Last night, late I got a phone call. The woman said the cat had cruised into their life about 2 weeks ago and was now trying to get into her home. Her husband a daughter were highly allergic and they had small dogs and a dog door that had to stay open 24/7. She said she had called everyone, but no one would take this black cat and now he had a really bad eye that looked gooey and nasty.
He is in isolation and I have a bad feeling about this beautiful, friendly boy. I think his eye is the least of his problems, and I hope I am wrong but I suspect either FeLV or FIV onboard of this young tom because of his appearance and he is riddled with ringworm.
Ringworm in the cat world is an opportunistic disease, generally preying on the weak and immune compromised and the young. He is (I would guess) about 7-8 months old and I will take him in this morning to be tested. I suspect, I won’t be bringing him back home. You do this so long, sometimes you just know that something isn’t quite right.
But I am not a vet and truthfully not in a good positive place in my life at the moment, so I will hold onto the hope that this is just a nasty case of calici or felineherpes and go from there. Time will tell. At least he is anything but feral! I am calling him Jet-
Update 1:42- Just got back with Jet-eye. This poor sweet kitty has been put through the wringer! He tested negative to the nasties which was a pleasant surprise for me BUT he has a raging URI a fungal infection that is NOT ringworm- a bacterial skin condition on his belly of unknown source (tests still pending) and he only has one good eye. They also detected a heart murmur but are hoping this is just a result of the high fevers he has been running, the stress he has been under and the upper respiratory. He also has a really bad case of ear mites that rival the ones Pan had. Poor kitty. He is almost a year old and not neutered. …and won’t be for two weeks or so once the URI is under control.
Through it all, even being a tom, he was a perfect angel. He is home now and kind of grumbling at me (can’t blame him there). I would grumble too. He’s been de-flead and de-wormed no vaccinations, they say he isn’t strong enough yet. I was going to call him Jet but finding out he only has one eye- I added to it- Jet-eye.
He was given a shot of covenia, they used the one-time treatment for ear mites on him (even though I did put Revolution on him last night). They cleaned and shaved his fungal patches and washed him down with special soaps, clipped his nails (he was digging at his eye) dewormed him gave him fluids to help the fever come down further and sent him home. I have to be very careful handling him because his fungal infection and bacterial infection on his skin might be contagious to people as well as other cats. Won’t know until Monday when the results come back- but to transfer that to Mike would be devastating. I have gloves, scrubs, shoe covers and mask ready at the door for every time I have to go in there to take care of him.
Here he is after the vet visit. Totally exhausted but keeping his good eye on me. (I think he feels I might snatch him up again and put him into the carrier) for another go-around.
From your other post I wasn’t sure you would be taking in any other kitties anytime soon. Jet-eye knew different :). Glad he is in his temporary home.
Janice, I wasn’t sure either. I wanted to take a break but when I heard about this kitten and the fact that no one would take him- I just threw in the towel and said I would. Part of why I wanted to stop is recently I tore up some of our floor in one part of the house where the wall has been getting baptized over the years.I would clean it up when it happened, but still it leeked underneath and caused quite a mess. Once the tile was pried loose, the urine contamination was quite substantial. The subflooring has been affected but thankfully the joists are still intact and strong. It is going to take thousands of dollars to repair the damage. I knew they were spraying there, and I tried to clean it up every time but urine spreads and corrupts everything in its path and the damage is pretty extensive. I am still trying to locate someone who wants to repair this floor and put in new pet-proof flooring. It made me feel ashamed of myself for not keeping on top of the cleanup and giving me second thoughts about rescue. So that was part of why I was considering not rescuing anymore. But I guess it is in my DNA when I heard this kitty’s story and met him- I couldn’t say no.
he is gorgeous, I love him and hope he gets to feeling better and me thinks once he is better and given the old snip snip he will make someone a very loving boy. I pray that you find another George to help you out.
There will always be one who needs rescuing, and there’s no harm in saying ‘yes’ to one like Jet-eye. He still needs plenty of work, but he’s probably feeling better than he has in years.