Went to the vet ER tonight. ..for an eye booger
So yesterday my 2 cats got in a fight. I got the worst of it.
Long story short. I checked both cats over after the incident and all the blood was mine.
Black cat, Noir, had a little scratched spot on nose and near left eye but looked fine.
This morning I wake up and notice he's got, what I thought, was some eye goo in his left eye.
As the day goes on into the evening, I notice it's still there.
I get a qtip and wet the end and try to catch it to pull it out.
I notice at this point it doesn't look like goo but like the bottom of the eye is cut. Or maybe the extra eye membrane.
It really looked like that.
Now mind you he's been normal all day and not been rubbing his eye or anything. No drainage or redness but I kinda panicked thinking. "How did I miss this eye injury yesterday when I checked him over!?!"
So I rush him to the ER vet. Cause it literally looks like a cut into his eye with a flap/gash.
We wait like 1.5 hours. While in the exam room I noticed he's got a big eye booger in the corner of his eye. Dried. Dark. I wipe it off.
A moment later I'm like. Hey. Hold on.
I check his eye again and the "gash" is gone.
It actually was eye goo.
Even the guy who first saw him agreed it looked like a cut.
But I called him over and was like. Yeah. So I think it actually was a booger.
He looked over Noir and agreed. The eye was fine.
Booger.
Flipping eye booger.
Almost cost me $200.
200 for emergency is cheap.
Better safe than sorry, or as in this case: both safe and sorry!
If you were bit at all you also need to go to emergency care for a shot and taking care of the wound. Cat bites are really nasty, like losing a limb or worse. They heal quickly on the surface so it may look fine, but they go deep and push a lot of nasty bacteria that gets trapped under the surface healing.
The next time, throw a glass of water into the fight or slam some pot lids together to make a scary noise to interrupt the fight. Don't put your hands in between them. Use a broom or some other barrier if you absolutely want to get physical with it.
And in the longer run, make sure your cats are both neutered to make them less fighty, and that they have someplace to retreat to avoid a fight (like high shelves in every room with an entry way on both ends, pull the couch and other furniture out so theres always always a differentexit from where they entered). Give them multiple high value places like beds, toys, water, food, scratching posts and litter boxes far apart from each other so they don't need to fight over resources. Especially look these things over for spots where they get into conflict.
Good luck!
Edit: perhaps you know all this already...but better safe than sorry, lol! Maybe someone else reading doesn't know.
Not that bad, but yeah. Cat scratches heal just fine. Cat bite? Instant course of antibiotics, and also a rabies shot if it's not your own cat.
Absolutely. Throwing water at fighting cats is a great method of getting them to disperse. By far the safest and most reliable method.
The vast majority of that final paragraph is just good advice for cat owners generally, not even specifically for cats that hate each other. Neutered cats have much better health outcomes as there's just less that can go wrong. Giving them plenty of routes to move around the room just generally results in more active, happier cats. Also, scratching posts are mandatory if you don't want them attacking your furniture. They have a physiological need to scratch, give 'em somewhere to do it.
Both are neutered and vaccinated. But the black cat has only been neutered for a month ish.
I'm hoping he will chill out on the territorial behaviors more. I think some come from his food insecurity from being a starved stray.
I have no idea how old he is but based on his playfulness and teeth. And he has no pooch, I'm guessing 2-4 years.
Also yeah my hand is infected and I had to go get a tetnus booster and antibiotics today.
I've been bit before with no infection but not this time.
Quite a lot of swollen expanded area around the bite and thought it best to see a Dr.
These antibiotics are awful though. So big I had to break in half just to swallow and they gave me an awful tummy ache even though I ate with yogurt like the Dr suggested.
Ugh. Not looking forward to this for the next 9 days.
Sounds very unpleasant. Get well soon.
Yeah so my hand is actually infected from a bite. I went to a walk in clinic today and got a tetnus booster and the biggest antibiotic pills I've ever seen.
Here is how it all went down.
