The Zev thread (was "Anybody want a kitten?")

[barakta]

Poor Zev.  Poor Tim.

Hope news today at vets is good.

[TimO]

The vet was happy that it is 'just' conjunctivitis, although I noticed in the waiting room, and she agreed with me, that the other eye is now in worse condition.  The conjunctivitis has jumped to that one too!

So, the antibiotic pills continue until the weekend, and the drops go into both eyes until I take her back, hopefully for a final check, next Tuesday.

She's just wolfed down her late breakfast, and I'm going to unblock the cat flap, and let her out.  I'm allowed to let her wander about, since weeping eyes aside, she's otherwise hale and hearty.

That cost a mere £80 or so, which is just under the insurance excess, unlike the retrobulbar abscess, which went well over the excess at the first visit (£200 or so, for the operation to drain the abscess, plus later pills and drops).

[barakta]

Sounds like best possible news really.  Hope the drops continue to work and she doesn't hate you too much for the administering them process.

[TimO]

Unblocking the cat flap was a mistake.  It may have been the nice thing to do, but it made it far too easy for her to evade me, when treatment is due!

So, house arrest is back on.

She did make a very relaxed exit out the cat flap, when I arrived home.  She knew she had plenty of time to easily stay out of my clutches.  What she hadn't worked out, was that the cat flap can be switched into cat diode mode.  It was slightly amusing, if a little sad, to see her gingerly come in, and then immediately try to go back out, bashing her head a little in the process!

So, she's had pills and eye drops again.  The right eye now looks completely fine, and the left eye is a little better, but definitely not back to normal yet.

She's got two doses of oral antibiotics tomorrow, and then the pills are over, but I'll continue to do the eye drops until Tuesday, which is not going to please her, because she really really hates those.

[TimO]

This was her, earlier this week, when her right eye was the problem.  You can see that she's avoiding opening it as much as the left eye.

This was her yesterday morning, after we got back from the vets, and she got to have her breakfast (a general anaesthetic not being needed, luckily).  Her left eye weeped some horrible green muck, shortly after I'd put drops in both of her eyes.

[Kim]

Too many traumatic eye drops at a formative age, no doubt.   


Glad she's on the mend.

[TimO]

Zev, prepared for pills and eye drops, wrapped in a towel!

 ... and where she is now!

Both eyes are definitely looking a lot better today. She's favouring the right eye slightly over the left eye, but neither eye looks particularly bad. The three eye drops a day seem to be the main solution, since the second eye went bad midway through the pill treatment, but she really doesn't like drops. It can take me three goes to get one in an eye, because she'll jerk very aggressively, just as one drops.

It's the second time I've had to give her drops, and understandably she is not very keen on them.  Unfortunately, since you need to drop them on the edge of the open eye, she can see them coming, so it's surprisingly hard to hold her still enough that I'm certain they're going in OK!

She's still got another three days of eye drops, but she has the last oral antibiotic dose this evening, which will makes things slightly easier for both of us.  I won't have to swap things around, whilst holding her in the towel, so it'll all be over faster.

[TimO]

It's a little amusing, I went back through this thread, and found this photo of Zev on Barakta's legs.



I've got a chair, almost identical to that, and it's where she's most likely to make herself comfy on my legs!  Unfortunately I don't have a photo from that perspective, since my arms aren't long enough for a selfie like that!  A few posts back, you can see her on that chair, with my Megatokyo Sad Girl In Snow, blue and white blanket.

[Kim]

I note the tube of eye ointment's on the arm of the chair, too.  Not sure if that's a 'before' or 'after' photo.

[TimO]

I note the tube of eye ointment's on the arm of the chair, too.  Not sure if that's a 'before' or 'after' photo.

I didn't notice that!  I don't use that chair when I'm doing her eye drops now, it's easier in a more upright chair, and she'll often sleep in the Ikea chair, so it would also be more involved.  Slightly spooky synchronicity though.

The drops were done this morning, with only minimal aggravation.  She only made a half hearted attempt to escape me, I don't think her heart was really in it, since I've blocked off any route she can use to avoid it!

[TimO]

Zev was absolutely furiously livid this morning, when I gave her the eye drops. I had to pin her body down with my right arm and hold her head as firmly as I dared with my left hand, and it still took me two drops for one eye, and three for the other, before I was confident that I'd got the drops in, since she was so aggressive as she saw the drops coming!

This photo was taken before I'd started trying to do the drops, so she's merely very angry.

She's sat in the window, watching the world go by in the back garden now, but isn't very happy with me, even having scoffed down a bowl of cat milk that I gave her as a peace offering!

We're off to the vet in a while, and hopefully she'll be taken off the drops then, and feline life can return to normality.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Want to come to Edinburgh and help me with Pete's for the rest of the week?

Seven more doses to go...

[TimO]

The vet was happy with Zev, but recommended a couple more days of drops before I stop, so Zev is still stuck indoors until Thursday morning.  Assuming that things are still OK then, I'll let her out and discontinue with the drops.

