleas, and have done so much laundry.

I think I’m going to try once again to keep Tyler and Fiona indoors all the time from now on. Wish me luck.

When I adopted Tyler, his tail had a couple of kinks in it, apparent signs of dislocations or other injuries. The vet said that they’re just a normal thing that happens to some cats, and that it’s generally not harmful to them and there isn’t really anything that can be done.

Unfortunately, Tyler how has a third kink in his tail, and this one’s pretty close to his spine, and he’s clearly in pain from it. He’s been unable to clean his hindquarters anymore (which he was never great at to begin with) and whenever I try brushing him or even gently petting him there he’s clearly in a lot of distress. Even just lying in place he’s having a lot of trouble getting comfortable.

So, I’m going to take him to the vet, and I expect that whatever they find it’s going to be pretty expensive to take care of. Sigh.

From what I’m finding online, most likely the vet will want to do some x-rays, and depending on what they find they might either need to set the joints and splint his tail for a while or, unfortunately, they may need to amputate.

But he’s clearly in a lot of pain and I want him not to be!

The vet just got back to me with the results of yesterday’s tests.

Her white blood count is elevated (indicating inflammation or an infection), and the radiologist says that the concerning bits on her lungs are just her asthma being especially bad right now.

So, we’re giving her a short course of Prednisone and hopefully that clears things up.

It’s unclear what caused the weight loss but given how enthusiastic she’s been about wet food and how meh she’s been about dry food, I think she’s just going to get a lot more wet food going forward. That’ll make it easier to give her the meds anyway.

The most important takeaway is that she is almost certainly not dying any time soon. Yay!

After having eaten a bunch of wet food last night and having had three doses of antibiotics, Fiona’s getting back to her usual cuddly/climby self. She isn’t sneezing anymore, and while she’s still a bit congested she snuggled up with me in bed this morning, and right now she’s being super snuggly and affectionate. She’s also purring super loudly, which she hasn’t done in a while.

I still haven’t heard from the vet about her bloodwork or x-rays but I feel like there’s a lot less to worry about now.