On Friday, I posted a diary about my male calico Calvin and what we thought was a broken leg. We didn’t have the money to take him to the vet, so I did the only thing I knew to do: turned to the Kos Pootie community for assistance.
You guys came through like champs. Over $2300 raised on GoFundMe and a bunch more through PayPal. We were beyond gobsmacked. Both my wife and I were moved to tears by your generosity.
So here’s the verdict:
The good news: His leg is not broken! He has moderate soft tissue damage, which will take a good bit of time to heal. But the leg bones are solid. Additionally, he has developed a skin sensitivity (flea bites, we believe, and apparently the fuckers are Revolution-resistant) which sends him into biting and scratching spasms. It was one of those spasms that sent him hurtling off a 5-foot high shelf onto the floor and damaged his leg. They treated him, and we are going tomorrow to get some organic skin calming oil. We don’t think he has miliary dermatitis, but we will treat him for that if we don’t see some quick improvement. Anyone think CBD-based oil or spray would help him? I know it would calm his squirrelly ass down a bit. And of course, we are flea-treating the house AGAIN. Also, tomorrow we are receiving that “cat playpen” thing we ordered from Amazon. Someone posted in the comments of the previous diary about it. It looks perfect. The big kitten cage goes back into the shed and Calvin gets the much safer cat playpen. Or whatever it’s called.
The bad news: It’s unlikely, but Calvin may have a herniated or bulging disc in his spine. It would cost far more than what we requested to have that checked (trip to a veterinary hospital 100 miles away, 2-3 days stay, etc), so considering that the vet does not believe that is the case, we have opted not to do this right now. Today’s treatment (including an array of other treatments — he hasn’t been to the vet in a long time), took most but not all of your contributions. We are going to spend the rest on transforming the office (his “safe space”) into a Calvin-friendly zone where he can’t hurt himself so readily.
Other info: Calvin is a good bit older than we thought he was: he’s actually about 15, based on tooth wear, etc. And...Calvin is not a male calico. He is a she. He has little “nads” that fooled both us and the vet into thinking they were neutered testicles, or that he was born sterile with small, non-functional testicles. Nope. He’s been spayed sometime before we brought him in (around 2006). Notice we’re still calling him “he”? We’ve decided he’s our trans cat and he is proud to proclaim his true sexuality. (Also, he would not be the first “hermaphroditic” cat we’ve had, though that is a different and tragic story. I don’t think that’s the case here.) He’s been our best boy for 13 years and that’s not changing now. Also, we chose not to take him to the emergency vet clinic, the only one I know of within 50 miles and the only vet hospital open on weekends. They killed one of our most wonderful feral cats, Milky (he was a black cat with a “milk mustache”) by overanesthetizing him for what should have been a minor procedure. We have never been back.
I’ll keep updating in the pootie diaries. To everyone who contributed, whether it was monetary or tips, recs and love&light, thank you so, so much for helping us help Calvin.