More from Judy, on one of Imm’s shelter cats, Kit Kat:
Despite cleaning Kit’s ears for a number of days at the shelter, her right ear and the side of her face would still be badly clogged with blood each morning. With Imm’s consent, we finally took her in to see Dr Gilbert last Friday 11/3. Dr Gilbert said that she has a tumour growth in her ear and that it would be difficult to remove. He presribed ear drops and said she can go back. I used the ear drops on Kit but noticed that her condition had not improved. She really needed personal care and attention, so I took her home to my place on Tuesday 15/3. My sis and I gave her a good warm bath, she smelt real foul because the ear tumour was oozing blood and other foul liquid, her paws were caked with blood and dirt beacuse she uses them to scratch the infected ear etc. I think Kit enjoyed the warm bath, she didn’t try to get away. After drying and cleaning her, I took her in to see Dr Teoh.
Gilbert’s a good vet, he very kindly allowed Imm to house her cats temporarily in his clinic when MBI came to Imm’s home to evict her cats and dogs. Teoh is more gentle and caring with animals. Still however, vets tend to have their own perception of animals from shelter. I noticed if they are brought in somewhat dirty, there’s a difference in treatment. Hence, the wash for Kit before she saw Teoh.
The diagnosis for Kit was cancerous tumour in her right ear. The tumour is clealy visible covering her ear canal. Teoh said that it would not be helpful to cut it out. I then said if he could recommend palliative treatment for Kit. He suggested using a burning drop to burn the tumour and I cringed. The alternative, hydrogen peroxide, sounded better and I agreed. He also prescribed antibiotic and steriod pills. Kit fought back when Teoh tried to give her the tablets.
Teoh then suggested that I pulverised the pills and add to cat tinned food. He said that there will be a lot of oozing from the tumour when the H2O2 is applied and to clean the ooze t prevent flies buzzing round. He also added a bottle of iodine for me to clean the ooze.
When I got Kit back home and put him in the cage, the tumour fell out of Kit’s ear. I was so taken aback. I got Kit out from the cage to check and yes, the tumour had indeed fallen out, but it was still very bloody inside. As suggested by Teoh, I pulverised the pills and mixed the powdered pills with AD. Kit took a lick and didn’t like what was in the AD. I had to mouth feed her. Later in the evening, after cleaning her ear, I took another look and I could see another tumour deep in her ear canal. I used the H2O2. Hopefully that will also help clear the tumour. Her right ear is certainly less foul smelling now. And she looks so good, no more blood clots. You can hardly recognise her the way she used to be. She was in one of the photos that Su Ming took before I took her to the vet. She’s the ginger cat with the double-chinned, warts face, aged Aunty holding her. Aren’t we a sight! I love that pix.
Kit seems to like it here. Pity I can’t have her permanently. I’ll keep her till she’s finished her medication. Hopefully all her ear tumours would be cleared by then.
Well, it’s now 3.30am and I must get back to bed. Carol, a PPCS volunteer nurse, is coming with me to the shelter this morning. It’s her 1st visit. She’s good with dogs, she has twoboth rescued strays. I’ll introduce her to Bobby.
ps: PPCS stands for Perak Palliative Care Society. I have been with the society as a volunteer since it’s inception in 1994. The society was registered in Feb 1995 and we’ve been providing free home care services to those with non-curative advanced cancer in Ipoh (mainly due to resource limitations) for the last 16 years.