Dusty in the hospital
Rusty found her hiding under his bed. She was very sensitive to
having her leg touched; she'd been bitten by the bad
feral cat in her hind quarter trying to
escape. Rusty had to cage her since she couldn't defend
herself (run away) from another cat attack while the
leg was so sore.
Rusty could no longer able to afford $300 vet bills (what
Dusty's cat bite wounds cost him last year). Now he
was
her Vet. Rusty made a
hospital room for his oldest girl cat out of a dog
crate.
His helper Alberto held her so he could get her rectal
temp --102 F. That was good (normal). Her left rear
leg has a bite in the main muscle with teeth marks
on both sides of the leg - but no pus present. Her
foot also had a cut with scab present.
He gave her amoxicillin from "Fish Mox"
sold at the feed store. Her dose is 5mg/pound = 60 mg.
Rusty gave her 1/4 of a 250 mg capsule 12 hours a part,
then once a day. Gave it to her mixed in water
squirted down her throat, then later mixed with
her food.
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Dusty will never forget when
she had horrible ear mites that made her
scratch at her ears until there were scabs
all around. Reggie Conley came to her rescue
by mailing medicine with literature to teach
Rusty how to treat for ear mites.
She got
well!
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From past experience with cat
wounds
- the vet examines fight wounded cats
by taking temperature to check for infection, then shaving
fur to expose the
bite area. When there is infection the vet usually gives a bottle of 10 antibiotic tabs.
The vet visit costs $80
at the minimum
. The bottle of Fish Mox at the feed store is equivalent to hundreds of
doses
for only $25
.
As long as the wound is not so infected that surgery
is needed to debride it, or place a drainage tube
then this home treatment should be OK. Last year
Dusty had to stay overnight at the vet to have her
leg wound surgically cleaned (debrided they call
that).
Dusty likes the food at my dog crate cat hospital. She
gets the Chicken of The Sea tuna in water like Rusty eats, and canned wild
caught salmon from Costco.
OH! Yum! She likes that
kind of food.
She got better in two days
Soon Dusty was crying to get out of the cat
hospital.
"OK!"
Rusty said.
"But you should
live inside the house at night when that feral cat
is roaming around. Here, let me set up a litter box and a
cat condo in my bedroom. You can sleep in there all
safe and pee if you need to. Then go out in the day
time to poopy. How's that?"
Dusty had not used a litter box in the house since
she was a kitten. But Rusty made good sense - sleep
safe for the night and only go outside during the
day light when that bad feral cat wasn't around.
Dusty thought that was great. So she slept every
night in Rusty's bedroom, then went out to poopy
when it was safe. Rusty was happy to know she was
OK.
Rusty thanked God
for keeping his precious cat Dustball safe.
"Thank you God! Thank you for keeping
her safe"
Rusty said. Dusty pushed her forehead into
Rusty's arm and made her special sound -
"Wooo"
.
Rusty replied
"You love who?"
and Dusty said
again
"Wooo!"
. Rusty nodded - "
Yes, Woo, I wuv woo, too!"
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