Oscar back from TED

Oscar's left her paw alone for the last week or two, and she's fine
with that, but over the weekend she developed EGC on her chin / lower
lip again.

I called TED this morning and asked if she should get a steroid shot,
or if we should sit it out (TED had warned me that the steroid could
possibly increase the risk of infection in the paw). Since Oscar's
currently not worrying her paw, the paw looks pretty good, and the lip
looks pretty bad, it was time for a shot.

Sam...

Hope the shot does the trick for her.

Monique Y. Mudama...

Thanks! I have every expectation that it will.

While I was there, I had TED look at a little bump on Oscar's ear.
She thought it was likely a sebaceous cyst, probably harmless. I
asked if it could possibly be her chip, but was told it was too small
of a bump for that to happen (the chip should still be in between her
shoulders; it was just a thought).

We talked a bit about the risks of steroids; TED said that while you
generally want to avoid them, cats handle them better than any other
pets, and that while liver damage and shortened lifespan is a
possibility as the number of shots increases, it's still better for her
quality of life to treat the EGC as soon as possible.

Oscar hasn't had enough shots yet to establish a clear pattern, but my
guess at this point is she will have 3-4 outbreaks a year that get bad
enough to want to treat her with steroids.

It may be my fault this time; I have been letting her drink out of a
very wide plastic bowl that she clearly prefers above all other water
bowls she's had. No more. I'll look for ceramic or metal bowls of
the same general shape. TED confirmed that this could have been the
trigger.

As for the trip itself: getting Oscar into her Sherpa bag was
surprisingly easy. She was being cuddly, so I got some treats and,
closely supervised, put the treats into her bag. From there it was an
easy matter to pick Oscar up and put her in the bag. She went straight
for the treats and ignored me as I zipped her up. Then I had a bag with
a tail. I pushed the tail, which slowly retreated into the bag. Still
no complaint. Rather surprising; usually she puts up much more of a
fight.

I heard, in order of frequency, meowing, panting, and hissing from the
bag while I was driving. TED supposes it's the car more than the new
and lovely carrier that upsets her.

While at TED's, Oscar didn't even have to get out of the carrier. TED
was able to look at the lip and ear, and give her a shot, all in the
bag. Obviously the carrier *did* have to be unzipped =P

On the way back, I left the top zipper open just enough that Oscar
could poke her head out, without allowing her to get her body out.
That seemed to help a bit, and allowed me to provide skritches at
every stoplight =)

Marina...

What a good girl she was! Frank once broke out of the Sherpa bag when

Monique Y. Mudama...

Once she's *in* a carrier, she's never tried to break out of it. I
mean, I'm sure if I left it open enough she'd jump right out, but she
doesn't seem inclined to try to open it herself.

Maybe the car is scary enough that getting out in the car would be
just as scary as getting out at the vet's -- ie, not something worth
considering!

I'd left the top zipper open a little bit. That had potential for a
disaster, because the bag was in our boat while we were loading the rest
of the stuff on board. I caught him just as he was going to jump on land
(he was wearing his harness, so I had a 'handle' to grab). The d*g in
the next boat didn't fare as well. That boat had just landed, and the
owner had just taken off its little life jacket (it was a doxie, if
memory serves me). The d*g made a jump for the jetty, but fell in the
water. Luckily, the owner managed to fish it right back up. Hope they
learned their lesson, do not remove life jacket until d*g is on dry land.

Monique Y. Mudama...

Wow. Scary!

I've never had Oscar out near water. Puma (RB) was a black lab and
swam all over the place. Would the dog not have been able to swim to
the edge of the water? Are there dogs who can't swim?

Marina...

The jetty is pretty high and has a smooth side that goes straight down
into the water. I don't think the doggie could have climbed that. I'm
sure it could swim, but may not have been able to swim far enough to
find a place where it could get up on land.

Takayuki...

Kasper might be able to climb it. He's a master of tai chi.

Hopefully, both kitties and doggies manage to stay out the water in
those areas.

Jo Firey...

That's one thing that makes me very uneasy with letting dogs swim. Making
sure they have an easy way to get back out of the water. Can a lab scramble
back into a boat if it jumps out for any reason? I bet some of them weigh a

Monique Y. Mudama...

Depends on the dog and the boat. In calm water (a small lake) I've
seen large dogs half-scramble, half-be lifted into the boat. In fact,
that was the intention: hot day, spending all of it on the boat, you
need a dip now and then!

But you have to be careful swimming with dogs. I've seen some nasty
scratches; the dog doesn't even have to be panicked. My dog Puma
scarred my brother up pretty badly swimming out in a lake, no boat
involved, just playing in the water. Obviously the dog has to move his
legs pretty vigorously in order to swim. On a boat, there was a big,
stocky lab who wasn't used to boats and wouldn't come close long enough
for us to pull him in. So his owner (against everyone's advice) jumped
in with him. The dog did manage to get into the boat with his help.
The owner ended up with some nasty scratches on his back and face.

ton wet.

Oh, and purrs for Oscar's lip.

Monique Y. Mudama...

I just got home from work (10pm) -- Oscar has been purring and
drooling on me to tell me just how much she missed me!