Mary, queen of cats

the day-to-day of a grey, furry thing

What does the vet have that I don’t have?

buried in the ' , , , ' sandboxes by Nikki at 13h45 on Tuesday, October 9, 2007

It’s been a while since I posted on Mary’s site. I took a bit of a prolonged break from anything computer related. Since the last post, Mary had to go to the vet twice, and we experienced quite a few “tantrums”.

The first visit entailed injections. We went to the vet to get more of her prescription food as she was all out, only to be told the food won’t be available in the country for the next 3 months as there is some or other problem with customs. We called around everywhere. All surgeries were out of stock. We fed her on ordinary cat food pouches. After 3 days, we noticed Mary’s irritable skin condition was back. This confirmed what the vet suspected: there is something in the food that irritates her skin. Makes one wonder what they put in it….

Anyway, so off to the vet we go. She got a shot to help relieve the condition. We were worse than dog poo. Oh wait hang on no, I was worse than dog poo because somehow this was all my fault. This put us in a difficult position. What is she going to eat? We can’t feed her ordinary food! The vet suggested some other food (which was ludicrously expensive, but there is no price on Mary’s health!), but madam rather starved herself for two days than eat it. We tried absolutely everything. We even bought her fresh raw fish. She just was not interested. We were desperate. We finally found a tin of food called Lucky Pet Supreme, containing whole pilchards or whole sardines in jelly. This she happily ate. I was worried at first that it was because she was so damn hungry she would eat just about everything and then as soon as her hunger were satisfied she would pull her nose up at it again, but so far so good! I don’t know what effect it will have on her skin because the injection lasts about a month or so, so we will just have to wait and see.

The next visit saw Mary stay overnight at the vet’s. She came in one morning with a fat bottom lip. Literally. By the evening the swelling had not gone down, so off we went to the vet. Somehow she hurt herself on her bottom lip and in the space of a day the wound developed an abscess which had to be drained. We had to leave her there overnight and pick her up the next day after work. It was painfully difficult to carry her to the cage and leave her there. I wanted to crack. My poor poor baby.

When we collected her the next day my partner and I were like little kids on Christmas morning! We could not wait to have kitty back with us again! She was equally happy to see us. All these visits meant she had to stay inside for a day or so after each visit – we did not want her to run away because she was upset with us (you never know with Mary!).

I am pleased to report that she is doing well and I sincerely hope it stays that way. I really can’t afford to lose the teeny bit of popularity I worked so hard to get!

2 Comments »

63

Comment by Lindy

October 12, 2007 @ 9h11

Poor Mary – all that vet stuff! Just a word of warning about the Lucky Pet…fish is VERY high in magnesium/potassium and other than being a leading cause of irritable skin conditions and eczema (!), it also leads to Feline Urinary Syndrome (FUS). The reason I know this is that I lost a cat to this terrible illness a number of years ago before we had access to all the pet foods we have today. See if you can’t persuade Mary to eat Hills Sensitive Skin (about R200 / 5kgs). This has cleared up my Galaxy’s sensitive skin completely and he really enjoys it. I bought some recently, so know it is available. Good luck!

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Comment by Mary's Female Human

October 12, 2007 @ 11h22

Unfortunately that is the only thing we could get Mary to eat. Maybe we should try some raw chicken or raw meat….. I know my partner and I had that discussion before and for some or other odd reason decided against it (for the life of me I can’t remember why).

The Lucky Pet will just have to do until we can get her Walthams Sensitivity Control in.

Mary has the Walthams pellets which she really likes. BUT (yes there is ALWAYS a but with Mary). She refuses to eat just dry food, just as she refuses to eat just wet food. Her normal routine would be: she gets wet food in the morning and at night. IF she finished her wet food, she gets treats and dry food. She will take a bite or two of her wet food before demanding dry food. We tried before to just give her dry food. She would eat a mouth full and demand wet food. If we put both down at the same time, she will only eat the one (either or).

Life with Mary.

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