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| Thursday, July 26, 2007 |
| Roswell |
Roswell is very unhappy today. She is unhappy because, nearly two weeks ago, she went to the vet - and now she has a sock on her neck.
Allow me to fill in between those two things. When she went to the vet, she had a blood test to check on the rabies vaccine she had a month previously. The results of the test - due next Monday - will confirm that she is allowed to enter the UK without serving quarantine. So it was not just for fun, it was a genuinely reasonable thing to do. Regardless of what she (and Bosco) had to say about it at the time. To take the blood, the vet shaved a patch on her neck. Again, not for fun - genuinely reasonable thing to do. Despite the grumbling and complaining, she survived and was back to her cheerful self a day later.
The fur was growing back in on the shaved patch. Yesterday morning, however, Roswell was stalking the length of the bed to demand attention from Ata when Ata - from her vantage point of lying down whilst Roswell was standing up - noticed a bald spot on the shaven patch. Closer inspection showed a little bit of scabbing just above the bald patch. Ata surmised that the growing-in fur was itchy, and Roswell had scratched with her back feet, nicking the skin (hence the scab) and then attempted to lick the sore. Problem being, the scab is a little too far up under her chin for her to reach with her tongue, so instead, she has licked as close as she can get - and without the protection of an inch of fur, she has licked the skin bare and bald.
"We'd better do something about that," Ata told Roswell, "Or you'll have to go back to the vet."
When Ata got home from work, the bare-and-bald patch was red-and-weepy. This is where we get to the sock part. To prevent Roswell from licking the patch, Ata had to put something around her neck. Something that would not be easily slipped off, something that would curve a little so it couldn't be pushed aside... in Ata's drawer was a somewhat stretched sock that had lost it's mate. Ata cut the toe out and slid it over Roswell's head. Roswell didn't approve of this manouvre, but Ata is very persistent and not intimidated by bad language from Roswell. Then she cut the side of the sock part-way up to make a bib.
Roswell is not very happy today. But the red-and-weepy patch is less red and less weepy. Ata continues to dress it with Emu Oil (Ata applies Emu Oil to all blisters and grazes that aren't healing - it moisturises and helps with the itch and will not poison cats).
And besides - Roswell looks funny wearing a sock on her neck. |
posted by Ata @ 8:45 am  |
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| 4 Comments: |
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So when can we expect to see Roswell on Stuff on my cat?
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I think you should make Bosco wear one as well, just so everything is all nice and even.
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Aw... poor ickle Ros. Strange that the vet took blood from her neck, though. I suppose it must be easier with cats. When the dogs had to have their post-rabies vaccine blood tests, the vet took blood from their forelegs, kind of like you would with a person. (Arms... forelegs... what's the difference?) And no shaving was required.
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Well, I did submit a pic to Stuff on My Cat last year... I guess they didn't put it up. And I suspect it would be hard to take blood from a cat's foreleg. Well, a live, awake cat's foreleg. There's not enough leg to get a grip on AND stick the needle in at once, and they tend to just slide them back out of the way if you don't have a good grip. Plus they have claws.
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So when can we expect to see Roswell on Stuff on my cat?