I got up yesterday morning and medicated and eye-ointment’d Sam, Hoyt, Bill, and Lafayette. As I put the ointment in their eyes, I cast a worried look (as usual) at all the eyes, and they seemed to be doing okay. I spent some time playing with them, and then I got out the vacuum cleaner and vacuumed their room.
It’s funny, I always assume kittens are going to be terrified of the vacuum cleaner, but it’s not always so. The majority of the True Bloods aren’t terribly scared of the vacuum cleaner, and a couple of them – Sam and Terry – actually act very interested in it and what it’s doing. I wouldn’t be surprised one of these days if Terry tries to jump on and go for a ride.
I put the vacuum cleaner away, and then I picked up Bill to look closer at one of his eyes, which seemed from a distance to be kind of goopy. I decided there was a little eye goo, but nothing to be worried about, walked into the kitten room and sat down. Bill followed me in and sat next to me. I snapped his picture, and then I looked at him.
His right eyelip was bloody.
I’m only surprised that I didn’t scream and faint or start running around in circles. He didn’t seem to be in pain, he let me gently wipe the blood away, but more blood came to fill the spot I’d cleaned. I immediately called the vet and asked if I could bring him in. It being the day after a holiday weekend they were pretty busy, but told me to bring him in and leave him, and they’d figure a way to work him in.
As I put Bill into the carrier, I looked down at Hoyt, and decided on a whim to bring him along for the ride. He had a little spot on one of his eyelips that seemed a little raw to me, but mostly I didn’t want Bill to be alone, so I thought Hoyt could keep him company.
I dropped them off at the vet, told the receptionist what was going on, and left my number for them to call when the vet had checked them over.
They called at 3 and said I could come get them, so off I went. I talked to the vet briefly, but basically she just said that both Bill’s eyes and Hoyt’s looked good. Perhaps Bill bumped his eyelip on something, which caused the bleeding.
And actually, she theorized that the fact that it was bleeding was likely a good sign – that it meant that the graft is taking, that there are blood pathways forming between the graft and where the graft is attached. She told me to keep going with the antibiotic and ointment, but to her they look good.
What a relief!
Maybe Bill just thought I didn’t have enough to worry about?
I’ll be leaving in a little bit to drop Terry off at the vet. I won’t lie, I’m going to worry about my little guy. His eyes are far and away (in my opinion, I’m no medical professional) the worst of the bunch. I’ll be glad to see him with his new eyelips, though, so that he won’t have hair rubbing against his eyeball. It hurts just to see that!
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Previously
2009, part 2: Ike (there were two posts on 9/9/09; this is the link to the other one)
2008: Your het does not scare me. AT ALL.
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: I was worried it might mess up his digestive system, but I can report that I saw it in the litter box.