Critter Update

I've been fighting a cold all week, and my kitchen counter is littered with cough drops, decongestants and other cold remedies. I just have to be careful not to grab the wrong medicine in the night, since I am certainly not the only family member under medical care.

Emerson seems to have made a complete recovery from his frightening bout with urinary calculi. After considerable internet research, however, I decided to keep him on a prophylactic dose of ammonium chloride, the drug I credit with saving his life last month. We weaned him off it slowly and are currently dosing him with 1/8 teaspoon per day, five days a week, in his morning bottle. An eventual goal might be every other day, at least over the winter when calculi are more prevalent. So this is one little container on the counter (recall I got this at a yard sale along with some goat fencing over the summer, a loosely-labeled ziploc bag of white powder devoid of strength or dosage instructions...but it seems to have worked!)

My other patient is Benny - still recovering from his run-in last week with "the creature who will not be named." Although his wounds appear to be healing nicely (thanks to twice-daily applications of antiseptic-lidocaine wash and oral antibiotics), he is still quite weak and having difficulty eating. Since he seems unable to chew his regular dry cat food, I have given him cat food from a can - a new experience. What an ordeal!! I have never perused this aisle in the grocery store before! There seems to be two basic categories - the affordable "bargain brand" cans - the contents of which resemble pureed vomit and which Benny would not go anywhere near - and the deluxe "you need a payment plan" gourmet offerings for pampered felines. These cans are twice the price for half the size - and oh, the choices...First you choose between classic (pureed), flaked, grilled, sauteed or tender chunks. (Benny prefers flaked.) Then you choose your flavor - chicken, beef, lamb, veal, liver, salmon, tuna, trout (Benny's favorite!), crab, caviar, shrimp newburg...it's almost like dining at Red Lobster (and approximately the same cost). How can you put a price on your pet's health and well-being? (Really, it's best just not to think about it - keeps me from crying that way!)

Next to Benny's antibiotic pills is one last item - triple antibiotic cream - that's for me. After having to hold him still and shove these horrid pills down his throat morning and evening, my hands are as bitten, scratched and bloody as his chest was that night...With teeth that sharp, I cannot fathom why he can't chew crunchy kibbles. Yet another one of life's little mysteries...