Oh, man, I was trying not to write about the cats. I am sitting here trying to come up with something to write about, but I am not coming up with anything. Or I have, I’ve thought of a few things, but my notes, information, and research are not here with me, so I don’t want to write a post off of just my memory. I am a bit tired as I am been in training all day. Ya know, just learning stuff all day long. It is really tiring. It doesn’t matter what you are learning, being in a training and getting new information or even being reminded of stuff you already know, but maybe forgot – is tiring. So all I got left at this late hour is the cats. Sometimes when I can’t think of something to write about I look through my photo album on my phone and I find something to write about. I often snap pictures of things to remind me of a post I thought of or I find a pretty picture in there I can comment on. All of my recent photos are of cats. So . . . cats is what you get. An update on the girls.
So, you may have read my past blog posts, you may not have. Here is a summary. We adopted two cats (sisters, what they call a “bonded pair”) on Fourth of July. On the 13th of July we locked them in a room and started treating them with a topical medicine because we suspected ringworm. On the 21st of July it was confirmed and we began giving them pills on that same day. They had to take 30 days worth of pills. On the 20th day (August 10th) of giving the meds (that means they had 10 pills left to take) we took them in to be tested again. The vet said that Smokey (the black one) didn’t have any spots on her that could be tested. And that the tortie, Esmeralda, only had spots on her toes. So he took a sample to culture. That takes 10 days. So while the culture was being done we had the remaining 10 pills to give. Plus we were instructed to put the topical medicine on Esmeralda’s toes.
So our new-to-us cats were brought into our home and enjoyed it for a week before we locked them into a room and put medicine on them for nine days, then gave them pills for 30 days. Then we had to start putting the medicine on one of them again. Well, we were/are really determined to get rid of this fungus so we are doing it. We were putting stuff on Emmy’s toes for 7 days. On the eighth day I couldn’t find which toes I was supposed to be treating so I stopped. On the 30th day of giving pills we talked to the vet and he said that they were since they didn’t have any spots on them that they were no longer contagious and that they could be released. So we released them after being in one room for 38 days. BUT . . . . . . the vet prescribed 14 more days of pills for Emmy. He said her cultures were a little fluoresced, so he wanted to make sure we completely knocked it out. So even though she had ten more days of pills after the sample was taken he felt she needed 14 more days of pills.
Now at the end of the 30 days of pills she was getting more and more withdrawn. And depressed. Both of the cats would hide when evening rolled around because that is when we would pill them. They knew it was coming. And they just seemed to get more sad and more skittish. It was nice to finally be able to let them out, but this additional pilling with Esmeralda is tough.
Today she disappeared. We couldn’t find her. We looked all over. Finally my husband said, “I found her.” I said, “Where?” And where he said she was I would have NEVER thought to look. NEVER. I would have NEVER imagined she could have got under there, but she did. We decided to let her come out on her own, which she did when she heard something in the yard. But she is very pouty.
We are very sad that we are having to continue with her pills. They make her not feel well so we don’t blame her for not wanting to take them. Poor girl. Hopefully she will forgive us down the line. We will see.
It is great that neither my husband nor I got the fungus. We played with the cats and handled them as if they were not infected. But we washed our hands after. Hubby would walk from cat room straight to the sink to wash his hands. I would sometimes use hydrogen peroxide to wipe my hands, legs, and feet. It it really nice to not have to change clothes just to see the cats. It is really nice to have them out in the house with us. We have eleven more days of pilling Emmy. We can do it.
So that is an update on our little situation. I still have to put my office back together, getting all the stuff I took out of it out of the rest of the house. But we are doing ok. Thanks for “listening”.
Terre Pruitt's Blog 