Secrets of the Cat_ Its Lore, Legend, and Lives - Barbara Holland [86]
Occasionally a vet will recommend a minute dosage of aspirin, but otherwise we may consider it cat poison; it hits their livers. If you drop one on the floor, or Tylenol, or ibuprofen, pick it up.
Pick everything up. More cats than get poisoned swallow, in an experimental way, unsuitable small objects. Threaded needles are lethally appealing. String in the intestine can be a killer, and rubber bands. The little black cat loves rubber bands, which appear all over this house without human agency; she hooks them over her lower teeth, pulls them down with her paw, and lets them go with a snap, a game so charming and harmless-looking that I feel like a monster snatching them away. Buttons. Paperclips. Safety pins. These otherwise adult creatures have no more sense than a two-year-old.
Open the mouth of a choking cat to see if you can see the problem and grab it with fingers or tweezers. If not, hold cat upside down and shake. If that doesn’t help, try the Heimlich maneuver: holding cat upside down, pressed to your chest with your arms if you’re alone, put a hand on each side of the chest and upper ribs and give a sharp squeeze. Get to the vet for help if possible. Even if the item goes clear on down, get to the vet; a small, smooth object might complete its journey, or it might not.
As with two-year-olds, when we see a cat playing with something, we go find out what it is.
Burns: Ice, cold compresses, or a twenty-minute cold bath.
Convulsions: Caused by various things, including simple stress. Just try to keep him from hurting himself, and if it lasts more than five minutes or he has another one within the hour, to the vet.
Heatstroke: Panting, weakness, staggering. Cool cat instantly with hose or basin of cold water, and think shame to have let it happen. Even with the windows open, a cat in a carrier can easily die in a hot car.
Wounds: Clip the hair from around it and clean with mild soap and water, no disinfectants. Abrasions and scratches usually heal by themselves, but bites and other punctures go to the vet, because they abscess. Actually, we often don’t know they’re there at all until they do.
Bleeding: Pressure bandage. If it bleeds through, hold it there and slap another on top. Tourniquets to be used only in darkest emergency and with great care, releasing frequently.
Broken legs: A dangling broken leg can be splinted with a pencil, table knife, squill of rolled paper, anything stiff and handy, to prevent tissue damage on the way to the vet. Tie it above and below the break, gently.
General injury: Wrap cat in towel or jacket or whatever and put it carefully in a box or slide in onto something stiff for carrying to the vet.
Electrical shock, from biting through lamp cords: Mouth-to-nose respiration. Close cat’s mouth, take a breath, place your mouth over its nose and exhale very gently, then let the air back out. Proceed gently and slowly, ten to fifteen breaths per minute. Coat electrical cords with vinegar or Tabasco.
Diarrhea: Half a teaspoon Kaopectate after each trip to the box. If it persists or the cat seems otherwise ill, you can guess where to go next.
Constipation: A dab of Vaseline on the nose, to be licked off.
Hair balls: A splash of olive oil in the dinner.
Vitamins: From the vet, not the medicine cabinet, for pregnant and nursing mothers. Not to pop them in indiscriminately; too much is poisonous.
Other pills: When the vet says give him all of them, give him all of them. Resist the temptation known to us all to save out a few of those broad-spectrum antibiotics for an emergency, now that the cat is well again and howling for its dinner.
One popular book on cat care recommends regular doses of Valium for nervous or aggressive cats, but let’s discuss it with our own vet first before sharing our tranqs around.
As the years begin to pile up on our cat, he may lose his relish for dinner. His teeth may need work. Probably they need cleaning. Or his sense of smell may be clouding over; he won’t eat what he can’t smell.