Monday, November 01, 2004
Dr Butterfly to the rescue...
or better title: 'The misadventures of Jack the Cat'
Happy day after Halloween.
I had a fright yesterday, and its no joke...I had let my cat, Jack out the evening before and he crept home at some late hour with his eye swollen shut! He wouldnt let me touch it and shyed away. It was filled with gunk and some blood, so you can imagine how panicked I became.
I thought he had gotten into some poison, or into a fight or something, so I just waited until noon, after fighting the crowds at walmart to buy some candy for the trickortreaters, and when I looked at it, the flesh under the top part was all hanging out and swollen...and he still couldnt open it.
Poor guy hadnt even moved all day. (He rarely does any way, but you know what I mean- theres a difference in "not moving".) I tried calling the Animal hospital where I had taken our cancer-stricken German Shorthair pointer, Helmut, to get his stitches out, but they were closed. So I thought, well, I'll have a look at it. I was getting so worried, I started freaking out.
So, I held him down as he tried to squirm out of my grasp, and pryed the blighted eye open; saw that MOST of it was a pink color, but there was a dark brown blob on top, that I thought was part of his eye, or a scab possibly. So I grabbed a pair of tweezers, and poked at it a bit, and it turned out to be a harder substance than scab or flesh. (this is a long, scary story...) I tried scraping what I thought was a scab, and ended up pulling out a half-inch long piece of straw that had lodged up INSIDE his eye socket. Poor kitty!!!! So then I looked closely at his eye after that, expecting things to be ok, but there was SOMETHING else there. I tweezed again, and ANOTHER half inch piece came out.
Sweet Jack started purring instantly after they slid out...He was so relieved. Poor guy. Well, he can open his eye almost normally now, and the flesh has gone back to its normal shape and color.
Thank goodness.
Happy day after Halloween.
I had a fright yesterday, and its no joke...I had let my cat, Jack out the evening before and he crept home at some late hour with his eye swollen shut! He wouldnt let me touch it and shyed away. It was filled with gunk and some blood, so you can imagine how panicked I became.
I thought he had gotten into some poison, or into a fight or something, so I just waited until noon, after fighting the crowds at walmart to buy some candy for the trickortreaters, and when I looked at it, the flesh under the top part was all hanging out and swollen...and he still couldnt open it.
Poor guy hadnt even moved all day. (He rarely does any way, but you know what I mean- theres a difference in "not moving".) I tried calling the Animal hospital where I had taken our cancer-stricken German Shorthair pointer, Helmut, to get his stitches out, but they were closed. So I thought, well, I'll have a look at it. I was getting so worried, I started freaking out.
So, I held him down as he tried to squirm out of my grasp, and pryed the blighted eye open; saw that MOST of it was a pink color, but there was a dark brown blob on top, that I thought was part of his eye, or a scab possibly. So I grabbed a pair of tweezers, and poked at it a bit, and it turned out to be a harder substance than scab or flesh. (this is a long, scary story...) I tried scraping what I thought was a scab, and ended up pulling out a half-inch long piece of straw that had lodged up INSIDE his eye socket. Poor kitty!!!! So then I looked closely at his eye after that, expecting things to be ok, but there was SOMETHING else there. I tweezed again, and ANOTHER half inch piece came out.
Sweet Jack started purring instantly after they slid out...He was so relieved. Poor guy. Well, he can open his eye almost normally now, and the flesh has gone back to its normal shape and color.
Thank goodness.
