We had noticed that we were being visited by a tabby cat since the beginning of April this year. When we caught him in the kitchen, eating out of the cat food bowls, he would run away as fast as he could. We were getting used to seeing glimpses of him running across the room, or just see his tail and back legs disappearing through the cat flap.
Last Tuesday morning, when Jim (my OH) went into the kitchen, he said that Tabs (as he is now known) had been sleeping on the chairs in the breakfast area, and that when he had jumped down, he was only using 3 legs. Unfortunately, Tabs had managed to escape through the cat flap, and when we went to search outside for him, we couldn't find him anywhere.
As I am at home all day at the moment, we left the cat flap locked on In Only, all day for the rest of Tuesday and Wednesday, but he didn't come back.
We were so worried about him, as we thought he was in pain.
Every time the rest of my furry gang wanted to go out, they would let me know (either by coming and meowing pitifully at me to let me know that the cat flap wasn't working properly, or attempting to rip the cat flap out of the back door), so I could provide the personal door opening service for them. Every time I heard someone coming in through the cat flap, I would run to see who it was.
Thursday morning, Tabs was sleeping on a chair in the breakfast area again, and Jim managed to lock the cat flap before he could escape. I rang our vets the minute they were open, and explained about the problem that Tabs was having with his leg, and that it was very swollen, and they were really good and told me to bring him in to them straight away.
The vet checked Tabs out, said that he had an abscess on his left front leg with the puss being under his paw pads, and that was why it was so swollen and he couldn't put any weight on it at all. The vet checked a few other things out for me and told me the following:
He is an unneutered male.
He has no collar and no microchip.
He is approximately 9 - 10 years old.
He has an infection in his right eye, which had a discharge.
He has bites and scratches on his shoulders.
He may also have flu.
The vet agreed to sedate him, and fix his paw, so I had to leave poor Tabs with them on Thursday. I also asked if they could do a blood test to send to Glasgow to test for FIV, after all that we went through with Tatty last year. As Tabs now needs to take antibiotics, anti-inflammatory tablets and have eye ointment applied twice per day, he came back home with us on Thursday evening, and checked into our small spare bedroom.
The receptionist and nurse at the vet's thought he was very handsome, and were trying to persuade us to give him a permanent home if his owner can't be found.
So all we need to do now is to find out if he has an owner, and get to the end of all the courses of tablets and ointments.
Just in case anyone wants to see what he looks like, here are a couple of pics I took yesterday. I only took 2, because I didn't want to stress him out too much after all that he has been through.
Tabs After Vet Visit
