Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Electra and Miss Daisy's Day

Miss Daisy had two more painful bad teeth pulled. Electra's problem was far more complicated. I took her in for an exam after she began to lose weight. Then, yesterday, I wanted to see if she was eating and seperated her from the others and gave her a small plate with her favorite wet food. She was interested, wanted to eat it, but would only lick at it and take tiny bites.

Today, at the exam, the vet couldn't find anything obvious wrong except tartar. I told them to give her a dental, that, while under anesthesia, maybe they could examine her further.

They spotted something very serious and painful--a broken jaw! The two bones on the lower jaw, in front, had popped apart. Oh my gawd, my poor baby. They pulled three teeth, did bloodwork, that turned out fine, and wired those bones back together.

The most common in house causes of that are blunt force to the face. Most common indoor cause of that, a door opening with the cat on the other side. This didn't happen to Electra. The injury was a week to ten days old. I bet she was bullied off that cat run, before I got the other shelves up, so there was more than one way off. She probably had to jump off hard, landed and the impact lowered her chin to the ground. I feel terrible that I didn't get the rest of the shelves up, so there were multiple ways off. I worried about that. She could have slid off the garage room runs too. I need to carpet them. I have two bullies here, Dex and Comet. Oh my gosh, my poor baby. I have worried about the cats, especially the older ones, falling off the runs when bullied or chased. Oh my gawd, my poor baby.

She'll be on heavy duty pain meds for a week but she'll be fine. She also had three teeth pulled and the rest cleaned. She hasn't had a dental in about three years. I'm so glad I noticed.

Cats hide pain, because they feel vulnerable if injured. Former ferals like Electra hide it even more. The vet only saw the problem because under anesthesia the muscles that still held it together relaxed and they saw movement between the two bones of the two sides. It doesn't take much to pop those two bones apart, the vet said.

So it was kind of luck, kind of a watchful eye I keep on the cats, for changes, and the careful eye of the vet when she was under anesthesia.

UPDATE: I thought Electra had fleas ten days ago, due to what looked like flea dirt on her chin. I used a flea comb and got it all out but there were no live fleas. Now, reconsidering that fine black dirt imbedded in her chin, it was likely really dirt, not flea poop, and that means her fall was in the garage room or out in the cat yard. She likely jumped or fell, hitting her chin on the way down. So that makes sense now. That means her injury is even older, at least two weeks old, maybe more, and had nothing to do with the new cat runs.

I went over to Heatherdale to try to trap the new unfixed strays I was told about, even sent photos of, although I couldn't tell much but color in the photos, early this morning. They are being fed.

However, the cats only showed up just as I had to leave, to get to the vet, which was frustrating. But even carrying an empty trap inflamed my shoulder and arm into pain and partial numbness. I then put my foot down, and said they needed to trap the new strays at Heatherdale. There were a lot of excuses, but then they did borrow the managers trap and caught the one they said was the pregnant cat. They said they'd seen her impregnated, by the white one.

They brought her over late tonight. I put her in the bathroom, because they brought her in a carrier and she began to meow. She's totally tame. I let her out an hour ago, and to my shock, I believe I recognized her. My mind began to go on scan mode. She's extremely fat. I don't think she's pregnant just really really fat, but she does look pregnant, with bulging out sides. I'm still going with "she's fat".

I began looking through photos of cats I've fixed from Heatherdale. I come upon two females fixed last April, tame and owned, so no ear tips, one a big brown tabby and one a white one, with a half length tail, just like the other stray the stray feeders are convinced is the male who impregnated this one. Now this is either one huge coincidence or these are indeed the two cats owned by a woman in another trailer not that distant from where these other folks feed.

I don't have that woman's number. And it is very possible she moved out and left them, like so many people do there, but being as how she is so extremely well fed, I don't think so. I think these two girls are smorgasboarding around the park mornings. I could be wrong but I think the white one, the feeders think is a male and this one they think is preggie, are the pair of girls fixed last spring. I'll go there in the morning with her and knock on that trailer door. I'm betting I'm right. Who wants to take the bet? It's kind of funny, in a way.

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