Slow is our little drug-kitty.

He has had a heart condition much of his life, and finally went on medications about 8 or 9 years ago (at age 7 or so). More recently his kidneys started to go, so we raised to dosage of his Fortekor, which also helps kidney function. He gets a check up at the vet every 6 months now. On the latest check we discovered a bit of arthritis in the hindquarters, and he is getting hyperthyroid problems. (swollen thyroid, weight loss, plus the blood work came back with elevated thyroid hormones)
Let the parade of drugs commence!

He still gets the Fortekor once a day (which has helped his kidneys, which are now back in the normal range).

Added to that we have the “cat-pep” pills, which are a combination of green-lipped mussel extract, Thiamine, and Taurine. Being made of seafood, there is not problem to get Slow to eat those (twice a day). Those should help with the arthritis.

And then there is the Neomercazole for the thyroid. These pills are “fun”, as you must handle them with gloves! Yikes. Thankfully mixing the pill in a bit of jelly-meat works well, and we have Slow gobbling them down (twice a day).

Yes, Slow now gets 5 pills a day! The Neomercazole is only for a month, then he will get his thyroid tested again, so we can work out if that is the right dosage.

We are going to need to get better presents for our cat sitters in the future!

Jake doesn’t let his missing leg slow him down much:

Although down is a bit trickier:

In a similar vein, this is Blaze:

It’s not as obvious in that photo, but Blaze, who is 16 (getting on for an alpaca), has collapsed hocks — her ankles are nearly on the ground, leading to that bent-kneed look in the front. She’s not so good on the hills, and not very spry or active — when the rest of the herd is running around the paddock, she tends to find a hill to stand on and just watch. So we were thoroughly startled yesterday when she sprang gracefully over the door of the chute when we tried to weigh her. Granted, the door is only about a meter high, but she did it from a standing start and cleared it with several inches to spare.

How mutant do you like your carrots ?:

They came out of our very own garden, that Stephen built, and Kerry helped us plant. (I suspect the weird shapes were the result either of overcrowding or too much nitrogen.)

In the interest of full disclosure, although the mutant carrots were from just last night, the photo above is of the garden in January, when we took out the first carrot thinnings. We have since had several weeks snacking on sugar snap peas, weeks of all the strawberries we could eat, a tomato-lanche, some lettuces, several actual full-sized bell peppers, a bunch of wax and cayenne peppers, assorted herbs, and a couple more carrots each the size of my forearm (feed a family of four with one carrot, seriously).

Although the garden spent several months in amazing lush good health, it’s currently becoming something of a sea of corruption, overrun with green shield beetles, little midgy fruit flies, strange caterpillars, and various wacky molds and fungi. Partly this is the weird weather we’ve had this year — long long dry followed by very wet — partly it’s the fact that we were taken by surprise by the amazing rampant growth and planted stuff too close together. It was physically impossible to even get to most of the tomatos, and they really didn’t get enough ventilation all packed in close together. And partly it’s because we just couldn’t keep up with the maintenance — pruning and thinning and getting all of the split or bird-pecked tomatos off and away. All-in-all, though, it’s been a tremendous success, and Stephen’s already built three additional boxes to spread things out and plant more for next year.

While I’m posting photos, here’s where the conservatory is at: not done, but getting there.

And because we’re always posting photos of the alpacas, here are a couple cat shots. Jake in his favorite spot on the beanbag:

And Azami, tucked down into the box of comforters my mom sent us (Azami sez thanks, too !):

Jake is on the mend. He had his stitches out yesterday. The wound on his hind leg is still a bit raw, but it is also improving. The main problem now is getting his mojo back.

The first day or two after the surgery Jake was acting pretty normal, but then in a moment of exuberance he tried to climb on top of the ‘fridge, and took a nasty tumble. I think that really hit his self-confidence, and since he has been quite timid.

