Worried About Archer

I wrote a while back about Archer breaking his leg. I didn't know he was
using his litter box when I hit the garage door opener and he panicked at
the sound, went flying into the house and hit his leg on the door sill (we
have an attached garage and keep the litter boxes there - the cats use a cat
door to go from the house to the garage and vice versa). We immediately
took him to the emergency vet where they x-rayed the leg, gave him pain
meds, and put a cast on, then sent him home with pain pills and a muscle
relaxer. He saw his regular vet two days later and Dr. French said the cast
looked fine so we would leave it on. After three weeks I brought him in to
the vet for his check up as I was instructed. Dr. French took another x-ray
and said the break was healing fine but he needed to be in the cast for
another three weeks (this was last Tuesday). In order to check if the cast
had slipped, he took the tape off from the bottom to see where Archer's toes
were. When he did he saw that Archer's toes were very, very swollen because
the cast was too tight (either they'd put is on too tight not allowing for
additional swelling of the leg, or Archer had grown in those three weeks, I
don't know). [Side note - Archer is *such* a sweet boy that he licked my
hand while Dr. French was poking at his toes and hurting him - he just
licked harder and harder the more he hurt sob!] Dr. French took the
too-tight cast off, put another cast on and sent him home.

I was barely able to see Archer's toes with the new cast, so couldn't judge
if the swelling had gone down after a few days, but Archer was determined to
get that cast off himself. He would climb up the inside of the cage, stick
the cast through the bars, and then turn around and put his front legs on
the bottom of the cage and tug his leg trying to pull it out of the cast. I
jumped up and got him loose every time, but by Saturday, the cast was
halfway off and turned around backwards so I brought him in again. The vet
(Dr. Hilliard this time) asked me to leave him there for a while because she
didn't have the free time to put on a new cast while I waited. I went home,
and two hours later she called me and said that she had taken the cast off
and the skin on Archer's leg was almost flayed and on one small spot the
skin was gone - she assumed from him rubbing against the inside of the cast
while he was trying to get it off. She asked that I leave Archer there over
the weekend so they wouldn't have to put a cast back on right away - they
would give him pain shots and antibiotics.

Yesterday morning I talked to Dr. French and he said that Archer was putting
weight on his leg and the spot where it was broken looked pretty strong. He
said we could leave the cast off as long as we kept Archer confined to the
kennel so he couldn't run and jump around. He gave us Silvadine to apply to
the raw spots.

Last night I was looking at his foot closely. He was moving the foot and
toes OK - stretching them out and separating them - but, although the
swelling had gone down, the toes seemed to be darker than usual and the pink
part of his claws, the "quick", was black. I've never had a good sense of
smell - don't know why, but it takes a very strong odor for me to smell it -
but Ben said that his leg was stinky from being in the cast so long. Maybe
that's it, but I keep flashing back to when Bandit was burned and her flesh
had turned necrotic. I don't see any sores or raw spots on his foot (the
scarped skin is just at the knee joint (and BTW doesn't look nearly as bad
as the vet described - it's just pink like when you rub a sore spot on your
foot from a too-tight shoe). I'm not seeing anything on the foot that looks
like it's dying off or anything - I'm just worried about the bruised-looking
toes and the black in his claws.

I just got off the phone with the vet's office - Dr. French won't be there
until this afternoon, and Dr. Hilliard didn't see Archer when he was
discharged. The tech gave me the standard "bring him in", but I can't get
off work without getting into serious trouble (the only other admin is out
for three weeks). I can take him in after work tonight, but was hoping to
get some insights here about what you think might be going on with Archer's
foot. Should I say damn it all and leave work anyway to take him in, or do
you think he'll be OK until 6:00?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters he http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"CatNipped" wrote

Should I say damn it all and leave work anyway to take him in, or do
you think he'll be OK until 6:00?

He should be fine, he essentially just left the vet. But about this time, I
would
be having serious second thoughts about this vet. They should have noticed
this black stuff. I hope he is okay.

"cybercat" wrote in message
...

"CatNipped" wrote

Should I say damn it all and leave work anyway to take him in, or do
you think he'll be OK until 6:00?

He should be fine, he essentially just left the vet. But about this time,
I would
be having serious second thoughts about this vet. They should have noticed
this black stuff. I hope he is okay.

They may have noticed it, thought it was normal after having a cast off, and
just not told me that. I'll wait to hear from Dr. French (it's hard to be
mad at the man who came to my house to help Bandit to the Bridge - he was so
gentle and so sympathetic). I know I'm a worry wart, but I'll only feel
better after talking to him or letting him look at Archer.