[Feline]

I think us vets tend to underestimate the trauma (to owners and cats!) of asking people to do long courses of eye drops and things like that that cats are singularly unimpressed with. Good news she's on the mend 

(P.S. The green stuff coming out of her eye on that pic before was fluorescein dye the vet would have used to check for corneal ulceration).

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

(P.S. The green stuff coming out of her eye on that pic before was fluorescein dye the vet would have used to check for corneal ulceration).

Pete had that yesterday. He looked like Steve Strange. 

[TimO]

I think us vets tend to underestimate the trauma (to owners and cats!) of asking people to do long courses of eye drops and things like that that cats are singularly unimpressed with. ...

Whilst she's clearly not a big enthusiast, I normally give her the drops before she eats, or has some cat milk, so I think that ameliorates the overall level of of discomfort.  She has the memory of a distracted goldfish, so I don't think she'll continue to be annoyed for very long, once the cat flap is open, and she's free to roam again.

... (P.S. The green stuff coming out of her eye on that pic before was fluorescein dye the vet would have used to check for corneal ulceration).

Ah, that makes sense, it was immediately after I came back from the vets, and did look rather luminously unnerving!

[TimO]

For the first time ever, to my knowledge, Zev has used the heated cat bed!

I'm not entirely sure when I got it, but it was well over five years ago, and it was very occasionally used by Talisker.  Kai slept in it, quite a lot, when I put it in the bathroom for him, when he first arrived and hadn't been neutered.  It wasn't plugged in then, no sockets in the bathroom, so Kai just used it as a comfy bed.

Zev has never seemed to be inclined to use it, preferring other locations.  I just replaced a double socket in the kitchen, that was faulty, and that allowed me to plug the heated bed in, near the window, which is Zev's favourite location to be.  She's up high, can look out the windows, and keep watch over the cat-flap, so it meets most of the important cat criteria!

[barakta]

Aww warm kitten.

[Andrew Br]

(P.S. The green stuff coming out of her eye on that pic before was fluorescein dye the vet would have used to check for corneal ulceration).

Pete had that yesterday. He looked like Steve Strange. 

As long as he doesn't fade to grey.

[TimO]

She's been alternating between the heated bed, and the slightly higher spot on her small climbing frame, which also has opportunities for poking your paw through a hole, and attacking dangly ball things.

Possibly she'd use the heated bed more, if the weather was colder.

[TimO]

Zev's a bit off colour today.  She left a little bit of her supper last night, and basically didn't touch her breakfast at all this morning.    She's also not really very active, just lying on the bed, looking a bit hard done by, although she was going outside yesterday evening.

She did drink some water, so hopefully isn't becoming too dehydrated.

I'll see what she's like tonight, and if her appetite hasn't come back, she'll be off to the vet on Tuesday morning.

I'm guessing it's either the cat equivalent of an upset stomach, or hair ball problems.

[lou boutin]

Zev's a bit off colour today.  She left a little bit of her supper last night, and basically didn't touch her breakfast at all this morning.    She's also not really very active, just lying on the bed, looking a bit hard done by, although she was going outside yesterday evening.

She did drink some water, so hopefully isn't becoming too dehydrated.

I'll see what she's like tonight, and if her appetite hasn't come back, she'll be off to the vet on Tuesday morning.

I'm guessing it's either the cat equivalent of an upset stomach, or hair ball problems.

Milly was like this on Saturday.  Then yesterday she did some rather stinky poos, then threw up twice and slept all day on the third step down from the top of the stairs. Then hey presto, today she's back to her self - she even shouted at me for not filling her food dish quickly enough.

I hope Zev gets well soon. 

[TimO]

Oddly enough, she'll quite happily scarf down a load of cat milk, and has eaten some food during the day, although not as much as she typically would.

I do remember a while back, she had a Retrobulbar Abscess (an abscess in the rear of the eye), which basically made it difficult for her to eat, because moving her jaw caused pain.  I wonder if something similar, or a dental problem, is causing her discomfort when she's moving her jaw, rather than a lack of appetite.

Since those are things which are likely to be more easily treated, the earlier they're dealt with, she's going into the vet shortly

[barakta]

Poor Zevcat, hope the vet doesn't get too gnashed in the process and is able to work out what's wrong.

[TimO]

The vet went over her fairly carefully and couldn't find anything obviously wrong.  She's running a slight temperature and is a little lighter than she was, but nothing to cause real concern.  I opted for some blood tests, just to check up on anything else, but it may simply be that she's got a mild lurgy.

Interestingly, after barely taking a mouthful of the dried cat food that I put down for her earlier, she ate all of it when we got back home.  That does lend credibility to the "slight temperature making her feel ill" theory, since the cycle trip will probably have cooled her down in the airflow.

I'll get the results of the blood tests in a couple of hours, and hopefully then it'll just be a matter of waiting things out.