Today, with the stitches out, he could go outside again. The first trip out (about 45 minutes) he stayed close to me as I worked on a fence near the house. Later he went out again, and with a more confident stride disappeared into the trees. When he did not come out upon calling, I figured he was probably trying to walk his patrol route of the property. 90 minutes later he reappeared, coming down out of gallop- slightly moist but pleased with himself. The first step on the road to psychological recovery.

In other news the police officer callled back. He door-knocked in the valley last night, but didn’t turn up much (as expected). At least they tried.

Jake is back home again. He ended up spending last night back at the vet. I took him in Wednesday to have the opiate-bandage removed. Seems he got the bandage soaked at some point- maybe he accidenatlly put his foot in the water bowl while stumbing around in his crate. The foot had swollen, but was trapped in the tight bandage. It was really painful, and when we got it off, the paw was really swollen, plus the bandage had rubbed his foot raw in one place. Now I nned to keep a close eye on his foot, to make sure there is no necrosis. Eve (the vet) put some Manuka honey on the wound, which should help it heal. Jake goes back Saturday for a quick checkup of that paw, then Monday the stitches come out.

Yesterday I also got a call from a very friendly and helpful police officer (our community constable). It seems they are taking the shooting seriously, and he will do some door-knocking in the region a bit later in the week. It is very nice to know that our complaint was not just tossed into the “circular file.”

We have also had four replies (of 12) from the letter drop. Three called to express their shock and horror, and give their condolences. One called to say he didn’t shoot out cat, but he does shoot any cat he sees on his place, even if it is wearing a collar.

I let the police officer know about this cat-shooter. It is NOT legal to shoot cats in that way in NZ. There are limits on what you are allowed to shoot. I  think the officer is going to have a chat with this gentleman, and that will be a good thing. We are also planning on letting the other people who own cats in our vicinity about this person’s “shoot first” policy, so that they too can express their opinions.

Just a quick note to let y’all know we picked up Jake from the vet about a half an hour ago. He’s already adapted pretty well to getting around on three legs, to the point where I think the recovery is actually going to be much faster with the leg off than it would have been with the leg splinted. After a cautious look around, he wombled over to the food bowls & had a couple bites of kibble before actually jumping into Stephen’s lap. He’s curled up there now, purring like an motor boat.

Just talked to the vet. She examined the wound after the swelling went down. The joint where the paw meets the leg is pretty much blown, all the ligaments are torn away.

The options came down to:
–Transferring him to Massey (big vet school/hospital 2 hours north of here) to attempt to reconstruct the joint and set the bone, which might or might not save the leg, and might result in arthritis down the track in the affected joint.
–Amputation at the scapula.
He is now having his leg taken off. He will be in the hospital for the next few days. Hopefully he can come home around Monday or so.

The good news is that cats can do well on 3 legs, and he is young and fit and will hopefully recover well.

The vet will try to retreive the metal fragents from the amputated leg, so we can get a better idea of what hit him. Then it is time to canvas the neighbors, and maybe call the SPCA.

So, we are in the middle of what might be a crime drama. We are waiting for the evidence tomorrow.

In brief, we came back in from checking the ‘paca Tuesday night to find Jake with a nasty laceration on his right front leg. He must have sustained the wound in a 30-minute period, and fairly close to the house (a few hundred meters). He was bleeding pretty freely, and didn’t want to put weight on the leg. We called the after-hours vet clinic, and based on the description of the wound they said he could wait for his normal vet in the morning.

In the morning the leg was badly swollen. I took him to the vet. Over the course of the day I had a number of phone conversations with our young but very helpful vet. An examination under anesthesia showed that one of the leg bones was broken. An x-ray showed that it was a nasty compound fracture, and that it was the bone-edge with probably ripped the skin. Ick. She also found a second puncture wound on the bottom of the leg. Theory at the moment- dog bite. After futher thinking and examination and the theory turned into “hit by car”.

Later that afternoon she consulted with a more senior vet who had arrived for his shift at the practice. Due to the nature of the break the prognosis was not good. Internal pinning of the bone would not work, so she was talking about either tricky-expensive external pins, or amputation.

