State of the Lars: Bitey Bitch and Lack of Litter Box Love...

No downloads as of last night so we decided to give Lars 1cc of Lactulose last night to try and help jump-start his system. It Did Not Go Well. I administered the meds, and I'm not as experienced as J is, so Lars fought me tooth and nail. Following J's suggestions, I kneeled on the floor, placed Lars between my legs, got ready to administer the dose and Lars went batshit. Squirmy, growly, yowly, and bitey. He got me, too, on the pad of my right pinkie finger--hard enough to draw a bit of blood. :/

I did manage to get most of the dose into his head without getting much of the sticky stuff onto his fluffy, fluffy fur. Released the Hell Beast and tended to my wound. It's not bad, but it's not great, either. Washed it thoroughly under hot water for about five minutes, saturated it with rubbing alcohol, and drowned it in hydrogen peroxide before lightly bandaging it without any sort of antibiotic ointment. Why no meds? We learned with J's bad bite last year that by putting any antibiotic ointment on, the wound will heal from the outside in. If there's any bad bacteria from the bite still inside the wound, it'll fester under the healed tissue, which is what they speculate happened to J and that's how he landed in the hospital for three days with a blood infection from his bite from Ra. It was weird for me to not fully dress a wound, but since I know better, I didn't.

Status of the Lars this morning: no downloads anywhere, be it in a litter box or around the house that I've found, so far. Sigh. That Lactulose usually works overnight, so...yeah...He begged for his breakfast again this morning bright and early and ate it with much gusto again and is otherwise acting normally, so I think he's okay...for now...

Before J left for work he successfully, and with surprisingly minimal fuss, administered another 1cc of Lactlose into Lars' head. He had to pin Lars on his side to do it, but he did it. We can give up to 6cc per day, so if Lars doesn't download by tonight, he'll get another 1cc before his dinner I think.

I would have to say that, if there are no downloads found by tomorrow morning, a call (at least) to Dr. B is in order. We can't wait too long without a download--if he's plugged up for too long, Lars could end up with a chronic condition called megacolon, which is all sorts of DO NOT WANT, so...yeah, gotta get Lars to download somehow. There's always the possibility that Lars is leaving us presents in new and yet to be discovered places around the house, but I find that a bit unlikely. My wager is on that he's constipated, which if we don't rectify it, then Dr. B will have to with an enema. :/ Won't THAT be fun?? :/

Status of the Pam: wound area is a bit sore in general and a bit to the touch. Ever so slightly red around the edges of the wound, too, but that's to be expected, really. I washed it thoroughly again after I took my AM meds and doused it good with hydrogen peroxide and let it sizzle for awhile before rinsing it with more hot water, gently dabbing it dry and lightly re-bandaging it again. No blood or anything else coming out of it, so that's good I think. Will definitely be keeping an eye on this wound in the coming hours and days to make sure nothing Bad happens to it. It's just deep enough to be of some concern, of course. Couldn't be an easy and superficial thing, no it couldn't!

Sigh. The adventures around here continue...

State of the Pam: possible infected bite?

Took my shower this morning and the hot water really aggravated my wound from last night. The hot water made my whole pinkie throb in the shower. Waited awhile and noticed the tip where the bite is located looked a bit swollen and that my pinkie, in general, felt warmer to the touch than the rest of my fingers and right hand. Sigh. A call to the doctor's nurse line was in order.

They hear "cat bite" and suggest I be seen ASAP. I live close enough to the office that I was able to secure an appointment within 10 minutes of the callback from the nurse. I drive over and get seen by Lindsay the physician's assistant. She looks at it, notes it's swollen and sore looking and also notes it's a puncture vs. a scratch--more likely to become infected. She asked me how I'd been caring for the wound--I told her hot water for five minutes post-bite, followed by alcohol and hydrogen peroxide, then lightly bandaged with no antibiotic ointment as that would make the wound heal from the outside in and trap the bad bacteria inside the wound. She gave me mad props for that one. ;) Told her I repeated the hot water/alcohol/hydrogen peroxide treatment first thing this morning and how sore it got during my shower later.

She poked and prodded it a bit--nothing came out of it, but she did get it to open up a bit. It's a bit deeper than I recall. :/ The tip of the pinkie is sorta numb to the touch while the rest of my pinkie is sorta sore and the whole she-bang is generally pinker than it should be. Yep, signs of an infection starting to set in. I'm on ten days of Augmentin for that. Soak the wounded area in 50/50 mix of hot water and hydrogen peroxide twice daily for at least three days and nights. Take ibuprofen to help take the swelling from the trauma of the bite down a notch. If there are signs of anything getting worse (pain, swelling, discharge of any sort, etc.) I'm to call the office right back for follow up. Neglected to ask if bowling is out or not--I would think since the pinkie finger isn't really involved in the sport, if I keep it covered nicely I should be fine. She also suggested when at all possible (read: when I'm not typing, LOL) to keep it uncovered and open to air to help it breathe. She said keep it uncovered as long as I can keep it clean and dry in doing so.

My dip/tet was up to date, but I got the shot before it had pertussis added, so I got a booster for that shot today, too. Can't hurt with a puncture wound to get another tetanus booster anyway, so...yeah...

Augmentin is a pretty potent antibiotic and harsh on the GI tract, so after Walgreens I went to the grocery store to pick up some much needed quick make groceries so I'll have at least breakfasts I didn't previously have in the house for consumption. Got some quicky meals for dinners, too.

Current status? I don't think I ate enough with the first dose of Augmentin I took--head's a little bit wonky right now, but getting better. Pinkie's sore from all the poking and prodding and lifting of grocery bags. Ibuprofen helped take some of the edge off, so it's a bit better than when I first got home.

We'll definitely have to keep an eye on this still. I've by no means decreed myself out of the woods with this one just yet...Sigh...