Poor kitty...
Steve and I went out to the Toronto Humane Society on Friday to get a cat, something I'd been wanting to do for years now. We spent quite a few hours looking at all the cats and settled on this little vocal black and white one. We saw that it had a medical waiver but her card explicitly said that although she had allergy related alopecia, she was put on a special diet of hypo-allergetic food and unscented cat litter and she was okay now. We both understood that she wasn't cured but we were under the impression that as long as we were careful in providing her the right litter and food, she'd be fine.
So we adopted her and brought her home and we were totally amazed at the fact that she just jumped out of the box and casually looked around the place and adjusted immediately to her new surroundings! She's so sweet and affectionate and we were so happy with how good she was.
The next day, I had woken up pretty early when Steve went to work for 8am. I couldn't get back to sleep so I figured I'd go on the computer, look up a few things and watch an episode or two of something until I got sleepy enough to go back to bed. I had noticed that the cat was licking herself a bit but I didn't think anything of it at first since that's something that cat's generally do. But after a while... I noticed she was doing it pretty frequently and she was also gnawing on herself. x_x That worried me instantly because any animal chewing itself has a problem. It didn't make matters worse that she was sneezing quite a bit and I ended up phoning Steve because I was really worried. He calmed me down a bit but when he got home a while later he saw that it was pretty bad. I mean, all she'd do is lick or gnaw her paws and chest. She wouldn't even play with her toys (ignoring the laser pointer!! *gasp*). So we tried to phone the Humane Society again and found that they were closed. :/ We wrote down the numbers of the emergancy vet services that the Humane Society listed on their answering machine and tried those out...
Well, Steve finally got through to a vet and told her what was happening. The vet said that our litter probably wasn't the problem but that the problem could be anything; it could be the material our sofa is made of, the cloth of our bed sheets, etc. x_x; And she also said that the cat needed immediate medical attention since she was biting herself. We couldn't afford to bring it to any vet though, since it would have been well over $100 to get her looked at.... so after discussing it, we decided that we had to bring her back.
I felt so terrible for having to bring the cat back to the Humane Society. ;_; But when we decided we were going to get a cat, we decided it'd be a normal one, not a special needs one... and we had no idea that her medical condition was nearly as bad as it turned out to be. No one at the shelter told us that it wasn't a simple case of feeding her the right food and using unscented litter... in fact, they rather emphasised that she'd be okay as long as we did that. If we had known that her problem would have been so much worse we wouldn't have picked her up in the first place, as sweet as she is. We could afford to take our cat to the vet if it got sick, but we definitely can't afford to have a cat that will need regular medication and monthly visits to the vet. We came to the conclusion that the best place for her right now is at the shelter, where she can be monitored and re-assessed, and be picked up by someone who has the resources to take care of her and her condition. :/
Steve had to bring her in earlier today... we're lucky we bought a litter box that had a top on it; when we clean out the litter and tape up the front door so that it doesn't move, it acts as a carrying case. I feel so bad for Steve having to do it by himself... especially since he got more attached to her than I did. ;_; I'm just glad that when he got to the Humane Society, everyone there was really understanding of the situation and no one gave him a hard time.
As for how the cat is doing right now... Steve was there when she was being looked at by the vet. The problem kind of turned out to be worse than we thought because not only did she have balding patches where she was licking/gnawing frequently but she had a few little bruised/reddish spots on the back of her head and neck that were bleeding slightly. We couldn't even see but the vet said we shouldn't have to worry because it wasn't something that we would have noticed at all. I feel so bad for that cat because she was suffering so much from being itchy. :/ But she should be okay now; she got a shot that would calm down the itching and if the medication isn't working, at least the vet will be there to keep watch over her.
We are planning on going back in a few weeks to adopt a normal cat... We're going to be extra careful so that we don't get stuck in the same situation again because we don't want to have to go through the same heart-break. I think we know better what questions we should be asking now too, after going through that... so hopefully the next time is easier for us and for whichever cat we end up adopting. ^^
So we adopted her and brought her home and we were totally amazed at the fact that she just jumped out of the box and casually looked around the place and adjusted immediately to her new surroundings! She's so sweet and affectionate and we were so happy with how good she was.
The next day, I had woken up pretty early when Steve went to work for 8am. I couldn't get back to sleep so I figured I'd go on the computer, look up a few things and watch an episode or two of something until I got sleepy enough to go back to bed. I had noticed that the cat was licking herself a bit but I didn't think anything of it at first since that's something that cat's generally do. But after a while... I noticed she was doing it pretty frequently and she was also gnawing on herself. x_x That worried me instantly because any animal chewing itself has a problem. It didn't make matters worse that she was sneezing quite a bit and I ended up phoning Steve because I was really worried. He calmed me down a bit but when he got home a while later he saw that it was pretty bad. I mean, all she'd do is lick or gnaw her paws and chest. She wouldn't even play with her toys (ignoring the laser pointer!! *gasp*). So we tried to phone the Humane Society again and found that they were closed. :/ We wrote down the numbers of the emergancy vet services that the Humane Society listed on their answering machine and tried those out...
Well, Steve finally got through to a vet and told her what was happening. The vet said that our litter probably wasn't the problem but that the problem could be anything; it could be the material our sofa is made of, the cloth of our bed sheets, etc. x_x; And she also said that the cat needed immediate medical attention since she was biting herself. We couldn't afford to bring it to any vet though, since it would have been well over $100 to get her looked at.... so after discussing it, we decided that we had to bring her back.
I felt so terrible for having to bring the cat back to the Humane Society. ;_; But when we decided we were going to get a cat, we decided it'd be a normal one, not a special needs one... and we had no idea that her medical condition was nearly as bad as it turned out to be. No one at the shelter told us that it wasn't a simple case of feeding her the right food and using unscented litter... in fact, they rather emphasised that she'd be okay as long as we did that. If we had known that her problem would have been so much worse we wouldn't have picked her up in the first place, as sweet as she is. We could afford to take our cat to the vet if it got sick, but we definitely can't afford to have a cat that will need regular medication and monthly visits to the vet. We came to the conclusion that the best place for her right now is at the shelter, where she can be monitored and re-assessed, and be picked up by someone who has the resources to take care of her and her condition. :/
Steve had to bring her in earlier today... we're lucky we bought a litter box that had a top on it; when we clean out the litter and tape up the front door so that it doesn't move, it acts as a carrying case. I feel so bad for Steve having to do it by himself... especially since he got more attached to her than I did. ;_; I'm just glad that when he got to the Humane Society, everyone there was really understanding of the situation and no one gave him a hard time.
As for how the cat is doing right now... Steve was there when she was being looked at by the vet. The problem kind of turned out to be worse than we thought because not only did she have balding patches where she was licking/gnawing frequently but she had a few little bruised/reddish spots on the back of her head and neck that were bleeding slightly. We couldn't even see but the vet said we shouldn't have to worry because it wasn't something that we would have noticed at all. I feel so bad for that cat because she was suffering so much from being itchy. :/ But she should be okay now; she got a shot that would calm down the itching and if the medication isn't working, at least the vet will be there to keep watch over her.
We are planning on going back in a few weeks to adopt a normal cat... We're going to be extra careful so that we don't get stuck in the same situation again because we don't want to have to go through the same heart-break. I think we know better what questions we should be asking now too, after going through that... so hopefully the next time is easier for us and for whichever cat we end up adopting. ^^