Hugs,

CatNipped

I just talked to Dr. French and he said he didn't see anything to worry
about yesterday when Archer was released, but I could bring him in the
afternoon so he could take a look and he won't charge me for the visit.

Hugs,

CatNipped

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I wrote a while back about Archer breaking his leg. I didn't know he was
using his litter box when I hit the garage door opener and he panicked at
the sound, went flying into the house and hit his leg on the door sill (we
have an attached garage and keep the litter boxes there - the cats use a
cat door to go from the house to the garage and vice versa). We
immediately took him to the emergency vet where they x-rayed the leg, gave
him pain meds, and put a cast on, then sent him home with pain pills and a
muscle relaxer. He saw his regular vet two days later and Dr. French said
the cast looked fine so we would leave it on. After three weeks I brought
him in to the vet for his check up as I was instructed. Dr. French took
another x-ray and said the break was healing fine but he needed to be in
the cast for another three weeks (this was last Tuesday). In order to
check if the cast had slipped, he took the tape off from the bottom to see
where Archer's toes were. When he did he saw that Archer's toes were very,
very swollen because the cast was too tight (either they'd put is on too
tight not allowing for additional swelling of the leg, or Archer had grown
in those three weeks, I don't know). [Side note - Archer is *such* a sweet
boy that he licked my hand while Dr. French was poking at his toes and
hurting him - he just licked harder and harder the more he hurt sob!]
Dr. French took the too-tight cast off, put another cast on and sent him
home.

I was barely able to see Archer's toes with the new cast, so couldn't
judge if the swelling had gone down after a few days, but Archer was
determined to get that cast off himself. He would climb up the inside of
the cage, stick the cast through the bars, and then turn around and put
his front legs on the bottom of the cage and tug his leg trying to pull it
out of the cast. I jumped up and got him loose every time, but by
Saturday, the cast was halfway off and turned around backwards so I
brought him in again. The vet (Dr. Hilliard this time) asked me to leave
him there for a while because she didn't have the free time to put on a
new cast while I waited. I went home, and two hours later she called me
and said that she had taken the cast off and the skin on Archer's leg was
almost flayed and on one small spot the skin was gone - she assumed from
him rubbing against the inside of the cast while he was trying to get it
off. She asked that I leave Archer there over the weekend so they
wouldn't have to put a cast back on right away - they would give him pain
shots and antibiotics.

Yesterday morning I talked to Dr. French and he said that Archer was
putting weight on his leg and the spot where it was broken looked pretty
strong. He said we could leave the cast off as long as we kept Archer
confined to the kennel so he couldn't run and jump around. He gave us
Silvadine to apply to the raw spots.

Last night I was looking at his foot closely. He was moving the foot and
toes OK - stretching them out and separating them - but, although the
swelling had gone down, the toes seemed to be darker than usual and the
pink part of his claws, the "quick", was black. I've never had a good
sense of smell - don't know why, but it takes a very strong odor for me to
smell it - but Ben said that his leg was stinky from being in the cast so
long. Maybe that's it, but I keep flashing back to when Bandit was burned
and her flesh had turned necrotic. I don't see any sores or raw spots on
his foot (the scarped skin is just at the knee joint (and BTW doesn't look
nearly as bad as the vet described - it's just pink like when you rub a
sore spot on your foot from a too-tight shoe). I'm not seeing anything on
the foot that looks like it's dying off or anything - I'm just worried
about the bruised-looking toes and the black in his claws.

I just got off the phone with the vet's office - Dr. French won't be there
until this afternoon, and Dr. Hilliard didn't see Archer when he was
discharged. The tech gave me the standard "bring him in", but I can't get
off work without getting into serious trouble (the only other admin is out
for three weeks). I can take him in after work tonight, but was hoping to
get some insights here about what you think might be going on with
Archer's foot. Should I say damn it all and leave work anyway to take him
in, or do you think he'll be OK until 6:00?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters he http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I just talked to Dr. French and he said he didn't see anything to worry
about yesterday when Archer was released, but I could bring him in the
afternoon so he could take a look and he won't charge me for the visit.


Excellent.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

This is so stupid I'm embarrassed to even tell it - but in fairness to those
who were worried about Archer, I will. I brought Archer in to see Dr.
French about his toes and claws being black, and Dr. French fixed it right
away - he took his thumbnail and scraped off the dirty goop that the tape
had left on Archer's foot from the cast! :O!!!

