Warning: to those who continue on with this post, it contains descriptions of amateur surgical procedures, descriptive content of a gross situation, and my affect those with weaker stomachs, reading on is doing so at your own risk and choice as even responses to the original post may not be censored, and quotes from the original post aren't unusual. You have been warned.

The rest of this will be put in black text just in case it is accidentally opened by someone who doesn't have the stomach for it. It is regarding my cat and what I am dealing with right now. For those who don't mind, just highlight the text below and it will become visible. I do warn you if you couldn't stand the Grumps gross post then you should pass on this one.

I have had many pets in my lifetime and have only had to put one down myself, it was one of the hardest things I had to do, and one of two living creatures I have killed in my lifetime (outside of insects). Recently one of my two cats was being incredibly lethargic and was running a pretty bad fever. At first I wasn't too worried but then the right side of his face began to swell up, when it got to the size of a golf ball I phoned an emergency vet number and my roomates took him there to see what may be wrong. I had already examined him and found no sign of wound, I suspected that he had caught a bee and it had stung him on the inside of his mouth. The visit alone (temperature taking and the time that my roomates were there) cost us $100 that we couldn't afford, further it was going to cost us $400-750 for them to do anything for him, depending on the severety and they wanted half up front, that is well beyond our finances atm.

It should be noted that I love my pets, to me they are like family, and once I form the bond it is hard for me to lose them. I have spent the last three days stressed right out. The night they brought him back from the vet I even tried to open what is known as a cyst, a puss and blood filled pocket which forms under the skin, usually caused by infection, especially common in cats whose wounds close too fast. I had no luck, try as I might I couldn't penetrate to the infection (lack of proper tools). It should also be noted that I have taken both First Aid levels 1 & 2 so I know my way around basic medical equipment and processes, I also have alot of experience with animals and medical problems. Amusingly the tools I used (and needed) were my modelling tools for paper modelling (don't ask), it is also the only funny thing about this, and trust me when I say I am not laughing.

I decided to leave it, initially believing it was nothing more than swelling and might go down on its own. The swelling got much worse, and when I checked him tonight he had cut himself open and exposed a small section of the skin, this may have saved his life. I was able to further penetrate the cyst and begin to drain it, by this time it was twice the size of a golf ball, and was beginning to cut off his breathing and eyesite on one side of his face, as well he was unable to close his mouth without cutting open the inside of his cheek as the swelling had forced his inner mouth skin between his teeth, he was in constant pain. What came out is making me sick to my stomach even now, for the last two hours I have steadily drained the cyst, it is a heavy combination of blood and puss, and has been rotting for five days. The smell is downright one of the worst smell I have ever come across, and trust me, I've smelled some horrible things in my lifetime, worse, I get sick anytime I walk into a hospital due to the five year in-and-out stint I had myself when I was younger, and the chemical smells immediately cause me to react very violently. If it wasn't for the love of my pets, I would have thrown up on the spot. As it was I needed a nurse, and neither of my roomates could handle being near the smell for even five minutes before it overwhelmed them. So I had to persevere and not only drain the cyst, as well as clean the area, but also keep the cat pinned. I got bitten three times and clawed about a dozen, and I know how to pin a cat. I have never in my life encountered such a bad infection, and the smell was caused by the beginnings of a gangrenous level of infection.

The good news is I have drained the cyst and begun to administer antibiotics, and over the next few days I will continue to clean and maintain the wound and drainage area, as well as keep a close eye on him. He is not out of the ballpark yet, and may still sucumb to this infection, but I have given him a fighting chance now, and will do everything I can to insure it is the best one he can have within my means. I know I have done the best I can and will be otherwise occupied over the next few days, though I'll still be around to post now and then. I am still stressed out but when I finished and had cleaned up the tools, and medkit, I began to pet him and for the first time in three days he started purring again. I hope this is a good sign and for a speedy, and full recovery. I will update this post either way, whether good or bad comes from this. Thanx for listening for those who have read this.

Ick. Good luck with the recovery.

Good luck.

Good Luck and God Speed!

I am hoping the best for you and please keep use up to date.

Again, good luck. You should take comfort in the fact that you helping as best you can. Most people in your situation would only be able to watch and wait.

Yeah. Good luck. Don't know what I'd be able to do if it was one of my cats. Keep us posted.

Mr Blackhammer

I may not generally like cats but no animal human or otherwise should go through that. I do hope he gets better.