I was holding one cat when the other attacked.
I have one old cat and one new. (2 months together).
They are slowly getting used to each other. I keep them separated most of the time and at night but I do supervise shared time in the main living area.
My old cat has a bad hip. I was trying to move him to show him a treat I had put out but accidentally grabbed him near his bad hip and he yowled.
Immediately the other cat ran over from across the room and started attacking.
I don't understand cat logic.
Maybe new cat (who is quite attached to me) thought the old cat was attacking me and ran to my defense. Or maybe thought the yowl sound was an attack on him even though he wasn't that close by.
I don't know.
But basically I had to grab the older cat who is quite large and pull him away and up (he was on floor) while trying to push the black cat away.
And I had already grabbed his bad hip which I was further irritating by this quick yanking up I had to do. Further pissing him off while he was also fighting the black cat and yeah.
He bit me a few times in a few seconds. Few moderately bad scratches but the bites were the more serious injury.
The whole ordeal was crazy and I was also really disappointed because I thought there had been some progress with them out together. But now we are back to square one with no shared time in the main living area.
Right now I am in a house with a guest room and the main bedroom is in the back. So it's easy to block them off from each other. The old cat is content to sleep most of the day in the guest room. He loves that room for some reason so I designated that as his space. Litter box and food in there with some cat things.
The newer cat is locked in the back of the house at night and for first few hours of the day until old cat goes to the guest room. Old cat gets main rooms at night and mornings.
There is a 3rd litter box in the main part of the house. Because packing the other two back and forth got old fast.
It's been so much drama with these two.
When I have let them out together in main room I have used a spray bottle to keep black cat from approaching old cat. That seems fairly effective. They constantly try to block each others route. Posturing.
I feel bad for being cruel with spray bottle but they can't be fighting. And they gotta learn to stop antagonizing each other.
The vet assistant did suggest some pheremone scent thing I should try. I'm probably going to try it.
I understand how it went down, it sounds pretty unavoidable given the circumstances. I'm glad you went and got the bites taken care of.
And I also understand why the younger cat would react you the older cat protesting, that sounds like quite the triggering howl.
It can be a nightmare introducing old cats and new cats. I've given up myself and will not house any new cats until my current grump passes away, it's not worth stressing him out over it at this point (nearing 20 years old).
I hope the pheromone helps.
If they are indoor cats, are you making sure to activate them enough? Like playing at least 15 min at least twice a day with each of them, especially the younger one? I mean getting them to chase and jump and climb and bite and finally successfully kill their pray with a snack (can be part of their feeding time). If they're tired from playing they have less pent up energy turning to aggression.
I play quite a few times with the young one. I also thought maybe wearing him out a bit would make him less hostile.
I do think he's getting better but for some reason just had a trigger and set him off.
Yeah I'm very protective of my older cat and I also don't like him to be stressed.
Another time the black cat went after him he defecated. Which makes me think he was terrified. And he didn't have a great life before me and has chronic pain. So I feel even more responsible to give him the best life I can.
I had no intention of getting another cat but Noir showed up literally on my door step starved and injured. And he needed a home.
I also initially thought Noir was older. But he was just in bad shape.
Little jerks like doing this. I had a cat who was spayed later in life. After awhile she started growing something on her so I took her in.
It was her primordial pouch. I hadn't seen a cat not just uh, grow up with one so I worried. She also had had growths that were removed during the spay so it was a concern those were around!
Vet laughed and charged a half visit so like 30 bucks cause she got to play with the cat a bit.
I love Noir.
He's unbelievably lovable. Never had a cat this affectionate.
I've been around plenty of cats that demand a lot of affection but never had one that was a giver.
He was a stray I took in about 2 1/2 months ago. Skin and bones with a nasty bite injury.
Wasn't sure he was going to make it.
But he pulled through and I was pretty much attached by day 2.
My old cat when I was a teenager looked just like him. And that didn't hurt to make me attached so fast.
That's such a lovely story. 🥰