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/


"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I wrote a while back about Archer breaking his leg. I didn't know he was
using his litter box when I hit the garage door opener and he panicked at
the sound, went flying into the house and hit his leg on the door sill (we
have an attached garage and keep the litter boxes there - the cats use a
cat door to go from the house to the garage and vice versa). We
immediately took him to the emergency vet where they x-rayed the leg, gave
him pain meds, and put a cast on, then sent him home with pain pills and a
muscle relaxer. He saw his regular vet two days later and Dr. French said
the cast looked fine so we would leave it on. After three weeks I brought
him in to the vet for his check up as I was instructed. Dr. French took
another x-ray and said the break was healing fine but he needed to be in
the cast for another three weeks (this was last Tuesday). In order to
check if the cast had slipped, he took the tape off from the bottom to see
where Archer's toes were. When he did he saw that Archer's toes were very,
very swollen because the cast was too tight (either they'd put is on too
tight not allowing for additional swelling of the leg, or Archer had grown
in those three weeks, I don't know). [Side note - Archer is *such* a sweet
boy that he licked my hand while Dr. French was poking at his toes and
hurting him - he just licked harder and harder the more he hurt sob!]
Dr. French took the too-tight cast off, put another cast on and sent him
home.

I was barely able to see Archer's toes with the new cast, so couldn't
judge if the swelling had gone down after a few days, but Archer was
determined to get that cast off himself. He would climb up the inside of
the cage, stick the cast through the bars, and then turn around and put
his front legs on the bottom of the cage and tug his leg trying to pull it
out of the cast. I jumped up and got him loose every time, but by
Saturday, the cast was halfway off and turned around backwards so I
brought him in again. The vet (Dr. Hilliard this time) asked me to leave
him there for a while because she didn't have the free time to put on a
new cast while I waited. I went home, and two hours later she called me
and said that she had taken the cast off and the skin on Archer's leg was
almost flayed and on one small spot the skin was gone - she assumed from
him rubbing against the inside of the cast while he was trying to get it
off. She asked that I leave Archer there over the weekend so they
wouldn't have to put a cast back on right away - they would give him pain
shots and antibiotics.

Yesterday morning I talked to Dr. French and he said that Archer was
putting weight on his leg and the spot where it was broken looked pretty
strong. He said we could leave the cast off as long as we kept Archer
confined to the kennel so he couldn't run and jump around. He gave us
Silvadine to apply to the raw spots.

Last night I was looking at his foot closely. He was moving the foot and
toes OK - stretching them out and separating them - but, although the
swelling had gone down, the toes seemed to be darker than usual and the
pink part of his claws, the "quick", was black. I've never had a good
sense of smell - don't know why, but it takes a very strong odor for me to
smell it - but Ben said that his leg was stinky from being in the cast so
long. Maybe that's it, but I keep flashing back to when Bandit was burned
and her flesh had turned necrotic. I don't see any sores or raw spots on
his foot (the scarped skin is just at the knee joint (and BTW doesn't look
nearly as bad as the vet described - it's just pink like when you rub a
sore spot on your foot from a too-tight shoe). I'm not seeing anything on
the foot that looks like it's dying off or anything - I'm just worried
about the bruised-looking toes and the black in his claws.

I just got off the phone with the vet's office - Dr. French won't be there
until this afternoon, and Dr. Hilliard didn't see Archer when he was
discharged. The tech gave me the standard "bring him in", but I can't get
off work without getting into serious trouble (the only other admin is out
for three weeks). I can take him in after work tonight, but was hoping to
get some insights here about what you think might be going on with
Archer's foot. Should I say damn it all and leave work anyway to take him
in, or do you think he'll be OK until 6:00?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters he http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
This is so stupid I'm embarrassed to even tell it - but in fairness to
those who were worried about Archer, I will. I brought Archer in to see
Dr. French about his toes and claws being black, and Dr. French fixed it
right away - he took his thumbnail and scraped off the dirty goop that the
tape had left on Archer's foot from the cast! :O!!!



You're just the best Cat Mom Ever, Lori. Love, Nancy



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:42:21 -0500, CatNipped wrote:

This is so stupid I'm embarrassed to even tell it - but in fairness to those
who were worried about Archer, I will. I brought Archer in to see Dr.
French about his toes and claws being black, and Dr. French fixed it right
away - he took his thumbnail and scraped off the dirty goop that the tape
had left on Archer's foot from the cast! :O!!!


Hooooray! A lucky day at last. Purrs and good wishes. MLB

"Matthew" wrote in message
...

Lori I am going to say one word "MOMMY"

Be proud you acted like "MOMMY". Archer is in good hands and you proved
it.

