Pain in the A**

Chai is the world's best cat. I'm sure you're saying, "All parents say that about their pets." but in my case, it is true. Some of her more endearing qualities are her compact size, her no-meowing-unless-absolutely-necessary policy, and her bouncy disposition. 

Given her lovable, cuddly nature, I knew something was wrong on Tuesday when she'd hiss at me and spend inordinate amounts of time licking her bum. When I tried to get near her, she'd start her growl sounding a bit like a blender on low. She'd punctuate her threatening ice-choppy sound with a transition into a hiss, thinking she some sort of Cobra snake or something. I could see what she was licking which looked like a furless patch near her bum outlet. I had had enough of her attitude and I was worried to the point of action. I took action - which simply met I called the vet and decided to let them handle her.

Stage 1 involves getting her into the cat carrier. For a 5.5 pound cat, she can put one one heck of a fight, but luckily, again, no real howling, just fur and wriggling. Stage 2 is an easy walk to the vet's office 4 short blocks away, but the cold and ice/slush/snow streets made this a little more difficult. I wonder what she thinks of all the noises, smells and other strange 'feels' on the city street. I cover her carrier so she won't freak at all the activity and dogs walking about. 

Stage 3 is the vet check. She is so much nicer to them. They had no problem taking her temperature - she had a fever, poor girl - and looking at her wound. Turns out she had a walnut-sized abscess on her bum. Ick! They'd need to drain it, clean it and put her on antibiotics for the fever and to prevent infection. 

Now came the Worry Stage. The vet starts throwing out all these options. She's like to put Chai under for the procedure but she'd recently ate so we didn't want to risk any rock-star-death issues of her choking on regurgitation.  Then there were anti-inflammatory choices - talk about steroids and shots with possible kidney problem side effects. I was freakin'! I just wanted her healed without risk. Why is that never an option? I want choices where I know I could have no regrets about my decisions since nothing would go wrong. Instead I start panicking about "ifs" and "what-to-dos".  I decide to no go with the potentially kidney-harming stuff since she once had problems either with her kidneys or liver. So the vet takes her upstairs to the operating space. 

Now were into the Surgery-Crying Stage. I could hear Chai really screaming and loudly meowing upstairs. Since she is such a quiet kitty normally (my mother once commented that she thought she had no vocal cords; she didn't believe she could actually talk), I was on edge hearing my girl in such pain. Of course this made me cry 'cause there really wasn't anything I could do. Cries stopped after not too ling and I waited.

Going Home Stage. The vet brought Chai out in her carrier and she was not looking happy. I'm sure it was a painful procedure but she look even sadder to be stuck in a cone collar to prevent her from licking her wound. Got some pricey high-fiber cat food, antibiotics, and boo-boo cream to help the butt wound heal. Off we went back out onto the slip-n-slide streets and headed home.

Turns out the abscess was because of an infected and impacted anal duct gland. Did you know about this? I didn't even know cats had anal glands that needed looking after. I grew up with at least three cats in succession roaming our home and never did we worry about anal glands. Like any worried parent, I immediately Googled cat anal glands. Now I'm really grossed out.