Closest I ever got was my budgie from 6 years ago.. (Left to go on a working break, lots more budgies for my parents!)

I hope all goes well. Might I recommend keeping him away from solid foods for a couple of days? If you can afford it, it would behove you to take him in to the vet now that you've handled the worst of the problem. It shouldn't cost too much to have the vet pack the wound and it would stave off the infection and speed healing. Just a though.

Good luck and many prayers. I have 2 cats and growing up never had less than 6 around me, so I understand your stress.

ZIp

While I don't really know what's going on, as in I'd rather not read a post about a sick cat, and especially don't want to read a gross one, I hope things work out for you and that you can get your pal through it! I don't really consider the animals we welcome into our home as pets, they're family to me or at least pals. So here's hoping for a speedy recovery from whatever the problem is!

Skunk

Check out my fantasy campaign, Wizard Quest, a world using Wizards of the Coast’s 3.5 DnD system by visiting .

Check out the NEW IMPROVED flash teaser for my sci-fi campaign, , coming Jan 2007. I’ll be using D20 Future for the rules.

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Pets - Moving black holes of cuteness. I mean everything they do cost money but you just keep on pumping the money in. After having a young dog at the vets for a month that had to have blood transfusion and the like I totally understand the pain. And its not pain that you have too but pain that you wish you could do more but can't.

SD - best of like there, I'm glad I have stuck to dogs simply for the fact that they don't have retractable claws. Ouch!


Hope all goes well.



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

Wow, that's an awful experience. It sounds like you're going above and beyond trying to help your cat out though. I hope for a sound and speedy recovery.

Thanx all, some news, the swelling has gone down, and the fever is gone, he is eating solid food, though in little bits, I have to keep an eye on the infection and make sure he doesn't do himself too much damage, but as I said earlier, the worst is over, the wound flows clean now and the smell is gone, never smelled anything like that in my life, hope I never do again, would rather crawl through the sewers of an orc and goblin city naked than put up with that smell ever again, yuck.

Good to hear he's doing better. I've found cats to have remarkably fine tuned immune systems that usually only result in live/die outcomes. If he's made it this far, he should be fine.

While it's horribly unpleasant, you might want to try and remember that smell the next time you play any zombie based game for a whole new level of realism!

That is an amazing story. I don't think I would have been able to do that even though I love my cats very much (they are great company on days like this when I am home sick) I hope he gets well soon.

You are doing well, I lost a cat to this about a year ago. This kind of stuff is why I am considering never getting another pet, even though I would like another bird.

I hope your cat continues to recover.

As an aside, when dealing with certain, ummm, organic smells, the best thing to use is a dab of Vick's Vaporub on the upper lip, it numbs the receptors. It has been a standby of medical examiners for more than fifty years.

The Auld Grump

Very glad to hear your cat's doing better, SD.

One smell that I remember and hope to never smell again, although from what I've heard, rotting human is worse, a rotting Racoon. Damn thing had crawled up under our house to die.

What was worst is I didn't realize it had until I saw the big black flies, so anyone who knows the process knows how long it had been laying there. To help with the smell as I removed it, I took a handkerchief, poured some cologne on it and then tied it around my face.

It helped somewhat, but I can still remember the smell 11+ years later and it still makes me a little nausious.

And it's good to hear he's doing better!

Skunk

Check out my fantasy campaign, Wizard Quest, a world using Wizards of the Coast’s 3.5 DnD system by visiting .

Check out the NEW IMPROVED flash teaser for my sci-fi campaign, , coming Jan 2007. I’ll be using D20 Future for the rules.

Check out what games I’m working on and their status by visiting .

The new and improved Tampa Bay Game Players Forum is here! So see you in the game! .

I am pretty sure that he is now in the clear, and other than basic healing he will make a full recovery, he has regained his bulldog way of walking and his personality is in full swing again. He has also started demanding more attention from me. I will be keeping an eye on him for the next while, but I'm pretty sure the worst is done and over with now.

Here are a couple of pics to show he's up and about again, no, he's not the one with his head in the bag, that's Mandu, yes they did have food in their dishes, and no, these don't show the wound on the right side of his face , so no gore here. Amusingly this pic is a good example of why we fall in love with the little buggers, the second pic shows that Lloyd has been following me since he's started feeling better, and all I did was move for a better angle .