Sam Kitten (Update on the soon to be amputee)

Sam is home! When one of the assistance got him out at some point, he lunged at her, clung to her shirt and did not want to let go. He had wanted to be petted on. He loves attention as he has had mine for so long. Syringe fed, taught to drink water, slept beside me in my bed. They said he would cry out all night until someone came to hold him and love on him.

I had to swiftly leave my classes as soon as they let out to go get him. When he saw me, he perked up, turned his head a couple of times to figure it out and cried out loudly, rubbing on the edge of his cage. He had missed his Momma so much. I got him out for a little bit only to have to put him in my carry cage for transport. He was just purring so loudly. The bill was about $297 (The “I’ll make it under $300 to save you money” was quite literal.) He has medicine to take but I forgot to ask if they dosed him with it already so I’ll just give him the half daily dose tonight. Medicine is “Clindamycin.”

I made him a little sock-body-thing but only for the more upper portion of his body as I cut it strange at first. I wasn’t too keen on the idea of using the more elastic end that goes up the leg as it seems a bit too tight (stretching it over a bottle so I can use it later). He is taking to it extremely well. He licked on his wounds just a little and they said one of his stitches looked a little out so to just watch it. The sock should keep him well. He is just as playful as he was before, though. He urinated as soon as I got him to his litter box. He does seem to have a little trouble defecating, I think. He does do it but sometimes he will sit in the litter box mewing a lot but not do anything, like he is trying but nothing will happen. I don’t know if he is just doing that as a “I’ll try now but I don’t have to” or that he just can’t. Like I said, though, he DOES eventually use it and it is solid and not too large, so I did not worry too much.

I’ll try to put pictures on there later. They did cut below the shoulder blade as that is still there but I cannot tell how far up right now.

He is sitting up behind me right now in his little sock suit. He sits like people, sometimes, with his feet all stretched out. It is so cute! Here is him in his little sock suit (partial picture). I’m not sure why it lets me upload one this big perfectly fine but one from my actual camera is far too big! Still this is a large picture and zooming out might help to see it. >Super COA right here> http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=4a4fd7b

I’ve got some surgical gauze that I had used on him the first time (was not best choice as it stuck to him) and since it is not an open wound, it should do nice. The stitching is scabing well, also, and is only a very thin line, so no excess bleeding or anything. He is eager to clean it and managed to get his tooth stuck on a sock string. He did not panic but just kept pawing at it. His walking is really good since he had the practice due to the previous “setup” where his leg was not long enough to touch ground. He HATES the medicine so it is difficult to hold him still. He did throw up very violently the other day while I had him outside. It was more light brown colored so I wasn’t far to sure it was just his cat food (darker brown food but it could be). I know it was either induced by his medicine or he might have nibbled a bad leaf.

He is growing quite a bit from his baby pictures. He is also currently making a huge mess by pawing his food out of his bowl to play with. I keep thinking he might be chasing a cricket that got in and I’ll rush after him ( to prevent him eating it and possibly getting worms) only to see it is a itty bitty kitty food bite. He is also getting a bit more playful… or aggressive, toward his birdie brother. I’m sure it is playfulness just getting to him since the later stays in his cage most of the time (door always open) and can’t really play with Sam due to just wings and two feet. They still get jealous of one another. Sam crying out and pawing me when I put the budgie to bed, or the budgie flying over and sitting on my headphone band while I play with Sam.

I have broke Sam of biting on my face… However he still aggressively bites my hands or fingers if ever in reach, even if not provoked and just sitting beside me. He drew blood a few times but not a lot, just enough for a little scab. I’m used to it from having many cats in the past and would be okay with this if it wasn’t so painful this time! He did, once, almost bite through skin by a large vein in my foot (I’ve very pale skin so my veins are noticeable, so he might of thought it was something on my skin). Anyways to try to deter this behavior or lessen the force he uses?

Sam has a few mouse toys that he loves and plenty of bottle tops. I drink quite a lot of soda and give him the tops to play with. He carries them off and flips them a lot as well.
Sam has to return to the vet Thursday to have the stitches removed. Hopefully there are not any complications that I have not noticed.

Sam’s stitches are out and all is well. The vet decided it might be best to keep his body sock off, though. He does have these little skin bumps along the stitch line, only two. I thought it was his cat teats, and I’m sure one is, but the other is a larger bump. It does not have infection in it from what I can see. Will the hair grow back along this? One side of it is full of hair while the other doesn’t seem to be growing back really close to the stitch.
Also, sorry it has taken me a while to get back to this. College classes are keeping me busy and tired.