The Cone of Torture

Thanks so much for all the kind words about my fEARless kitty, Damian.

He's acting as dramatic and sorry for himself as any self-respecting post-surgical cat should. I can tell his ear and head hurt when the cone-of-torture slides forward and rubs on his stitches. They're in a bad place on his head so the cone rubs them constantly. If we take the cone off he begins scratching instantly. It's a no-win.


The good news is that there was no place to put a drain tube on the back of his head, so we don't have to worry about that this time around. He just sort of sits or lays in one place all day looking like his world has come to an end. Then we'll hear a scrape-scrape-scrape as he drags himself around the house in slow motion to a new spot to sit and look sad. I'm sure the 20 days he has to wait for the cone and stitch removal will just fly by! (Please read that dripping with sarcasm).

In other news, I've had some unlucky developments in the garden that I'll be photographing later if all goes well.

Guess who's under the knife again?

Poor, poor Damian.

I know some of you have been following his story and know that the final surgery to fix his aural hematoma was guaranteed to be the final fix after those unsuccessful ear drainings. Well guess whose ear swelled up again this weekend? I took Damian to the vet yesterday morning that they were all dumbfounded at the site of his swollen ear. The vet kept looking at him and saying "This isn't supposed to be possible."


Turns out that when you sew an ear in that odd quilty fashion to fix an aural hematoma you do not sew the base of the ear to the skull. You only sew the flappy part of the ear. The base of the ear isn't the part that swells up so vets don’t have to worry about that part. But Damian proved them wrong and the base of his ear into his skull swelled up and completely closed off his ear canal this weekend. The good news is that the crinkled up cauliflower part of his ear did not swell up, so the original surgery did its job.

He is shaking his head, hiding and obviously in pain. The only solution was to do another pricey aural hematoma surgery to fix the base of the ear. This means 20 more days of stitches, a drain tube, a cone on his head and antibiotics. Like the first 20 days of that weren't tough enough for him…and us. I was just commenting to Farmer B that I think I finally got up the final blood spatters from his last drain tube.

So Tuesday morning he's under the knife again and we're hoping it's for the last time. His poor little ear has been through so much - and so has our bank account. Right before Christmas too. But I'm a firm believer that a responsible pet owner does what they can to make their pet comfortable when they still have a good quality of life - and when Damian's ear isn't swollen he's one of the happiest, craziest kitties you could ever meet.

Cross fingers for him this time please?

Frankenkitty's return

I know from the comments sections of some of my previous posts that some of you have been following the story of our cat, Damian, and his ear troubles. After 20 days of having his ear quilting sutures in, we finally made the trip to the vet to get them removed. When we got there the vet came in to the room and scooped Damian out of his carrier and carried him to another room to cut out the sutures.

He was back in minutes and remarking - as they always do - on what an easy cat he is. No fighting, no protesting - just sitting there happily as they worked on him. Some may say the lights are on, but no one's home - I choose to say he's just that well mannered.

He's back to his wonderful quirky old self now that he's home. We're still keeping him away from mirrors because one of his old habits was sitting in front of a mirror staring at himself. I am not sure if he can handle seeing the ear disfigurement so soon after the procedure. Maybe when the hair comes in it will be less noticeable. Please just go with me on this one. If it doesn't, we'll be in the market for a prosthetic ear. Maybe I could even make one with some chocolate brown felt and some elastic.



Luckily he has a brother who's not deterred by his new Frankenkitty-style cauliflower ear and is happy to give it a good wash at a moment's notice.


Unluckily he has another brother who is fascinated with him and likes to try and knock him down with his long snout at a moment's notice.


But little Damian is happy and healed and back to following me around every single waking moment of the day. I think the cauliflower ear actually nicely matches his crossed eyes, single snaggletooth and bent tail. I'll admit to missing his old pointy ear, but now I have a reason to love this little kitty just a little bit more than before.

