Category Archives: Taking cat to vet

Feline Health, Taking cat to vet

Providing Great After-Surgery Care for Your Cat

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Shady eating
Shady has always enjoyed her meals, but were there any food restrictions after her surgery. ©2017 Weems S. Hutto / DustyCatWriter.com

 

A week ago, I found a lump on the throat of our foster failure, Shady. I took her to my vet, who scheduled surgery for the following morning.  Dr. Cassie Epstein (a shameless plug for the fabulous Animal Hospital on Teasley Lane in Denton, TX) removed the 3 mm by 2.5 mm mass located under Shady’s jugular vein. The next morning Dr. Cassie cleared Shady to go home. The bulky black feline looked like she was geared for Halloween with her shaved side and stitches. As Dr. Cassie handed me the carrier, she gave me the instructions for Shady’s after-surgery care. Fortunately, she didn’t require much. “Watch the incision for signs of swelling or redness.” “Are you sure? No pills, changing dressing, cleaning the wound. Nothing?” I ask a lot questions because I’ve been to vets who give vague instructions or none at all.

Shady shows off her incision after surgery to remove a tumor. ©2017 Dusty Rainbolt / DustyCatWriter.com

 

Years ago, on a holiday weekend I rushed Oliver, a six-month-old foster kitten, to an emergency clinic for drooling and severe dehydration. The pricey clinic diagnosed him with a lesion on his tongue and treated him with intravenous (IV) fluids. They released him to me with a self-adhering bandage wrapped around his front leg where they had given him the IV. There were no written instructions, so I took notes. The vet tech said the kitty should be okay and leave the bandage on his leg to prevent bleeding. She never said anything about how long the wrap should remain on the kitten’s paw. By the time I arrived home, the paw was swollen twice its normal size. I immediately took the wrap off and returned to the clinic. The vet tech said I should have taken the dressing off after I got in the car. I looked at my notes. She hadn’t said that. In retrospect, I should have ask how long to keep the wrap on the leg. That day I learned a very valuable lesson: Never be afraid to ask questions, especially about post-surgery care.

Tabby recovering from orthopedic surgery
Tabby recovering after having pins place in both left legs. ©2017 Dusty Rainbolt / DustyCatWriter.com

 

After-Surgery Care Questions

Request written instructions about any medicine and care you have to give your kitty. To provide the best after-surgery care possible, here are four topics you should ask before you bring Fluffy (or Fideax) home after surgery:

#1 Activity Restrictions

Can Fluffy immediately resume normal activities like climbing the cat tree and jumping on the bed? If he’s just been neutered, it’s a good chance he can, but if he had abdominal or orthopedic surgery, no way. Normal activities may take two or even six weeks.

  • Does he need to be confined to a cage or will a bathroom do? When can he have the run of the house?
  • When can he start chasing and leaping at his feather toy?
  • Can the kids hold him?

#2 Care Instructions

  • How long will he be tender or painful?
  • What do I need to do to care for the surgical site?
  • Does the dressing need to be changed?
  • What if the bandage gets wet or dirty?
  • What complications should I look out for? Swelling? Redness? Tenderness? Oozing? Vomiting? Foul odor?
  • Most kitties will want to lick the stitches. How long does he need to wear an Elizabethan collar? Does he need a hard plastic lampshade or can he wear a flexible one? Can I apply bitter apple to prevent licking?

#3 Medications

  • List medicines, doses and frequency. What does each medication do for my cat? What side effects or reactions could be expected?
  • Can I give all the medicines at the same time or must I stagger them?
  • Do I give them with food or on an empty stomach?

#4 Food issues

  • Are there any food restrictions?
  • How often should he eat?

When to Worry

Call your vet if:

  • Your kitty is losing weight
  • He acts lethargic
  • He stops eating
  • You smell a foul odor
  • You see redness or swelling at the incision site.

Did I leave anything out? If I did, please let me know in the comments section below.

Feline Health, Special Days, Taking cat to vet, Uncategorized

Only 2 New Year’s Resolutions for Cat Owners

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January 2 is Happy Mew Year for Cats Day. Since kitties aren’t interested in getting plastered on Mew Year’s Eve unless the intoxicant is catnip, we’ll skip ahead to the New Year’s resolutions. After all, you want your Fluffy to have a happy and healthy 2017 and 2018 and, well, you get the message. Because you control the the car keys, you are responsible for Mew Year’s Resolution follow-through. Unfortunately, when it comes to resolutions, humans have short attention spans. So let’s limit them to two doable items.

Resolution #1 Take kitty to the vet regularly

For best results, your kitty should see his vet twice a year. I know dragging your cat to the veterinary hospital is stressful for both of you. Even if your kitty is a strictly inside cat, he still needs regular wellness exams to help him stay healthy. Annual vet visits won’t do the trick any longer. After all, once a year is like a human going to the doctor every seven years. A lot can happen in 365 days. Also because kitties are vulnerable to larger predators, they mask signs of illness until they are too sick to hide them any longer. A checkup by his vet gives you a better chance to catch potential health problems while they are preventable or treatable.

According to the Catalyst Council, most cases of diabetes could be prevented if overweight kitties are placed on a proper diet. Also, dental disease affects 68% of all cats over the age of three. Ouch.

Make notes between visits and ask your vet about your observations and concerns:

  • Fluffy’s dropping food when he eats.
  • He doesn’t sleep with me on the bed any longer.
  • He has a funny cough.
  • He has runny poo.

Resolution 2. Teach Fluffy to love his carrier

One excuse cat owners give for not taking their kitties to vet is because the catching and transporting process is too stressful for the feline and his family. If Fluffy has always feared his carrier as the vet transport device, change the way he looks at it. Buy a different style carrier; a two-door model works best.

Leave the carrier left out in open in the room where Fluffy likes to hang out. Place his favorite blanket inside so he can sneak in and take a nap. From time to time, toss some of his favorite treats in the carrier. Once he looks at the carrier as his personal hideaway, take him on rides around the block and give him treats. Watch this Catalyst Council video to learn other ways to help your cat get over its fear of the carrier.

Making your cat like his carrier and taking him to the vet once or twice a year helps assure your kitty will “Live Long and Pros-purr.”

About Dusty Rainbolt

Author Dusty Rainbolt is an award-winning veterinary journalist according to her answering machine. She is an associate certified cat behavior consultant and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants, as well as past president of the Cat Writers’ Association. Her books, columns, reviews and articles have been honored with more than 50 writing awards including three-time recipient of Friskies Writer of the Year. Her just-released cat behavior book, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, is the consummate guide for dealing with a cat who sidesteps his/her appointed toilet. CSI, which provides science-based methods for determining the medical or behavioral causes of feline inappropriate elimination, teaches cat parents to view their cat’s litter box avoidance through the eyes of a detective to determine the cause and, ultimately, the remedy.