Harriet's in the hospital

Karen wrote:
I sure hope both Harriet
and Tycho get over their respective hair problems. They are so miserable

Me, too. Best wishes to both Harriet and Tycho and I hope they get to
go back to their respective homes on Saturday on the fast road to
recovery.

Candace

Karen wrote:

Maybe when she comes back there is a little comfortable room she can be in
for a while until she is feeling better. I know it's a worry. My mom's Tycho
is in the hospital tonight. He has what appears to be a big chunk of hair in
his stomach. It worries me because that is what happened with Grant but the
hair was stuck there because of the stomach cancer. I sure hope both Harriet
and Tycho get over their respective hair problems. They are so miserable

How is your mother's cat? The first time this happened to Harriet last
year, the vet said there was a massive amount of hair inside. This
time it seemed to be more stool, but I'm sure there was plenty of hair
as well.

I called the vet at 9:00am, and was told to call back at 11:30 because
they were doing the rounds in the hospital. Called back a little after
11:30 and was told I could pick her up.

When I finally got to see her, she was in her crate and looking *much*
better. Instead of being huddled in a ball in the back, she was right
up front, looking relaxed and alert. Walking back to work she kept
moving around in the crate to see what was going on outside. I stopped
and put the crate on the sidewalk for a bit so she could watch a bunch
of pigeons & other small birds in the street. She seemed very
interested in what she saw. She didn't cry, hiss or growl like she
often does on trips to/from the vet.

When we got back to work I opened the door of her crate and she came
right out and immediately began exploring, checking out the entire
store. I guess she wanted to make sure everything was the same. I
went downstairs to put her crate away and when I went back up, she ran
over to the top of the stairs, flung herself down and began rolling
around like she always does when I come up.

The prescribed a diet food - Eukanuba Low-Residue. They gave me a bag
of dry and I asked about canned, so they gave me some cans to try as
well. Harriet has always preferred dry food, but I'd like to get her
to eat more canned. She does drink plenty of water. They also gave me
Lactulose, and she's going to get 1cc daily, starting Monday. She's to
stay on it unless they tell me to stop giving it to her. I'm already
imagining the fun I'll have on Monday squirting that into her mouth.
She actually is pretty good at taking meds but I've never had to give
her a liquid before.

Her blood tests and x-rays were all normal. There was no sign that she
had ever broken or fractured anything and there was nothing unusual
about any of the blood tests. She will have to have a dental cleaning
and have some teeth pulled, and I'll set that up next month when both
Harriet & Stinky are due for their annual shots. Since they're in a
public place, I make sure to have their shots up-to-dat. Harriet is a
biter, and so far I've had two customers who demanded to see her
medical records. Fortunately they didn't make any kind of fuss after
seeing she was vaccinated.

Harriet is upstairs now eating some of the Eukanuba dry. She dove
right into it and didn't seem to notice it was a new food. Stinky will
also have to eat it, because Harriet likes getting into Stinky's
leftovers.

I hope Tycho comes home feeling just as well. Harriet is SO HAPPY to
be home!

--
Liz

in article , Elizabeth
Blake at wrote on 8/6/05 11:53AM:

Karen wrote:

Maybe when she comes back there is a little comfortable room she can be in
for a while until she is feeling better. I know it's a worry. My mom's Tycho
is in the hospital tonight. He has what appears to be a big chunk of hair in
his stomach. It worries me because that is what happened with Grant but the
hair was stuck there because of the stomach cancer. I sure hope both Harriet
and Tycho get over their respective hair problems. They are so miserable

How is your mother's cat? The first time this happened to Harriet last
year, the vet said there was a massive amount of hair inside. This
time it seemed to be more stool, but I'm sure there was plenty of hair
as well.

I called the vet at 9:00am, and was told to call back at 11:30 because
they were doing the rounds in the hospital. Called back a little after
11:30 and was told I could pick her up.

When I finally got to see her, she was in her crate and looking *much*
better. Instead of being huddled in a ball in the back, she was right
up front, looking relaxed and alert. Walking back to work she kept
moving around in the crate to see what was going on outside. I stopped
and put the crate on the sidewalk for a bit so she could watch a bunch
of pigeons & other small birds in the street. She seemed very
interested in what she saw. She didn't cry, hiss or growl like she
often does on trips to/from the vet.