Wildlife Weekend :: Patchy the Quilted Cat

Poor, poor Damian.

Poor, poor bank account.

It's been one of those weeks around here. The kind of week that makes you wake up in the middle of the night and wonder when it'll all be over.

Damian's ear swelled up again. We had it drained twice and 10 days after the 2nd procedure to have his ear drained, it swelled up like a potato again. We went to the vet and were given three options:

1) Drain it again with no guarantee that it won't swell up for a 4th time.
2) Drain it again and put a tube in it for 10 days to aid in the drainage…with no guarantee that it won't swell up upon drain removal.
3) Do the oh-so-attractive (but not cheap) "quilting" surgery to fully open up his ear and fix the problem.

We chose option number 3. Keep in mind, we've already paid for option 1 a few times. Damian came home with a lampshade on his head and a purple bandage on his ear. He was miserable and doing that low cat yowl that lets you know he's not a happy camper. Within 30 seconds he had the bandage off and the goopy drain was free-flopping from his quilted ear.


He has to have the drain removed in 10 days and we have to make sure that the drain doesn't get plugged up with blood and goo. Are you jealous yet?

Then in 20 days he has to have the quilting sutures removed and he can get his lampshade off then too. I'm not sure if you're aware, but cats and lampshades don't do well together. He's miserable, walking backwards, not eating much and hiding. We have to keep him separate from the other cat, Darwin, and the kids and dog in case anyone decides to pick on him. So he's lonely too.


Lonely and goopy and very sorry for himself. And let's face it - his ear is downright gross to look at.


I took the lampshade off him for a few minutes last night so he could sit on my lap. He was so happy and flopped on me purring and acting sweet. Then he got up and ran around the house like a normal cat for a few minutes. As soon as he got a few feet away he scratched at his ear drain and now I'm worried he shook it loose. It looks raggy as all get out, so now I have something else to worry about.

It's going to be a long 20…I mean…18 days for us.

The Tragic Tale of the Cauliflower Cat

If you've read my blog before you've met Damian, one of my Siamese cats. Damian is a beautiful seal-point Siamese cat with long pointy chocolate ears and a penchant for the taste of ribbon and tulle. He was the subject of my LAPCPADPOUB Day poem back in October of last year and he often finds a way in front of the camera along with his "brother," Darwin, a blue-point Siamese.


Darwin and Damian are best pals, but they do enjoy a good playful cat brawl of an evening. Last Monday we noticed that Damian's ear was starting to swell up a bit. We assumed that he and Darwin had got into a scrap and maybe Darwin had bitten his ear. There was no blood and only a bit of swelling so we didn't worry.



But then it continued to swell.

A lot. It looked like the skin was about to burst in his ear.

And his ear didn't stick straight up anymore. It sort of stuck out sideways like an airplane ear. Damian was feeling very sorry for himself and began hiding in strange places in the house. He stopped eating and playing so we knew it was time for a visit to the vet.



We learned that Damian has an aural hematoma. This means that there is a collection of blood within the cartilage layers of the ear. It usually shows up as a fluid-filled swelling on the pinna, or floppy part of the ear. Some cats get them just from scratching their ear or shaking their head, but we think Darwin bit him in some sort of WWE showdown on the patio. It could have even been from one of his signature moves where he'll grab Damian's head and kick him like mad with his big back legs. Before you feel too sorry for Damian, you should know he weighs about 10 lbs and Darwin weighs about 5 lbs.

The worst part of this diagnosis is that most animals with an aural hematoma are left permanently disfigured with a kickin' case of cauliflower ear. I immediately searched online for photos of pets with cauliflower ear and was shocked - it makes animals look like they've gone a few rounds in a boxing ring with one short, dumpy fattened ear.



So the vet said that since this condition is extremely painful and obviously affecting Damian he would slice open the ear and drain the blood. Regardless of what he did, we'd still end up with a cat with cauliflower ear.

