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rebooting the cat
About every week and a half or so, Erik loses interest in food (and often throws up). When this happens, if it continues for the better part of a day, I give him subcutaneous fluids and his appetite comes back. Normally he's sufficiently hydrated that the fluids don't seem to be needed, and he fights me on them, so I pretty much save them for when there's benefit. This is relatively recent; I think it's happened three or four times.
This happened again today, so since Monday is my vet's usual day in the local office, I called to ask if she thought there would be any benefit to seeing him while he's in this state. I mean, I don't have an understanding of what's going on here; I just have a reset heuristic that seems to work. She suggested I bring him in.
It turns out he has a fever. Cats are warmer than people (well, these cats and this person, anyway), so I hadn't noticed anything on my own. Once she pointed it out I agreed that his nose does feel warmer than usual. She says fever = inflamation or infection, and he has chronic problems ending in "itis" anyway, so we'll assume antibiotics are in order. (I do hope we aren't helping to create supergerm here.) He is also to get fluids daily for a while.
While examining his nether regions, she also discovered a tapeworm segment. Err, how does an indoor cat get a tapeworm? She said that if a cat eats a flea the flea's eggs can somehow, through a process I decided not to investigate, result in a tapeworm. Um, ok. We have no flea problems either, but I suppose it only takes one. This is treated with a single pill, so ok. At least, she assured me, she was pretty sure the worm hadn't been stealing too much food from Erik -- the guy needs as much as I can get into him!
Erik is a peculiar patient in one way. He doesn't like the vet's office, of course, and will cower under chairs when he can, but he also purrs through much of the exam. Weird! Tonight when he wasn't on the table he sat in my lap, which is unusual in that location.
This happened again today, so since Monday is my vet's usual day in the local office, I called to ask if she thought there would be any benefit to seeing him while he's in this state. I mean, I don't have an understanding of what's going on here; I just have a reset heuristic that seems to work. She suggested I bring him in.
It turns out he has a fever. Cats are warmer than people (well, these cats and this person, anyway), so I hadn't noticed anything on my own. Once she pointed it out I agreed that his nose does feel warmer than usual. She says fever = inflamation or infection, and he has chronic problems ending in "itis" anyway, so we'll assume antibiotics are in order. (I do hope we aren't helping to create supergerm here.) He is also to get fluids daily for a while.
While examining his nether regions, she also discovered a tapeworm segment. Err, how does an indoor cat get a tapeworm? She said that if a cat eats a flea the flea's eggs can somehow, through a process I decided not to investigate, result in a tapeworm. Um, ok. We have no flea problems either, but I suppose it only takes one. This is treated with a single pill, so ok. At least, she assured me, she was pretty sure the worm hadn't been stealing too much food from Erik -- the guy needs as much as I can get into him!
Erik is a peculiar patient in one way. He doesn't like the vet's office, of course, and will cower under chairs when he can, but he also purrs through much of the exam. Weird! Tonight when he wasn't on the table he sat in my lap, which is unusual in that location.
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AFAIK, the 'why' is still being guessed at, but it does seem a plausible guess to explain this reasonably-well-known phenomenon. (Well known to people who study cats, AFAICT, but still a surprise to a fair number of cat owners.)
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