Feeding the troop as per norm.
Kom Kom Kom
I called and the cat family came running. Hugs and kisses cuddles and then
food, But Mr. Tigger is normally first for a hug and gets very upset if he is
ignored was nowhere to be seen.
As I put their dinner done, I called again.
Then Tigger caught my eye. He was sitting in his sleeping basket behind the
house just staring at me.
‘Come boy, come eat” I called, still no
reaction. I scolded him as I walked to pick him up. Something was wrong VERY
wrong. I felt my anger turn to angst. Tigger was swaying while he was sitting
trying to focus on me, his eyes glassed over. I scoped him up and felt his
chest was wet, no blood just water. Tigger what is wrong? I wish he could talk.
DAVE!!!! DAVE!!! I yelled. Normally hubby would ignore me, or reply irritated
“I cannot hear you” but today he heard and was there in a flash.
What is wrong? We need to get to the vet,
Tigger is dying!
Peak
hour traffic, vet closing time all at once. I asked Dave to call the vet and
tell them we were coming in with an emergency.
Lucky the nr was stored on my phone. Tigger was sitting in the basket on
the back seat, trying to cope. We were calling his name and talking to him the
whole way. As I took the last corner to the vet, Dave shouted NO! NO! Boy you
are not doing this! Tigger collapsed but Dave`s screams jolted him, back into a
sitting position.
They
took us in immediately and luckily the rooms were not crowded. The vet started to slowly examine Tigger. Can
the man not hurry up! I thought. Guess I
was expecting a magic wand. What do you think is wrong he asked? I think it is
snake bite. O was his answered, where. I
explained that his chest was wet when I picked him up. Well then, he said let
have a look. Soon his chest was shaved and revealed 3x bites!!!!!
Two of the bites were just the fang
puncture marks, but the third had a nasty rip on the one side. The vet said
cats are normally bitten on ears, paws ect not chest. He must have faced the
snake head on!
What type of snake? Well we live in a
tropical climate and the most known here is the green- and black Mamba,
Mosambican Spitting cobra, red lipped herald , puff adder, night adders and
normal variegated bush snakes, o yea do not forget the boom slang. Well take
your pick.
My
dear if it was a mamba, with his body weight he would be dead by now. All we
can do is wait and see. We do not administer anti venom, pain trouma and
inflammation is what we can treat for.
But you must fix my cat, it screamed inside
of me. Please can you put him on a drip and flush the wound I begged. Yes we
will do, but the next 24 hours will be crucial. I cannot give you any more hope
than that.
Next morning the first call was to the vet.
He had made it through the night but gravely ill. I visited him twice a day.
The vet cut away some of the flesh as this would rot and carried most of the poison.
He would just lay in his cat litter ignoring the world. Refused to eat and was
going backwards daily.
Two more operations and the vet confirming
that it was an adder that bit him, quite a large one as the teeth were 2cm
apart. On my daily visit trips he started to put his head in my hand and just
lay there.
Tigger if you want to come home you need to
start eating! As if he understood he took a mouth full of pellets looked at me
and spat them out. Come on boy. Then he
stood up (still on drip) and ate! This was the best present anybody could have
given me. Even the vet`s eye`s enlarged and all he said is “that`s a good
sign.”
Recovery was long and slow but he
was on the mend.
Soon he was home, but every low growing
bush, pathway flowers were inspected and wide births given at times.
I give thanks, as my boy is home.