We brought him home and he seemed a lot more comfortable without this enormous bulbous bubble of blood in his ear. The incision had to be left open to drain so everytime he flopped his head we got a blood spatter in the house, making our house crime-scene worthy for two full days.

Sadly his ear is permenently flopped. I can tell it's a strange sensation for him to have a floppy ear because he's constantly twitching it and he's not acting 100% himself yet, but he's eating and he's stopped hiding, so we can tell he's on the mend.



Poor Damian has been plagued with a life of being "different." We bought Darwin first from a well-known breeder in Florida, but then Farmer B decided Darwin was lonely and needed a friend. One week later he made the long drive back to the breeder to get another kitten. She sold us Damian for a discount because he has a bend in his tail near the tip and would be no good for the show ring.

A few years ago he took a hard fall and chipped one of his snaggleteeth and had to have it filed down. And let's not forget his insanely crossed eyes. A crooked tail, crossed eyes, one filed-down tooth and one long snaggletooth and now one floppy cauliflower ear.

And we love him just the same. But you've got to admit, looking at the first photo in this post - then looking a the last - it is a bit heartbreaking, isn't it?

Wildlife Weekend :: The GWS Meezers

I've been enjoying showing some of the wild creatures around my neck of the woods to my blog readers on my Wildlife Weekends, but this weekend I thought I'd feature two of the not-quite-wild creatures that stare at me all day long.

Meet the Meezers - Darwin and Damian.



For those of you not "in the know" a Meezer is a nickname for a Siamese Cat. So it should be obvious to you that a Geezer Meezer is an old Siamese Cat. Obvious, right?

Mine aren't geezers yet and in fact they both turned 8 years old in May. They're from different litters, but we call them brothers since we've had them both since they were kittens.

Darwin is a Blue-Point Siamese. He's only 5 lbs and always smells like fresh laundry for some unknown reason. He loves to sit on my left shoulder while I'm typing on the laptop, which is where he's perched right now. This is why all of my shirts have attractive little holes in them on the left side. When he sleeps, he curls up like a little mouse and often holds onto his tail with his front paws.


Here is Damian. He's a Seal-Point Siamese and is much chunkier than his brother. He's a good 11 lbs, but is a lot slower than Darwin. He has one snaggletooth due to an accident last year - prior to the accident he had two snaggleteeth. He's a bit cross-eyed and likes belly rubs. You might remember Damian as the tulle-eating subject of the LAPCPADPOUB Day poem that won me a copy of James Alexander-Sinclair's fun little flower book.


They're both inside cats, but like to spend time on the screened-in patio watching me in the garden. They don't think twice about nibbling on anything from the garden I bring on the patio and inadvertently leave alone for 30 seconds.

So there you have it. A not-quite-wild Wildlife Weekend and a look at the Gardening Without Skills cats.

Happy Belated LAPCPADPOUB Day

I can't believe I missed LAPCPADPOUB Day. Going to the petting farm and fantasizing about chickens and the whole family being sick recently... it just overtook me and I dropped the ball. I suppose a belated LAPCPADPOUB Day is better than no LAPCPADPOUB Day at all, right? Here is my contribution to LAPCPADPOUB Day.

Ahem...

Ode to Damian

I have crossed eyes and a crooked tooth
And a kink at the end of my tail
I am known to eat the strangest things
Like ribbon, rubber bands and mail

I'll also eat broccoli, peas and green beans
Or anything covered with glue
I'll eat tulle 'till I'm sick and it's caught in my throat
And my litterbox has decorative poo

Don't you celebrate LAPCPADPOUB Day? You should. Visit the Inelegant Gardener to find out the details of 'Let's all post cat photos and dire poetry on our blogs' Day.

Enjoy!

(And before you think I've gone off my gardening rocker, tomorrow will be the second installment in the Great Garden Experiment with updates on my tomato and bell pepper plants)