Thursday, December 27, 2007
Victor Shares
A friend brought me a tiny kitten in a box. I took one look at this mostly white kitten with crusted ears and scabs all over its body and knew it needed medical care. My friend explained that the kitten had been living under the house of an acquaintance of hers, but that this acquaintance did not want it. Since it obviously needed care, my friend brought it to me. In my life, this is a pattern.
I did not dare touch the kitten because I did not know what was wrong with it and did not want to take the chance of spreading whatever it had to my cats. Without handling the little critter, I could not determine its sex. I decided to call it Victor/Victoria depending on what sex it turned out to be.
I rushed the kitten to my vet. My vet put on gloves before handling the little cat. After a skin scraping, the verdict came back. The kitten had ringworm that had spread all over its body. My vet determined that the kitten was male, so he became Victor. Victor went into quarantine and began treatment. He stayed in quarantine at my vet's clinic for weeks. My veterinarian would not release Victor until he felt sure that the chance of tramsmitting ringworm to my housefull of cats had passed.
Finally, Victor came to live with us. Healed, he was all white except for a black blotch on his head. He was a very sweet cat, but a little shy.
My veterinarian had been sure Victor was disease free. He was wrong. Over the next three months, every cat in the house got ringworm. After I exhausted my vet's supply of medication,I went online to buy more. After weeks of dabbing hairless rings, the disease ran its course. We were ringworm free.
Victor has never learned to be a lap cat, but he likes to have his head rubbed. His ears which were so bad, show no abnormalities.
I did not dare touch the kitten because I did not know what was wrong with it and did not want to take the chance of spreading whatever it had to my cats. Without handling the little critter, I could not determine its sex. I decided to call it Victor/Victoria depending on what sex it turned out to be.
I rushed the kitten to my vet. My vet put on gloves before handling the little cat. After a skin scraping, the verdict came back. The kitten had ringworm that had spread all over its body. My vet determined that the kitten was male, so he became Victor. Victor went into quarantine and began treatment. He stayed in quarantine at my vet's clinic for weeks. My veterinarian would not release Victor until he felt sure that the chance of tramsmitting ringworm to my housefull of cats had passed.
Finally, Victor came to live with us. Healed, he was all white except for a black blotch on his head. He was a very sweet cat, but a little shy.
My veterinarian had been sure Victor was disease free. He was wrong. Over the next three months, every cat in the house got ringworm. After I exhausted my vet's supply of medication,I went online to buy more. After weeks of dabbing hairless rings, the disease ran its course. We were ringworm free.
Victor has never learned to be a lap cat, but he likes to have his head rubbed. His ears which were so bad, show no abnormalities.
Labels: ears, quarantine, Ringworm, Victor
# posted by January Cat @ 11:54 AM 