PS let me guess when your old man or you children are sick you cater to
their every want and need don't you. :^) MOMMY

Yep, but I'm worse than MOMMY - I'm MOMMY *and* GRANDMOMMY!! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped



"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
This is so stupid I'm embarrassed to even tell it - but in fairness to
those who were worried about Archer, I will. I brought Archer in to see
Dr. French about his toes and claws being black, and Dr. French fixed it
right away - he took his thumbnail and scraped off the dirty goop that
the tape had left on Archer's foot from the cast! :O!!!

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/


"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
I wrote a while back about Archer breaking his leg. I didn't know he was
using his litter box when I hit the garage door opener and he panicked at
the sound, went flying into the house and hit his leg on the door sill
(we have an attached garage and keep the litter boxes there - the cats
use a cat door to go from the house to the garage and vice versa). We
immediately took him to the emergency vet where they x-rayed the leg,
gave him pain meds, and put a cast on, then sent him home with pain pills
and a muscle relaxer. He saw his regular vet two days later and Dr.
French said the cast looked fine so we would leave it on. After three
weeks I brought him in to the vet for his check up as I was instructed.
Dr. French took another x-ray and said the break was healing fine but he
needed to be in the cast for another three weeks (this was last Tuesday).
In order to check if the cast had slipped, he took the tape off from the
bottom to see where Archer's toes were. When he did he saw that Archer's
toes were very, very swollen because the cast was too tight (either
they'd put is on too tight not allowing for additional swelling of the
leg, or Archer had grown in those three weeks, I don't know). [Side
note - Archer is *such* a sweet boy that he licked my hand while Dr.
French was poking at his toes and hurting him - he just licked harder and
harder the more he hurt sob!] Dr. French took the too-tight cast off,
put another cast on and sent him home.

I was barely able to see Archer's toes with the new cast, so couldn't
judge if the swelling had gone down after a few days, but Archer was
determined to get that cast off himself. He would climb up the inside
of the cage, stick the cast through the bars, and then turn around and
put his front legs on the bottom of the cage and tug his leg trying to
pull it out of the cast. I jumped up and got him loose every time, but
by Saturday, the cast was halfway off and turned around backwards so I
brought him in again. The vet (Dr. Hilliard this time) asked me to
leave him there for a while because she didn't have the free time to put
on a new cast while I waited. I went home, and two hours later she
called me and said that she had taken the cast off and the skin on
Archer's leg was almost flayed and on one small spot the skin was gone -
she assumed from him rubbing against the inside of the cast while he was
trying to get it off. She asked that I leave Archer there over the
weekend so they wouldn't have to put a cast back on right away - they
would give him pain shots and antibiotics.

Yesterday morning I talked to Dr. French and he said that Archer was
putting weight on his leg and the spot where it was broken looked pretty
strong. He said we could leave the cast off as long as we kept Archer
confined to the kennel so he couldn't run and jump around. He gave us
Silvadine to apply to the raw spots.

Last night I was looking at his foot closely. He was moving the foot
and toes OK - stretching them out and separating them - but, although
the swelling had gone down, the toes seemed to be darker than usual and
the pink part of his claws, the "quick", was black. I've never had a
good sense of smell - don't know why, but it takes a very strong odor
for me to smell it - but Ben said that his leg was stinky from being in
the cast so long. Maybe that's it, but I keep flashing back to when
Bandit was burned and her flesh had turned necrotic. I don't see any
sores or raw spots on his foot (the scarped skin is just at the knee
joint (and BTW doesn't look nearly as bad as the vet described - it's
just pink like when you rub a sore spot on your foot from a too-tight
shoe). I'm not seeing anything on the foot that looks like it's dying
off or anything - I'm just worried about the bruised-looking toes and
the black in his claws.

I just got off the phone with the vet's office - Dr. French won't be
there until this afternoon, and Dr. Hilliard didn't see Archer when he
was discharged. The tech gave me the standard "bring him in", but I
can't get off work without getting into serious trouble (the only other
admin is out for three weeks). I can take him in after work tonight,
but was hoping to get some insights here about what you think might be
going on with Archer's foot. Should I say damn it all and leave work
anyway to take him in, or do you think he'll be OK until 6:00?

--
Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters he http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/

"cybercat" wrote in message
.. .

"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
This is so stupid I'm embarrassed to even tell it - but in fairness to
those who were worried about Archer, I will. I brought Archer in to see
Dr. French about his toes and claws being black, and Dr. French fixed it
right away - he took his thumbnail and scraped off the dirty goop that
the tape had left on Archer's foot from the cast! :O!!!



You're just the best Cat Mom Ever, Lori. Love, Nancy

Yep, just not the sharpest tool in the shed! ;

Hugs,

CatNipped




--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com