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

[TimO]

The body shape does look like Zev, not terribly long legs (unlike Kai), and the colouring obviously!  It's hard to estimate the size, but I think that's a bigger cat than Zev, but I think she's going to be a relatively small cat, so maybe she's the runt of the litter, which is why she ended up where she was, having been kicked out by bigger and more assertive siblings.

That doesn't look like a skinny cat either, so probably not doing too badly!

[Kim]

I think that's the one I met round the corner while riding my bike two weeks ago - *very* Zev-shaped and reasonably adult sized, extremely nervous of humans.  Could be the father rather than a sibling - the juniors and presumed mother I've seen around are pointier and had more white patches.

Thanks to the student population and the council's attitude to refuse collection, there's easy pickings (and no doubt an abundance of small squeaky things) during term time, so I'm not surprised they're doing well.  I watched that one purposefully do the rounds of 5 sets of bins, pausing only to hide from passing pedestrians.  Zev was unfortunate to be weaned in August, when there's a lot less to scavenge.

[TimO]

That was informative.  I had an overnight guest, a friend who desperately needed some overnight crash space, so had Zev's the spare bedroom.  Kai fairly rapidly warmed up, and allowed himself to be scratched and generally petted, whilst he sat and looked cute, and apparently even slept on the bed for a short while, but Zev didn't get very close at all.

She actually became very nervous, not even letting me get near her.  Even now (after the visitor has departed), she's clearly a little bit edgy.  This didn't stop her from appearing and wolfing down breakfast though!  She's always very nervous of other people, even just a postman at the door with a parcel is enough to make her sprint for the kitchen and watch things from afar, so I shouldn't be surprised.  It was interesting to see how confident Kai was after a while, but I guess Zev is in effect a nervous spotty faced teenager, so hopefully she'll get more used to people and not be quite such a scaredy-cat in future!

[TimO]

I just temporarily dismantled Zev Towers. 

It was in the spare room (Zev's room when she was under house arrest!), and as part of the ongoing house tidying process, I'm clearing that of junk, so visitors can use it.  I'm going to reassemble bits of the climbing frame elsewhere, so the cats can still use it (they do still have fights inside it!).  That bin is full of over 70 of the rods which it's put together with, and innumerable corner pieces.

[TimO]

Zev demonstrated this morning, that she's not much of a carnivore.  I foolishly left a packet of Eccles Cakes open.  She liberated one, and ate most of it.

She didn't eat the base, or about half of the inside, but she ate a lot of pastry, making a lot of crumbs.  I'm guessing it's mainly the fat in the pastry that attracted her, but pastries have now been added to the list of things which on no circumstances should be left unattended.

[tiermat]

You should have our two! NOTHING is safe.  they hang around, dog like, whilst we are eating dinner, ready to catch any falling crumbs.  Once we have finished and left the table they are straight on the table checking for any stray food.

No wonder they are growing so quickly.

[TimO]

This weekend I found exactly how much she doesn't like strangers.  Someone knocked at the door when I was holding her, so I foolishly thought that I could answer the door like that (not that she's terribly comfortable with being held at the best of times).

She struggled a little, but I though I could hold onto her, but when I opened the door she exploded into claws and cat everywhere, so I've got two lovely deep cuts on one arm, and another on the back of my hand.

She really doesn't like strangers.  Even after the visitor had left, she was nervous and suspicious about the house, until she was certain there was no one else around.

[TimO]

Zev just demonstrated that the Eccles cake incident wasn't unique.  I had the bit of paper that a sponge cake sits on, dumped in a bowl, so I could take it all out to the kitchen, and chuck that bit of paper in the bin.

She had a sniff in the bowl, and careful lifted the bit of paper out, unfolded it, and proceeded to lick and eat every speck of cake off of it, until it was clean.  There wasn't a vast amount of cake on there originally, and it was a little stale (hence me not bothering to eat it myself), but she very efficiently cleaned it all off.

I definitely have a cyclist's cat, she too, is powered by cake.

[TimO]

Just to add to the slightly odd list of things which she'll eat, she also appears to quite like bread rolls.

I just had some toasted bread rolls with cheese on.  The bread rolls were a bit stale, but fine to toast.  I didn't quite eat all of them, and Zev wandered in to have a nose at what I was eating.  I thought that if she was really that curious, there was no reason not to let her try it.

I expected her to pick the cheese off of them, and leave the rest, but no, she actually ate the bread first, and scoffed all of the crumbs on the plate as well.

[TimO]

Zev seems a bit ill this evening.  Not emergency, get to the vets asap ill, but clearly not a well cat.