We went in about 4 PM to have a consult and bring a drugged-up Jake home for the night. Theory update- the dog attack does not seem to make sense as Jake had no blood or fur on his razor-sharp claws (defensive wounds). The hit-by-car theory had a problem in that usually the claws are scuffed as they dig into the pavement at the moment of impact, but his were clean. But there were a number of radio-opaque objects in the x-ray, objects which might be bullet fragments.

The hopeful news is that a further analysis of the break means that a bandage-cast may work, it will just need frequent changing while the wound heals because he has both a break and a bad laceration which cannot be entombed in a cast. He goes back tomorrow, when he will put back under anesthesia and have the wound cleaned, and then wrap-set. I hope they can get some of the larger fragemts out, because if they are lead we know the cause.

If it is a bullet wound I will do a mailbox drop on the ~8 neighbors within 300 meters, the distance he could have come injured like that in that amount fo time. Hopefully they can provide some helpful info.

And needless to say, we all wish this had never happened. Jake is now living in the dog crate we got for Greyhound fostering, and is miserable. And we could really live without the vet bills right now. Sigh.

In a repeat of the last post- we are still getting lots of nasty winter weather. Tuesday and Wednesday were quite nice this week. Cool, but fine, still and sunny. Now the rain, hail, and howling southerly have come back. The alpaca are not very pleased about this whole situation, but they endure. At least they look happy when I bring them out some hay. Digesting hay produces lots of extra heat (due to the fermenation in the rumen), so it is a great food source on cold winter days. I prefer hot chocolate.

What brought up this whole comment about language was reading the weather report from the Met Service today. They have a sense of humor. Or at least of reality. In the past I have been amused at predictions of “stroppy” winds. Today Wellington has the weather prediction of “bleak and showery. strong cold southerlies.” Boy, they got that right!

In other news- at 7 AM this morning I met a horse transporter with Yvonne down at the front, and helped unload a bay mare and a grey gelding pony. Yvonne is planning to put some work into them, then sell them on. There was only supposed to be the pony coming, but apparently plans changed suddenly last night (somebody lost their grazing, and couldn’t afford to move/keep the horse). Never a dull moment!

Jake is doing much better. The limp is mostly gone. He has also decided he has become a house cat (the weather may play a role in that decision). He does not head back to the bedrooms much, he only eats from “his” bowl outside in the mud-room, and he goes to the toilet outside. The other cats are learning to deal with him, even Amaya and Azami. That is good.

So, now that we are on to weekdays, I am trying to work out my daily routine with the dog.

We have determined that he must have only been fed once a day before, for while he eats all his dinner, he only nibbles at breakfast (and what he does not eat goes away, as we are trying to follow the wolf-pack-feeding-hierarchy system).

Most of the day yesterday he was free to wander around the dining room, with the back-half of the house sealed off and full of cats. I left the living room slider open so the cats could come in and out. About lunchtime I came inside and found that Prince had discovered the joy of the couch.

Naughty Dog! We are supposed to train them to stay off the furniture, as we don’t know what the adopting home will want. So I would gently lift him off the couch while saying “Off!” And 20 minutes later, he would be back on the couch. But by the end of the day he had gotten the “off” command, which does bode well for his learning curve.

I had one close moment with the cats. Slow managed to slip into the dining room, and I had to tackle Prince as he made a lunge for him. Later that night we tried some crate training- where he was in a crate and we present cats. But that didn’t go so well, as the cats were so freaked it was kicking in his prey-drive.

We have had more success just leaving him in his crate, and letting the cats approach (or watch from a wary distance) on their own. Hopefully we can improve his cat safety level. We have another 27 days to go, so not rushing the process might help.

In other amusing animal news, last night Jake came to the living room slider and was standing up, pawing at the glass with a clear “hey! you seem to have left me outside!” So we let him in. After a bit of lap time, he curled up against the alpaca pillow. So we left him in for the night, which passed without incident. I am guessing by the time winter fully sets in, Jake will be an indoors cat every night. Sure, he loves the rough farm life. But cuddling up to a fluffy pillow afterwards, well, that is just his due, right?