Kitty Drama

I haven't updated on this blog in a while, so here goes. I've had my male kitty, Clovis, for 11 years now. He was young when I got him, maybe 6 months old. Always healthy at every check-up, just a bit overweight in recent years. He's had a little sister, Ginger, for three years now, and they get along like siblings. In August, Dan noticed a small pimple-sized lump on the top of his head, near his ear. We took him to the vet to check it out, but it was too small to get a sample from to be tested at the time. So, we were told to watch it and we'd have another look at it when he was due for his regular check-up, which was in October. October comes, and they used the needle to take a sample from the lump, after shaving a little spot of hair on his handsome head. Dan had taken him, and told me when they got home that they "ruined" him. I felt so bad for the guy. He takes pride in his looks! Well, after a few days, I noticed that the spot was not healing up, mostly b/c Clovis was scratching at it every now and then. What they hadn't told Dan when he took him in, was that by taking a sample to be tested, it would release histamines, which would make the poor guy itch, and that we could prevent this by giving him an antihistamine! Clovis has never had to take drugs before, but I would have been fine with this!


We also had been told that the sample they took tested positive for a mast cell tumor. This is quite common in cats, especially where it is located. So, it may or may not be cancerous, and it may or may not be a sign that it's also in one or more of his organs. So I am freaking out. The vet suggested that we have an ultrasound done to find out, but we could also just watch him and see, since this IS very common in cats, and may not be cancerous. An ultrasound would cost $300.00. That's a lot of cash for us right now. And I'm just hoping we'd find out that he's ok. So, right now, we watch him. He also seems to have fleas! Which means that Ginger probably does, too. We checked her, and she does. A lot of them! So we treated the fleas on both of them with this oil by Zodiac, which didn't do more than make them very oily. We haven't been able to cuddle with them, or have them on the couch with us, or our bedroom, or Nathan's. After never really closing our bedroom doors, now we have to have them closed all the time, b/c the thought of flea eggs falling off everywhere in the house creeps me out. We have been vacuuming all the time, which makes me feel a bit better, but the first month of treatment was a bust, b/c we couldn't give them another chemical until a month after the first dose!


Ok, so we were dealing with that, and then on October 30th, Clovis' spot on his head was really looking bad. You see, he's not a big fan of getting his nails trimmed, so his feet pretty much have daggers on them (he's declawed in the front). And he must have aggravated the spot on his head so much that it just kept getting bigger and nastier. So, I went to the vet, found out why he was scratching at it (histamines), and got some drugs for him and a cone for his head so he couldn't reach the sore. Got home, and he was sleeping, so I figured I'd put it on him in the morning. WRONG! Halloween morning I wake up at 6am to Dan saying, "We have a problem with Clovis."


!!!!!!!!!!Gross alert!!!!!!!!!!


I assume the worst. Dan had him in the bathroom, with the cone, and said that he had scratched the scab on his head clear off! I was starting to black out, and I thought I'd throw up, just from picturing what his head must look like. Sure enough, Clovis had a hole on the top of his head about a half inch wide and deep. It had only bled a little, but now just looked like an open wound. I couldn't even look at it! Dan said something like, "He looks like he did his own surgery," which kinda made sense to me, since it seemed like the tumor was getting bigger ever since we had it tested. "If I had just left this alone, I wonder if this would have not been as big of a deal," I wonder.


So, I call the vet, and they told me to bring him in. I can't take a 16 pound cat anywhere when I also have a 13 pound baby, so my mother came up to take care of Nathan. The nurse shaved his head a bit more, to clean the wound up, and they gave me steroids and an antibiotic for him. So, this poor cat has fleas bugging him, is on three different drugs, and has a cone around his head! The cone is preventing him from cleaning himself AND going after the fleas, PLUS he's being kept out of our room, where he loves to hang out with us. And I can't really pet him if I have the baby with me, since he's extra dirty. He probably thinks he's being punished for something.


It has now been a month, and Clovis' head looks great. I still keep the cone on him b/c now whenever he's got it off so he can clean himself or eat dinner, he's pulling out clumps of hair! Now, I don't know if it's b/c he's so behind on his cleaning, or he itches b/c of the fleas, or if he's just upset. The vet said it could also be the histamines going through the rest of his body, so we just got more of the antihistamines for him. The vet told me he could very well be on this drug for the rest of his life, if I choose, and that may help with the tumor, if the cells have spread all over his skin. Sounds lovely, doesn't it?


It was funny- when I went into the vet for like the fourth time to get the stuff that really works on the fleas (Front Line), I asked what I can do about him pulling out his hair. A vet that happened to overhear said I could put him on Prozac! Like he doesn't have enough crap going on! I guess it makes sense, if it is in fact an emotional issue, but it could be any number of things, and I think it's kinda crazy to put him on Prozac. Hey- if I've survived all these years without it, I'm sure the big guy will be fine.