For the last day or two, she seems to have gone off her food a bit, and has been eating it much more slowly than normal.  I thought she may be suffering from a hairball, so I gave her some Katalax this morning (she's had some before, accidentally, when nicking Kai's food!).

This evening, she seem quite ill.  Normally she gets up, and comes and annoys me, when I come in, for food.  Today she's just staying in the cat bed, and seems to have no interest in any food, or even getting up.

She's got a bit of discharge from one eye, and doesn't seem to want to open her eyes much.

I haven't tried checking her out for any injuries, but she seems more to just be feeling ill, and doesn't want to get up.

Come the morning, if she hasn't miraculously recovered, I think it's a trip to the vet for her.  Hopefully it's nothing too serious, but it's a bit difficult when she can't tell me what's wrong.  She doesn't seem to be in pain, more just very lurgied.

She'll start to purr a bit if I pet her, but I realise that doesn't really mean anything, I've managed to get her to purr in the past just by looking at her.

[TimO]

I've just left Zev at the vets.

The vet reckons that she almost certainly has a Retrobulbar Abscess (an infection behind her eye), which is causing her eye, and the face on that side to swell up.  I hadn't really noticed it until he pointed it out, but it's difficult to get a cat to sit still so you can check things out that carefully.

She'll need to be put under so that it can be drained, and I think then treated with antibiotics etc.  The vet seems quite confident that it should be treatable with no problems, given her age and otherwise good health, although there's obviously the risk of problems as there is with any operation.

[Notsototalnewbie]

Fingers crossed she'll come through ok. And I hear you on the whole 'getting them to sit still' thing, having wrestled with Cam to remove a tick while she wriggled for dear life...

[TimO]

She was sort of curled up, obviously feeling hard done upon by life, so not obviously symmetrical, and I hadn't realised how badly it was swollen.  Stood on the vets nice clear table, it was really obvious how badly infected it was.

This also explains why she was going off her food, apparently the swelling can make it uncomfortable or painful to move the jaw, so eating can hurt, which makes sense in retrospect.

I'm awaiting a phone call from the vet to say how things have gone, and then I may have to sprint across town to pick her up if necessary (although I suspect that recovery after the anaesthetic, and so forth, may mean I pick her up tomorrow - and there's a risk of the cone of shame!)

[barakta]

Meep, poor Zev, that sounds horrid.  I hope she comes through the surgery ok and isn't coned with shame for too long! 

[TimO]

I just picked her up, which was a bit of a sprint, because the vet rang me up at 5pm, and they close at 6-30.  I takes me around an hour to get home, and I then had to get the trailer out, attach it, and then cycle the two miles to the vet.  I think I got there about 6-25!

Anyway, Zev is back and is already clearly feeling a lot better.  She's wandering around, and starts purring the moment you start to pet her (which is normal), unlike this morning, when you got brief bits of purring after petting her for a few minutes.

I've got a heap of drugs to give her.  A weeks worth of anitbiotics, as a pill, which I have to give her twice a day.  That's going to cost me some blood.  Some Metacam, which is trivially dosed, since you add it to the food, and it disappears with that (ie at speed!).  I've also got some eye drops, and I recall Kim and Barakta having to double team up to administer those in the past, so I think I'm going to have to play "wrap the cat" with a towel.  I'll probably still loose some blood that way, but possibly less than by other methods.

She's obviously a lot happier than she was, and has made some very pointed looks at the empty bowl.

I've got to keep her in for a couple of days, and then take her back to the vets on Thursday for a checkup.  This is going to annoy Kai, because I'll have to put the catflap on "Vet" mode, which means it allows identified cats in, but no one out.  So, if he comes in, he'll be stuck until I come home!

(Of course it's possible he may bugger off again, but he came in for breakfast this morning, once as I was leaving for the vets, and again when I was back after dropping Zev off.  He was also here earlier, when I grabbed the trailer in passing, but that was very much a case of "Hi Kai", pat him, and leave!)

[Kim]

Yeah she is, unfortunately, wise to eye drops.  It did take her most of the week-long course to realise what was going on (even when I did the second eye) and object to it, poor thing.  Fortunately at that point she was still small and had a very effective standby mode.

Glad she's feeling better, and not enconed!   

[TimO]

Yes, she's wise to such moves now.  Trying to pick her up, and force anything into her mouth will result in the loss of blood, and will normally fail to get anything into her.  This happened yesterday when I tried to give her some Katalax using the technique that worked on Kai, of wiping it on the tongue.  Even ill, she took a good chunk out of my hand, and blood was running freely enough that I had to put a plaster on it for a few hours (which I rarely do).

