Kitty advice?

[calulu]

Really hard to say exactly what the problem is. Was she a stray or from the pound and not adopted for a long time?

The reason I ask is we adopted a stray siamese mix kitten from the pound at about three months. When he was picked up by the animal shelter his beautiful siamese coat was matted and he was feral, undersized and perhaps 2 months old. The first couple of months he was here once he realized he was warm, getting as much as he wanted and there were lots of cats to play with he decided he loved, loved, loved me. When I worked here on my computer he would get in my shirt on top of my boobs, curl up purring and chirping wanting me to pet him.

I went out of town for a few days and I came back and he was extremely frightened of me but suddenly in love, love, love with my 21 year old son, who replaced me as the source of all petting and food. He acted terrified of me and I swear I've done nothing to warrant it, I'm one of those people even strays adore so I was very puzzled by this. He was fixed, well and behaving normally otherwise.

In the last year he's had favorites and non favorites and switched between us. Now he seems to have settled down to like most of us but absolutely adore the son.

My long winded point is that sometimes I think cats, like people, take to crazy notions in their head for little or no reason. I wonder with this guy if he was abused by a woman because he really prefers men.

[Eireann]

She came from a shelter, and they told me that she had a litter of kittens, but she caught a virus and passed it on to them; all the little babies died, and she was sick for a long time. When I brought her home, she was so freaked that she tried to climb the wall. I left her alone, isolated her in one room at night while Older Kitty slept with me, and gradually, she got used to being here.

Then she started playing. She played with everything in sight. She played with the cat toys. She played with things that weren't cat toys. She got into boxes. She hooked turds out of the litterbox and played floor hockey with them. She got into everything. She chased Older Kitty around, and sometimes Older Kitty got pissed off and attacked her. She still did it, though, even though it got her an attack from her playmate and some stern words from me.

I don't know what to think about this sudden shift in attitude. If someone were to come in here who didn't know the kitties and had never seen New Girl before, they would think that she was just a calm, maybe lazy girl. That's it. That's what I would think. Right now, she and Older Kitty are meditating on the couch. The shelter woman told me that she was "very calm", so maybe she was just working off a lot of getting-to-know-you energy. It doesn't explain the look of fear on her face, though.

[Eireann]

UPDATE!

I took kitty to the vet today. She was walking slowly around the place, and I remembered the comment about a possible broken pelvis, so I took her on in. In this country, you can just bring your pet to the office; you don't necessarily need an appointment, unless it's for surgery or something similar.

So I sat in the waiting room for almost an hour, and finally, the vet had time for me. I told him about her sudden personality change, the way she just doesn't play at all, etc.

He looked at kitty, then opened her mouth and said, "Oh, Jesus Christ!"

I said, "WHAT? WHAT?"

He showed me her teeth, which were brown and disgusting. "I'd have a personality change, too," he told me.

The teeth have to come out. She has also been coughing, which may be inhalation pneumonia (caused by the infection) or feline asthma. He recommends a bronchoscopy. This, of course, will cost more money.

So, I have to bring her in on Thursday morning, wait for the results of the X-ray (to see if anything appears on her lungs that would make a bronchoscopy a good idea), then come back in the evening to pick her up, after surgery.

So. I told the vet I didn't have much cash on me, and he didn't like that. No, sir. He didn't like that at all.

"Every time you come in, it's the same thing," he bitched. (Not true, as it happens. The last two times I was in his office, I had sufficient cash.)

I told him that if I'd known he had decided never to accept debit cards for payment, I would have, oh, REMEMBERED it, and acted accordingly. But he wanted to complain more.

"Every time you come in..." bitch, bitch, bitch.

"Look," I told him, "I don't do this to make things more difficult for you."

"Well, it does make things difficult... you wouldn't go to a store without cash. It doesn't make sense."

"Stores take cards," I pointed out.

"Not all of them."

"Most of them."

I closed the door on further bitching.

I swear, if this guy weren't a fantastic vet, I'd take my business elsewhere. I now have to withdraw money from my account to have right on hand to pay Iwannabitchallday when he does the surgery on Thursday.

On the other hand, I now know what is wrong with my girl, it's treatable, and she should be much happier afterwards.

[Broomjockey]

I swear, if this guy weren't a fantastic vet, I'd take my business elsewhere.

Maybe he'd be more sympathetic if you neutered him with his own tools. Being excellent at your job does not give you the right to be a dickface.

[Eireann]

Hee hee hee... I don't know if he'd be more sympathetic, but I doubt that he'd bitch at me anymore. Seriously, this guy runs a top-class veterinary clinic, and he thinks that all his clients should have exactly the right amount of cash with them every single damn time they bring in an animal? He should lower his prices, then.

[Eireann]

ANOTHER UPDATE!

Kitty is back home. I took her to the vet this morning. She had X-rays, then the surgery. I went to pick her up this evening.

She only had to have two teeth removed, which is great; less trauma, less time spent under anesthesia. She is awake. She is looking good.

The vet's assistant told me, though, that the X-ray revealed a shadow on one lung. They don't know what it is - maybe a tumor, maybe just an inflammation. They gave me a shitload of antibiotics to give her (one in the morning, one at night), and I'm bringing her back to the office in two weeks so they can do a follow-up.

Keep your fingers crossed that whatever the shadow was, it's just an inflammation that the antibiotics will destroy!