Now Ginger had pointed out to me that kittens by this age would have been eating mice and other prey whole, so their digestive systems can handle whole feathers and hide and things like that. So while I kept an eye on Thimble, I didn't think much of it when his poop started going all floppy again--just figured the orange fur was passing through.
He started acting like he had a hairball, though. He would wheeze and sometimes dry heave after drinking. So I asked what Ginger recommended for hairball medicine. I remembered giving hairball medicine to Pizza and Tiger, and what a struggle that had been. It was malt-flavored (who thinks cats like malt?) and you had to smear it on their paws and if you had a bump of it, they'd fling it off the paw.
Well, there is a better version out there, called Lax'aire, that most all of her cats adore and will eat directly out of the tube. Unfortunately, the company who makes it transferred the formula to a different company, and that company is having manufacturing difficulties getting the formula to work. It's not available right now and won't be till April ... or later.
But it's made from petroleum jelly, cod liver oil, peptonized iron, and a palatable base. I don't know what the iron is for and I can't get the base, but the first two ingredients are the most important ones anyway, as they are the lubricant and laxative, respectively. And you can buy those.
So I finally got around to going to a store that had them (Walgreens, to my surprise) and then when I got home I mixed some up. Just in time, as Thimble went to the litter box three times in my view, tried to poop, and had nothing happen, much to his confusion. Once he even half-heartedly covered the place he'd prepared to receive the poop, as if to say, "well, I know I'm supposed to be doing this, but there's nothing there, so really why am I bothering?"
If you decide to try this mixture, I can recommend that you transfer both the jelly and the cod liver oil into a bowl much larger than the contents, since the cod liver oil has a tendency to splash when you first start trying to mix them. I emptied half the petroleum jelly and then tried to mix it in the jelly container ... I did succeed in getting the attention of all three cats.
And I did succeed eventually in getting it mixed up. Just a little more sloppily than I had intended. Since I was doing this on the floor in the pink room, I got a bit of cod liver oil on the carpet. It doesn't smell as bad or as intense as I thought it would, even the straight oil doesn't, so this wasn't the disaster it sounds like!
The two kittens eagerly ate it off my fingers. (The next night I put it on a plate and they ate off of that, but Tuesday my fingers were already messy from the mixing, so I thought, whatever, here, have some.) The next morning showed evidence in the litter box that it had worked like a charm, for both cats.
Apricot won't eat off human fingers. Even if it's tuna juice. He would love to in some cases, but I'd learned he simply won't lick your fingers, so, although I offered him a finger covered in goo (so as to include him and make him see I wasn't deliberately giving it only to the kittens), he refused to have any.
The instructions for Lax'aire say two nights and then weekly. I was going to stop with Wednesday night, but then Thursday Thimble meowed once while trying to make a poop in the litter box. He didn't sound completely distressed, but by the time I woke up Friday, today, I decided for his health and my peace of mind, we had to go to the vet.
Friday: I came home around 12 so I didn't have to rush in, grab Thimble, and leave for our appointment at 1 pm. Thimble had previously meowed in the cat carrier during a car trip. He didn't do it much, but I thought I would try something different since he'd also never been in the carrier by himself, either.
I wore the tan cat bag carrier and put Thimble in it. Not only did he not meow at all in the car, but by the time we went home, he climbed into the carrier from the vet table all by himself. I had to help sift the back feet in, though, as he didn't quite get them inside. The top is an elasticized band that you can have open or mostly closed or anywhere in between, so the edges shift from the time a cat's front end goes in to the time the back end tries.
When we were waiting in line to make a left turn off a busy highway, the cars going straight were speeding by at a very fast pace. Thimble watched them and was absolutely fascinated. His head was doing that tennis match thing, back and forth, back and forth, zoom, zoom.
If he wasn't watching cars, though, he was looking up at my face, seeking reassurance and strength there. I'm glad he feels that way about me. Apricot simply hides and I can't reassure him or help him. It was good to be able to get Thimble to feel better about the situation by simply being there for him.
At the vet's office, he had an xray of his tummy and a fecal exam. The xray showed no blockages, so he has passed the rattle mouse fur all the way through. And the fecal exam showed no parasites, which is also good. However, it's not a positive that it's negative because in some cases it could still be positive.
(Did you follow that last sentence?)
Anyway, the vet gave him some anti-parasite liquid (orally) and then I have to give him five days of antibiotics, twice a day. The anti-parasite is just in case there is some, after all. She, the vet, wanted to give him a back-of-the-neck treatment that covers more parasites, but I would have had to keep Thimble away from Colby and Apricot for two hours.
Yeah, that wasn't happening. Plus, without proof positive that parasites were the problem, I didn't want to give him one of those skin-soak-through treatments. I've never had good luck with them; my cats have always reacted badly to them.
The antibiotics are because his colon is inflamed. She said that could be because of a bacterial infection; a parasitical infection, or one of those two that has come and gone, because once it gets inflamed, it has a tendency to be self-perpetuating. And she said that the antibiotic has some anti-inflammatory qualities as well, which should help.
I haven't given him the first pill yet ... this should be interesting. I've never had to give him a pill--he's only been with me a month and a half, after all.
When we got home, Colby and Apricot investigated him thoroughly, sniff sniff sniff all over, and then agreed that he was undamaged and I was off the hook since I'd brought him back as promised. I got out a brand-new rabbit Spider toy (it's made of rabbit fur and has pipe-cleaner legs and they love these toys).
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| Right after they decided he was okay. It only occurred to me late in the sniffing that I should take a picture. So I didn't get the actual investigation of Thimble, just the "okay, you're all right" movement. |
So they spent the next hour playing quite hard, and then they crashed and slept, which is what they are doing now.
During the playtime I found what had happened to the other three rattle mice I hadn't been able to account for. Apparently, much to my surprise, you can stuff toys under my fridge. There was a veritable cornucopia of toys under there. I found this because Thimble stuffed the Spider under there while I was watching, and then wanted me to get it back.
I don't have a yardstick, the tool of choice for under-the-fridge toy-fishing expeditions. I do, however, have a plant stake. It is a long piece of metal, round and painted, with a circle at the top (for the plant to go through, to hold it upright). I used the non-circle end to go fishing and was successful. My phone's "flashlight" function came in handy as well.
Now there is a folded piece of cardboard under the fridge to prevent further fishing expeditions from being necessary. I made sure (I asked my dad) if that was okay for the fridge, but he said as long as it has ventilation around the coils, it's okay. The coils are on the back, not the bottom.
My mother didn't actually say it this time, but I know she was thinking it. "You're no fun!" The cats enjoy watching me go fishing, and the results thereof, although Colby and then Thimble both took turns "helping" me. I had to move paws and tails several times trying to get the toys to come out without instantly being batted back in.
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