I was out today and when I came home, husband said there was a war cry between Indy, Cow Mau and the Monsters but it only lasted a few seconds. By the time he went out to check, he only saw Cow Mau and Indy, fur all fluffed up, walking heroically back to Bunny’s Place. The Monsters had all vanished out of sight.
For two days now, I’ve left Stargate open so that there is free access from Bunny’s Place to Ginger’s Catio. Yesterday, it was all peaceful so I did it again today.
I didn’t think anything was wrong as there are war cries all the time, so we went out again.
It was at 5.20pm that I went to feed the cats at Bunny’s Place. Everyone came to wait for food except Cow Mau.
Now, this is an anomaly. Cow Mau never skips a meal.
So I quickly looked around and saw Cow sitting by himself on a flagstone.
Something was definitely wrong. I called to him, but he still did not come and he looked unwell.
So I quickly went to check and saw a blood stain on his arm. The stain was only on the fur. I washed off the blood stain from his arm and checked again. There was no wound.
Then, husband noticed that his neck was swollen. Upon checking, there was blood there too, but again, it was on the fur only. I washed off all the blood and re-checked. It was only upon checking a third time that I noticed there was actually a puncture wound on his neck. It looked like a fresh wound as there was fresh blood from it.
I quickly cleaned it with Chlorohexidine and applied some Fucidin onto the puncture wound. Of course Cow Mau wasn’t happy with it and was growling softly throughout.
He didn’t want to eat at all.
I called the vet’s but they were already closed. I also checked online if another vet was still open, but that clinic was also closed.
I let Cow Mau settle down and applied transdermal Tramadol (painkiller) onto his inner ear. It would take time for this to kick in. The effect won’t be immediate. At least it would help with the pain and it also has a slight sedative effect.
I later offered food again but he wasn’t interested at all to eat.
The only thing I have at home which could be used without a vet’s prescription is Beazyme, an anti-inflammatory. So I tried giving him that, but it was impossible. I had to enlist husband’s help to catch him and for the first time, I used the pill popper and Cow Mau actually cooperated. The pill got in but it wasn’t deep enough. So I quickly gave him some baby food with the hope that he would swallow and he did. He was cooperating as he could have easily bitten us or spat the pill out. But Cow Mau swallowed it.
I offered food again, this time from my finger, and he ate a little bit.
The Blondies were very concerned and were keeping vigil by being nearby.
He is settled for now, at one of his favourite spots. Samantha and Akira are keeping him company. Earlier on, all the Blondies gathered around him.
I know he would need a course of antibiotics. The vet would have to prescribe that tomorrow.
Poor Cow Mau. I don’t know what happened. It may or may not have been due to the war cry. But there is definitely a puncture wound on the neck.
We will have to wait until first thing tomorrow to take Cow Mau to the vet’s.
An update: We did not wait. We took Cow Mau to the 24hr veterinary hospital tonight. The treatment was effective.