When we got back to work I opened the door of her crate and she came
right out and immediately began exploring, checking out the entire
store. I guess she wanted to make sure everything was the same. I
went downstairs to put her crate away and when I went back up, she ran
over to the top of the stairs, flung herself down and began rolling
around like she always does when I come up.

The prescribed a diet food - Eukanuba Low-Residue. They gave me a bag
of dry and I asked about canned, so they gave me some cans to try as
well. Harriet has always preferred dry food, but I'd like to get her
to eat more canned. She does drink plenty of water. They also gave me
Lactulose, and she's going to get 1cc daily, starting Monday. She's to
stay on it unless they tell me to stop giving it to her. I'm already
imagining the fun I'll have on Monday squirting that into her mouth.
She actually is pretty good at taking meds but I've never had to give
her a liquid before.

Her blood tests and x-rays were all normal. There was no sign that she
had ever broken or fractured anything and there was nothing unusual
about any of the blood tests. She will have to have a dental cleaning
and have some teeth pulled, and I'll set that up next month when both
Harriet & Stinky are due for their annual shots. Since they're in a
public place, I make sure to have their shots up-to-dat. Harriet is a
biter, and so far I've had two customers who demanded to see her
medical records. Fortunately they didn't make any kind of fuss after
seeing she was vaccinated.

Harriet is upstairs now eating some of the Eukanuba dry. She dove
right into it and didn't seem to notice it was a new food. Stinky will
also have to eat it, because Harriet likes getting into Stinky's
leftovers.

I hope Tycho comes home feeling just as well. Harriet is SO HAPPY to
be home!

--
Liz

Well, she called twice this morning. First he hadn't done anything and now
he's done some but not enough. I think they are going to give him more
enemas. Mom is SO despondent. I sure hope he comes out happy as Harriet. I
will tell her to ask about the diet. His hair is very long and very course.
Not like persian hair but like long regular short hair. If he got water on
him, it would just roooolll off and he would be dry as a bone. I'm glad
Harriet is feeling so well. Thanks for the update.

"Karen" wrote in message
...

Well, she called twice this morning. First he hadn't done anything and now
he's done some but not enough. I think they are going to give him more
enemas. Mom is SO despondent. I sure hope he comes out happy as Harriet. I
will tell her to ask about the diet. His hair is very long and very
course.
Not like persian hair but like long regular short hair. If he got water on
him, it would just roooolll off and he would be dry as a bone. I'm glad
Harriet is feeling so well. Thanks for the update.

Harriet is short haired, and we're always surprised that she has such bad
hairball problems because we rarely see her cleaning herself. When we first
got her, the fur on her back, right before her tail, always looked greasy.
The fur actually looked like it had a part in it. Her fur always looked
messy, like she just woke up! She really *hates* being brushed but I still
do it sometimes when I'm feeling suicidal. In the last couple of years her
fur has looked better, but she's definitely a slob as far as cats go.

I think Harriet ended up getting three enemas. It might have been more, but
I recall the vet mentioning three specific times. She said her last stool
was loose, but that was expected because of the enemas. I'm guessing they
gave her something else because she said not to start the Lactulose until
Monday. She may have to be on that long term.

I hope your mom gets some good news about Tycho soon.

--
Liz

Elizabeth Blake wrote:

Harriet is SO HAPPY to be home!

Yay for Harriet! I've always meant to ask you, Liz, don't the store
cats ever try to get out or don't you worry they will somehow be let
out of the store? It must be hard to keep track of their whereabouts.

Candace

in article , Elizabeth
Blake at wrote on 8/6/05 7:46 PM:

"Karen" wrote in message
...

Well, she called twice this morning. First he hadn't done anything and now
he's done some but not enough. I think they are going to give him more
enemas. Mom is SO despondent. I sure hope he comes out happy as Harriet. I
will tell her to ask about the diet. His hair is very long and very
course.
Not like persian hair but like long regular short hair. If he got water on
him, it would just roooolll off and he would be dry as a bone. I'm glad
Harriet is feeling so well. Thanks for the update.

Harriet is short haired, and we're always surprised that she has such bad
hairball problems because we rarely see her cleaning herself. When we first
got her, the fur on her back, right before her tail, always looked greasy.
The fur actually looked like it had a part in it. Her fur always looked
messy, like she just woke up! She really *hates* being brushed but I still
do it sometimes when I'm feeling suicidal. In the last couple of years her
fur has looked better, but she's definitely a slob as far as cats go.

