Saturday, 29 December 2007

29th December - Accidents do happen!!


No matter how much doted and careful cat carers might be by keeping for example our cats your cats indoors to keep them safe and healthy and to avoid serious accidents and illnesses that they can be caused when venturing outside from other pets, humans, cars and wild animals, still not always, seem to be able from preventing some accidents from happening. You might keep your wires hidden, having in the house only cat friendly plants, keep away or locked poisoned substances but even so you can't always avoid some accidents from happening, stupid accidents, like having for example the tip of the cat's tail being caught by the door because you didn't see the cat before you've tried to close the door.
The worst case scenario is when such an accident does occur then you don't seem to really know how bad your cat might have being injured until the moment when you've seen the amount of fur that has come off from the tail or the state of the tip of the tail when you have finally managed to coax your cat to come out from hiding since she has freaked out and she is now terrified of you. Unfortunately cats are very good in hiding till at same cases is really late, any form of pain and physical discomfort that they might be feeling so in some cases you can't tell how much they have being injured or how serious that injury might be and of course vet's emergency calling numbers are not that useful in many cases with their conflicted diagnosis and advice. 'Yes you should put some form of natural antiseptic cream on it and the cat would be fine', or 'Do not put anything, just let her be as the stress will make the bleeding worse, the bleeding will stop eventually'. So you are usually left confused, feeling really guilty because your cat got injured mainly because you were careless and decided to close the bathroom door, while you've already known that cats don't like closed doors and you will always find one where there was a shut door...and worried that your cat is seriously injured and you are not doing anything to actually help her.
So first thing in the morning you ask a closed relative who has a car (and who, poor soul, was working night shift) to take you to the near town before 9 o' clock in the morning as it is Saturday and the vet's only opens between 9 and 10 for emergencies on Saturdays. So you get up early in the morning after you've have spent the entire previous night checking on the cat every half an hour because the tail looked bad and the bleeding didn't really stop and you dig out the cat basket and then you will spend the next hour or so trying to put her in the basket without further stressing her and make the bleeding worse. Of course it doesn't help with the situation the fact that the injured cat is the most timid of the three who doesn't like going outside or even sniffing the air outside when the window is open for that matter, or she likes people and other pets in general. So after an hour of trying to catch her and get her into the basket without causing her too much stress and provoking defensive attacks from the cat and obtaining yourself unnecessary scratches and bites she is finally inside and ready to go to the vet. Of course by now you are worrying sick because she looks that she is in distress as well as in pain, while at the same time you are in pain yourself as well as your hands are now covered in scratches and bites and have turned a red colour, but at least she is in her basket.
At least the journey to the vet's is not that stressful and the cat seems quite relaxed and not as stressed as you thought she will be (of course natural remedies and Feliway have helped too) and even the waiting in the vet's is not as bad despite the consider number of dogs and cats in the waiting room.
Finally you see the vet and the diagnosis is not that good... (to be continued).

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