I think it's good evidence that she was pretty much a stray from a very young age.  One of the reasons most cats don't mind being picked up, is because they were socialised to this very young, since most people will pick up kittens and do lots of "itchy cotchy cute kitten" things.  I don't think this every really happened with her, because she really doesn't do being picked up at all, and certainly doesn't do being picked up and having stuff put near her face.

Having tried wrapping cats in the past, with Talisker, it's an acquired skill, and they can get their front paws out, and start doing things with "the sharp end", as the vet referred to it today, when I got to hold that end as he measured her temperature, at the other end.  It may take me some practice, but it needs to be done, so things don't reoccur.

[Mrs Pingu]

Pippin never liked being picked up, but i persevered. After a while she tolerated it and these days she quite likes a cuddle! Prolly about 10 yrs later than I'd hoped but better late than never!

[barakta]

Glad you have got her home and she's feeling much better already.  Wishing you much luck with the medicating and feline sharp bits!

[Kathy]

Glad to hear she's feeling better.

With respect to the "picking-up" - one of ours is incredibly opposed to being picked up (or touched below the collar). Eventually we worked out it was because she hated the "trapped" feeling of a cuddle. The solution is to pick her up with one hand across her sternum, so that she dangles like a rag doll. Tickle her behind the ear and she purrs and kneads the air, and she can be half tucked under one arm and carried for a long while, happy because her feet and bottom are free.

[Kim]

Interesting that Zev still doesn't like being picked up.  As substitute mummy cat she'd let me do it, in that wriggly sort of way that kittens do when they're not entirely sure they trust you to support them, but everyone else who tried got instant sharp bits.  I'd have thought she'd have got a bit more happy about it over time, but I suppose like being touched on the underside or tail some cats simply don't like it, even when they're otherwise happy to sit on your lap and be petted and stuff.

[TimO]

The only way she'll really tolerate being picked up, is if you let her almost stand on your arm.  If I pick her up, and place her in the crock of my arm, if she's standing with all four paws mostly on my arm, or possibly her rear "sitting" and her front paws upright, she's more or less OK with that, for a short while.

She wont allow me to do anything like hold her on her back, which is what I've done with Talisker in the past, and Kai now, to give them pills or Katalax (which following Feline's advice I tend to give to Kai by wiping a blob onto his tongue!).  I've tried this with Zev, and it absolutely does not work, you will loose blood attempting this!

I did manage to wrap her in a towel, a short while ago, long enough to administer a drop, although I'm not sure how good a job I'm doing at the moment.  Once released she was relatively happy, and went back to sleep fairly rapidly, with only some minor tail swishing.

The instruction for the drops are from a human perspective, lots of "tilt your head back and look down", which is never going to work with a cat!  I also really need three hands, one to hold cat and towel, one to hold the tube, and a third to pull her eye slightly open whilst I administer the drop to her eye.

[Arch]

Poor thing, I hope she's lots better soon!

Time to trot this out again, I think:

http://www.nanceestar.com/CatPill.html

[TimO]

Time to trot this out again, I think:

http://www.nanceestar.com/CatPill.html

That one misses out the second part:

How to give a dog a pill

1. Wrap it in bacon.

[TimO]

I managed to just get the first antibiotic pill into her, and a drop cleanly onto her eye.  The towel wrapping works, but you have to get it tightly wrapped around the top end, so she can't get a paw out.  The rest can just flap around, and help to catch the claws of her back paws before they can do anything too nasty to me!

She was basically completely and utterly furious, yowling and hissing at me, but calmed down a lot, once I plonked the whole lot on the floor, and untangled her from it!  I'm going to have to do this over a dozen times more, what are the chances of her not drawing blood at some point.

She's quite active this morning, and obviously wants to go out.  She scoffed her breakfast almost as fast as normal, but I guess her mouth and jaw are still causing some annoyance, so not quite at her normal "barely touches the sides on the way done" approach, but a lot faster than a couple of days ago (I believe they basically go through the roof of the mouth to drain the abscess, so presumably that's caused some damage and pain.  I'm not even going to attempt to see if she's got any stitches there!)

She's digging at the mat inside the cat flap, and looks desperate to be let out, but that's not going to happen for a couple of days.  She is massively more active than yesterday morning, and quite a bit more than she was a couple of days ago.  It's odd how I didn't realise how quiet she was, obviously under the weather, and not creating trouble or rushing about as much as normal.

I think the swelling has gone down on her face, although her eye is still somewhat inflamed.  Presumably the drops are intended to help that.

Viscotears contains carbomer, a synthetic polymer that forms a viscous eye gel to create a transparent, lubricating and moistening film on the surface of the eye.

It seems to be intended as a moistening agent for dry eyes, presumably to help keep the eyelid and eye moving, and not gunged up with gunk.