Trying to work out if I can strip the audio off and use the bleating sound as my text message tone on my phone!

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Thank heavens for Bank Holiday Monday!

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Most of the time he gets fed up of sitting on laps and goes and sits somewhere else. When he does, I can get on with what I’m supposed to do. But I’m a little feart that for once he is out for the count. He certainly looks fast asleep.

Cat is refusing to eat duck and heart cat food… he’s not eaten since 5pm because he doesn’t like the new flavour of food. He’s frantically demanding food, but won’t eat what he’s got. And there are starving lions in Africa!

So should we (click the answer you want to vote for)

So, when Fudge came back from the vet, he came back with a shaven paw. While he was unconscious, they x-rayed him and did a close exam, including shaving his fur to see what was going on underneath. With the long hair gone, it’s pretty plain to see what’s happened. He has bite marks on his paw, and around, signs of discolouration which point to infection. Cat mouths are dirty so cat bites lead to infection. Since the bite is on the bottom of the rear paw, my suspicion is that Fudge was already running away when he got bitten. The back paw is the last bit of cat to leave!

The treatment is more antibiotics – vet was a bit surprised that the first lot didn’t seem to help much, and has given a longer course of the pills. Fudge is hard to pill just like he’s hard to inject, and these pills seem less palatable than Smudge’s which seem to be tastier than real food!

CHF Kitteh

Smudge, the timid one with congenital heart trouble, is now on two tablets daily – ferusemide and fortekor crushed in food – interesting fun, given that we can’t always make sure the right cat gets the right bowl. He’s generally doing ok, but has had two recent scary turns where for three days, he doesn’t eat. By the second day, we’ve usually twigged the problem and started hand feeding him catfood jelly and his ferusemide tablets, and by the third day he drags himself to his bowl and starts eating again. The ferusemide is a diuretic, supposed to help get surplus fluids away from his heart, but the result is he drinks almost non-stop and pees very regularly too.

UTI Kitteh

Fudge, the big hairy strong one with a tendency to urinary tract infections, has had an interesting time of things lately. Before Christmas, he had a major problem with a urinary tract blockage, which manifested itself as the cat getting grumpier and grumpier until he could no longer be handled without hisses and scratches – a sure fire sign that the usually affectionate cat was in trouble. So, into the vet he went on an emergency Saturday appointment, and P came back empty handed. He was sedated and the vet had a good rootle around, removed the blockage, drained his bladder and woke him up again. He had a very strange afternoon with wobbly back legs, and then returned to full health. His routines have had to be changed a bit though – he’s gone from “dry food only occasionally” to “NO DRY FOOD EVAR!” and we have to trick him into drinking water by adulterating his food.

All well and good until a week ago when he suddenly started hiding and refusing to eat at all, another clear sign of trouble. A closer look showed that his back legs weren’t working properly again – almost like when he was recovering from anaesthetic. This was discovered out of vet hours and necessitated a very expensive trip to the emergency vet. Obviously we suspected a UTI problem again, but were able to rule this out following an accident in the kitteh-box on the way.

The clear indication from the first vet visit was trauma of some kind – his claws were shredded, he had no temperature, but was clearly uncomfortable. Car, fight or fall were possible suspects. He got an injection of long lasting painkiller and slow acting antibiotics and was told to present himself to his own vet in the morning for X-ray. The following day, he was completely symptomless, so he went to the vet, but came home right as rain. The further exam brought to light a bit more evidence – another cat’s fur under his claws suggested it was a fight that led to the trouble.

Over the following week, it seems as the long lasting painkiller wore off, he’s been getting worse, until today it was clear he was in trouble again, so I phoned the vet for further advice and ended up taking him in. Fudge and that particular vet have a bit of history since the last injection he had there that led to the cat suddenly – and without warning – going mad mid injection, and causing the needle to fly out of the syringe and embed itself in the consulting table and twang like an arrow in a Robin Hood film.

So today, the vet had to be quite firm, holding cat by scruff of neck and trying to check his foot, but the cat was having none of it – squirming, hissing and yowling, and clearly displeased. It’s clear there’s real pain and the vet couldn’t get close to finding out what was wrong. So we’ve had to leave him for an overnight stay, to make sure he doesn’t eat anything, and then they’ll have another go in the morning – sedating him, examining him thoroughly and x-raying if necessary. No idea whether it’s a broken bone, a soft-tissue injury or maybe an infected cat bite.

Remarkable how almost all of the famous people’s cats look uncomfortable or unnatural.

We’ve had a party this evening, and Fudge spent most of the evening out hiding from the throng.

But poor Smudge is really under the weather, flaked out on the sofa with barely enough energy to move. He’s just sat there in the middle of the party all night straining to breathe while life goes on around him. Vet visit in the morning to see if owt can be done to make him more comfortable.

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His current financial tips (at the bottom of the post):

• Try to spend just a little bit less and save just a little bit more – every penny in a savings account is just that little bit more liquidity for the banking system and we’ll be that little bit closer to getting through this.
• Now might be the time to see how much money you can save by taking some Green economy measures around the house – check out your insulation and your low energy light bulbs.
• And if you think your finances are in trouble, try to get some help – the fewer people there are in difficulty the sounder the economy will be.

I guess the idea borne out of Tuesday night’s pub discussions of using what little savings I have to buy a canalboat are Not a Good Idea Right Now.  Turns out proper narrowboats are rather more expensive than I thought, but I could afford to buy something called a “cruiser,” some of which are more than capable of being used for short canal based holidays.  And Nottingham has ready access to some good canals and one of the most navigable rivers in the country.

Of course, leaping into canal boat ownership on a whim without ever having actually been on a canal boat holiday is almost certainly unwise.

Cruiser boats are about the same cost as a couple of other things I’ve been considering buying lately.  Caravans at Butlins in Skegness (I thought it might be an interesting non-standard investment, but I think it would be a lot more hassle than the very small return you might get). And hot air balloons (which would be very interesting, but has more upkeep costs than either a caravan or a boat, in that you would need to get and maintain a special private pilot’s licence).

Interestingly, all three would probably have the side-effect of needing a much bigger car with a tow bar.

(via CuteOverload)