Debra.....Jasmine? Radar's leg? DH's hand?

Would love an update on all.

 

Hi Hope! Radar's leg is absolutely fine, you'd never think he went through what he did. Dh's hand is another story. The actual bite wounds are all on his left pinky finger. At first I didn't think it would become infected because he cleaned it really well, and it bled quite a lot, but today it looks a bit swollen. He called his doctor's office this afternoon, unfortunately they didn't call him back! And, with his insurance he's limited to certain care facilities, plus if he gets a prescription that doesn't go through his insurance providers "mail-order" thing, we'll have to pay a $75 deductible plus the actual full price of the meds. So we're hoping that his doctor will call him back tomorrow and may have some samples of meds to take care of the wounds.

Believe it or not I think Radar attempted (in a roundabout way) to show me today what happened. TK was again on the kitchen table playing this weird game he does with Radar. TK will take pieces of food and knocks them flying off the table. Radar sits waiting on the floor and when he hears the food flying he'll run to be the first to gobble it up! Anyhow, because I was standing there watching them TK had stopped tossing the food. Radar, in his vest of this game, started to climb up the table leg. He reached up to a spot in the leg where there's a bit of decorative swirly wire, and grabbed that with both front paws. He attempted to place a hind paw in that spot where the two metal poles "V".....this time though the duct tape prevented him from doing this! So maybe this is what he was doing Saturday morning but his foot slid, he fell backwards, meowed what little meow he has, and just laid there awaiting rescue. Why he suddenly went into attack mode when dh attempted to pick him up, I don't know, unless he didn't see Radar's foot was trapped and pulled instead of picking him "up" to release his foot.

If his doctor doesn't call tomorrow I guess if his finger looks no better or looks worse maybe he'll go to one of the urgent care places that accepts his insurance.........men, you know!

 

I wouldn't wait on his hand if it is swollen. If you see red streaks starting, get him to ER ASAP. Hope that doesn't happen.

You didn't mention Jasmine.

As for the duct tape, I would worry one of them might get a claw hooked into that stuff. I know why you are using it and understand but maybe until the table is fixed, keep their claws trimmed really well.

How are your nerves these days???? Any left :roll:

 

Hey Debra, happy to hear Radar is just fine but I'm worried about your DH. My gf got a love bite on the fleshy part of her hand recently -- didn't seem like that big a deal -- but by evening it was swollen and red. She went to the ER who started her on antiobiotics. It continued to swell and hurt until the antibiotics kicked in the next day and would have been awful if she hadn't gone in. It was just so scary how fast gf's hand was swelling and hurting despite careful washing and bleeding. Will be waiting to hear and worrying about you and DH until all is well.

 

Thankfully there isn't any red streaks yet. I wish he would just stop being so "I'm ok" with it and go to a dr too, but what can I do? His finger is swollen a little bit on one side, there's one large bite wound there and one smaller one. On the other side of his finger is one small bite wound also, but it doesn't look too bad.

Jasmine seems to be holding her own for now. She rests most of the day, sleeping on our bed. Yesterday morning she did meander to the kitchen to rest on the table in a bit of sunshine. Some days she eats 2 or 3 jars of baby food, other days she eats just over 1 jar. Her breathing isn't good, but it's not terrible either. She does make her own way to the litter boxes as needed, but when I have her fluids ready I carry her to them, stopping at a litter box just in case she needs to use it prior to getting fluids. I treat her as if she's in hospice care, doing whatever I can for her to keep her comfortable and as happy as possible. TK finally snuggled up with her for a little while yesterday afternoon, the first time since she had the chest tap. I'm sure that that made her feel a bit better.

TK is still digging, scratching, and licking at his wounds, despite the depo shot and the benedryl. I'd put an e-collar on him, but that's not going to stop him from scratching at that one would between his shoulder blades. I'm leaning more towards stress as the cause of his injuring himself. We've recently had a lot of work done on our house. We tore off the back deck, replacing it with a shed right off our kitchen, and we refloored our other porch, also relocated the door from the front of this porch to the side. There's been a lot of saw noise and hammering, and it was during this time that he started this scratching. For now I'm continuing with the benedryl, and hoping that now that things have calmed down, maybe he will too. If not, then it'll mean another vet visit, and I'm afraid she'll want to once again change his food to an allergy diet.

I agree about the duct tape not being a solution, but for now that's all I can do. Normally Radar doesn't climb up the legs, we have an old wire crate underneath the table because one of it's legs is really weak and the crate provides it with support, and he climbs the crate to reach the table. That table will be gone as soon as we can get a new one built, our finances don't allow us to go out and buy a new one. I'm hoping here that with his failed attempt today maybe he'll quit trying to use the leg and just go back to his normal methods of getting to the top. Radar doesn't jump up onto high things except out bed and the chairs in the living room, and when he jumps onto those things he tends to overjump, going way higher than needed. It's funny to watch how he does that! I'll make sure and keep his claws well trimmed until that table is out of this house....thanks for that advice!

My nerves.......totally shot!!! I haven't slept good in over a week (with worrying over Jasmine), and now because of this accident with Radar and dh I'm constantly keeping an eye on my little blind boy, trying to make sure he doesn't get himself into any more trouble! Plus the frustration with TK scratching and licking himself like he is, it's rough here. TK is feeling this too, I'm sure. When I see him scratching, if I make a move to stop him he takes off running from me. I dunno, I just wish that we'd catch a break here somewhere, somehow.

 

talk to me about cat bites and infection. almost lost may hand a while ago and that was with treatment.
the least you can do now is wrap with a warm moist towel and put a heating pad over that and wrap all that in a plastic bag and sit with it elevated. I was told I believe 4 hours on and 1 hour off. this will keep open and pull anything in there to surface.
I had 15 bites on one hand alone most them of them on the thumb. for those that remember., was not a pretty site

 

Finally got through to dr today!

Dh finally got a phone call through to his doctor today, and she called in a prescription antibiotic for him. Thankfully it wasn't too high priced, and he's already started taking it. His finger doesn't look too bad, just a little bit swollen and it doesn't seem to be bothering him at all. I remember that episode Dian, it was horrible for you! This isn't anywhere near as bad. TK is still scratching some, but with us trying to ignore his scratchy times he seems to be doing it a little less. I'm still giving him benedryl to try and ease any further itchiness. Radar is fine, no problems at all with his leg. In fact, the two boys have once again mysteriously hidden 19 crinkle balls in this house! We bought two packs of 10, and gave them 2 or 3 each time to play with. As those disappeared we'd give them more. Eventually they all were missing! Just this past Sunday I found a stock pile of 19 of them underneath my oven!!! How on earth they got them they...I haven't a clue. But slowly, over the days, they're once again disappearing. At least this time I know right where to (hopefully) find them.

 

Thank you for the update. Glad your D/H is doing better, prayers for Jasmine.