I think Harriet ended up getting three enemas. It might have been more, but
I recall the vet mentioning three specific times. She said her last stool
was loose, but that was expected because of the enemas. I'm guessing they
gave her something else because she said not to start the Lactulose until
Monday. She may have to be on that long term.

I hope your mom gets some good news about Tycho soon.

--
Liz


She went and visited him today. They were hopeful because the last enema
they encountered "some resistance". But he will have to stay again. She took
a dirty old catnip toy he likes and some of his food (like they don't have
that there ) She pet him and he thought he was going home. I don't know
who is more miserable I sure hope it turns out OK. I don't see how the
enemas will help with the hair in his stomach. He definitely needs purrs.
I'm glad Harriet is home and OK.

"Candace" wrote in message
ups.com...
Elizabeth Blake wrote:

Harriet is SO HAPPY to be home!

Yay for Harriet! I've always meant to ask you, Liz, don't the store
cats ever try to get out or don't you worry they will somehow be let
out of the store? It must be hard to keep track of their whereabouts.

Candace

There are actually two doors to get through to get inside the store. The
first one (from the street) opens into a tiny vestibule, and then there's
the door into the store. When the weather is nice the inner door is propped
open, but when it's very cold or very hot (air conditioning on) the inner
door is also shut. The outer door currently doesn't close completely unless
you really push it. I've been told that Harriet has stepped outside a
couple of times but always came right back in. It does worry me that one
day she might decide to go for a walk, but so far she's just stepped in/out.
I don't worry about Stinky at all, since she's afraid of everything and
mostly stays downstairs in the basement. She has bouts of (relative)
fearlessness, and will sometimes go up into the actual store while it's
open. If it's quiet, she'll walk around for a bit and might even let a
customer approach her if they do it slowly. If the inner door is closed,
she might even go up to that and look out at the world. As soon as someone
approaches the outer door she runs to the back of the store.

It's usually not hard to find Harriet. She has her favorite places and
doesn't really hide. Stinky is another matter. She can manage to disappear
completely. She loves to climb ladder and walk on pipes and ducts near the
ceiling, and if she follows the pipes to the front of the basement she can
hide there unseen. Whenever she goes to the vet, I have to make an early
appointment so I can be the first one at work. Once she's eaten her
breakfast, she goes to one of her hiding places and sleeps for the rest of
the morning/afternoon. She lost her collar a couple of months ago, so I
can't even hear her bell jingling to give me a hint of her location. She
likes an all-elastic collar and I haven't been able to find any.

My cat at home, Tiger, used to be the store cat (at another location) and
one night she did decide to talk a walk, while my boss had the door open and
was loading his car with stuff. He didn't realize she had slipped out and
he locked up and went home. I came in the next morning and Tiger was GONE.
I spent the next three weeks crying, putting up posters and searching for
her. She was missing for three weeks and when we recovered her, I
immediately took her home. I'm still amazed we got her back, as there were
reports that she was seen a couple of times by an extremely busy road two
blocks away. I think she had been spending most of her time in an empty
building right behind us and was able to keep out of trouble most of the
time.
--
Liz

Elizabeth Blake wrote:
snip


I hope Tycho comes home feeling just as well. Harriet is SO HAPPY to
be home!

--
Liz

Glad she is home and feeling better. Let's hope the new food keeps her
moving freely.

-L.

Elizabeth Blake wrote:

My cat at home, Tiger, used to be the store cat (at another location) and
one night she did decide to talk a walk, while my boss had the door open and
was loading his car with stuff. He didn't realize she had slipped out and
he locked up and went home. I came in the next morning and Tiger was GONE.
I spent the next three weeks crying, putting up posters and searching for
her. She was missing for three weeks and when we recovered her, I
immediately took her home. I'm still amazed we got her back, as there were
reports that she was seen a couple of times by an extremely busy road two
blocks away. I think she had been spending most of her time in an empty
building right behind us and was able to keep out of trouble most of the
time.

I don't think I would have the temperament to have store kitties
around. I would worry about them all the time and spend all my time
looking for them. I worry about my own house cats getting out and
they're horrified of the doors anyway but that doesn't stop my worrying
when we have company (who the cats hide from anyway, usually). I
always like seeing store/business cats, though, because I know that
those are kitties who may not have gotten a home otherwise.

Are you the one primarily responsible for the cats' well-being? What
would happen if you ever got a different job (see, I'm worrying
already).

Candace