Today did NOT go as planned. It started with us feeding Obi and Tilly the Tabby. She let me pet her up, though she remains skittish and quick to bolt.
With the temps getting down to 23 tonight, we worried about her being out in that cold. She small, a bit skinny, and doesn’t have nice, thick fur like Obi has.
I called my vet’s, which is closed on Mondays, and talked to one of the techs that I know well. Because it was me, she said I could bring Tilly in if I could catch her.
We put the other cats into our offices, closed the doors, and laid our plans. I set the carrier on Ozzy’s ottoman right next to the front door. I lured Tilly over to get some food in the usual place on the front porch, petted her a few times, then grabbed her by the nape of the neck with my right hand.
I was trying to support her with my left hand, but she went more berserk than I expected and fought me pretty hard. We managed to get her into carrier, at which point I realized my hand was gushing blood. There was a LOT of blood. Blood all over the place.
She managed to give me a deep puncture in the webbing at the top of my hand between the forefinger and thumb. Randy kicked into gear with the first aid, applied a pressure bandage, and had the area thoroughly wrapped up in no time. Even though it was a puncture rather than a bite, he adamantly insisted I go to the ER and get antibiotics. I totally agreed with that.
First, I dropped Tilly off and warned the vet tech that she may be more feral than I anticipated. Tilly was quiet in the carrier -- after an initial bout of complaints -- and remarkably calm.
Then I hied myself off to ER where I was tended by an older female doctor with the absolutely wonderful name of Dr. Amber Flowers. It turns out there’s an artery right there between the forefinger and the thumb, so Tilly had punctured an artery, which explains the excessive bleeding. By the time the doc removed Randy’s pressure bandage, the puncture had stopped bleeding. She went off to order heavy-duty antibiotics for me.
A male nurse, a tremendously nice person, cleaned it up and applied a regular bandage. After checking my records, he saw that I hadn’t had a tetanus shot in the past five years and insisted that I have one. When I pulled off the top I was wearing, I discovered I had a long gouge and another minor puncture on the underside of my forearm. So he cleaned that and bandaged it up. I hadn’t even felt it. Maybe because the big puncture took all my attention. I got the shot and it was painless, plus he gave me a first antibiotic pill to take until I could pick up the prescription. He suggested I get a probiotic as this is a wide spectrum antibiotic.
I was on my way out the door when I got a call from county animal control. Part of the procedure when I checked in was to fill out an animal bite report. I had made it clear that it was a claw puncture, not a bite, but I guess they have to follow up just in case. I went over it with him and he didn’t sound worried, but he was also insistent that I have a tetanus shot.
I’ve never heard of an animal bite causing tetanus. This was news to me. I associate it with rusty nails and that sort of thing, but not animals. Now I know.
I got the prescription and probiotic after first going home to have lunch, as it was about 2 pm by then. The vet tech called to let me know that Tilly tested negative for leukemia, had the necessary vaccinations, confirmed she had been spayed, and estimated her to be about two years old. I’ve left Tilly there for the night, where she will be nice and warm.
Unfortunately, I’ll be in Redding all day tomorrow. Tilly may have to spend another night there. Randy and I are having many discussions about how to deal with her when I pick her up. If we just let her go, we may never see her again. I’d like to have her inside and test out whether she can adjust to being a domestic cat, but it will be an exceedingly tricky thing to pull off. We’re undecided.
[#]MoggyHorde #TillyCat
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