Life #1 of 9. I brought home restaurant scraps for our chickens. As I called the chickens over, I heard a loud and desperate meowing issuing from our topless concrete silo. I thought one of our cats had somehow gotten herself in and was wandering around the floor of the silo and looking for a way out. But no, I looked up into the enclosed ladder area, and here was our tortoise shell kitten, 15 feet up and clinging to the rungs. I stood under the ladder and tried to get her to come down or jump down on me. She didn’t. As the first rung is 12 feet up, I went to either get a ladder or call Mr. Farmer. Not ten steps away, I heard a thud onto the gravel below the silo—a thud that was thuddier than it should have been for what I hoped wasn’t who I thought it was. Looking back, I saw Minka on the gravel below. Clearly dazed, she crouched at an odd angle, took several running leaps towards the barn, and then stopped, panting heavily. I ran to her. The inside of her mouth was thick with blood. Her eyes were all but closed. And she was so skinny. I thought I’d seen her just yesterday, but did I after all? I tried to remember. How long had she been up there in that hot, airless enclosure? And how did she get up there, anyway? It’s a concrete silo, after all. I rushed her to the house. Filling a large-hole squirt bottle with water, I gently rinsed the area around her mouth. I gingerly felt around her jaw and legs. Nothing appeared broken. I commandeered a large dog crate already lined with pine shavings and added an ice pack wrapped in several layers of thick towel. I added a bowl of water for if she felt she could drink. I laid her on the ice pack. Her legs sprawled out behind her in a very irregular and un-cat-like way. She was still panting and her eyes were still closed. Mr. Farmer came home. Between the sobs that wanted to come, I told him what happened. I was very unsettled, clearly a wreck myself. Mr. Farmer wrapped his arms around me in empathy. We decided to let Minka rest for an hour. Checking on her later, we found her sitting up and meowing loudly. Between meows I could see her tongue. It was a normal shade of pink, instead of coated with blood as it had been previously. My instinct told me that she was hungry, but that her jaw most likely wasn’t up to crunching cat food. She needed calories, and quickly. I got out the avian metal drenching tube a veterinarian had sold me last year. It was $10 for that thing, but my, has it come in handy. With a fork I whipped up a tablespoon of fresh cream and a little banty egg. Not too much, as I did not want to overload her system if there was something going on internally. I nested her in the crook of my arm and inserted the drenching tube and syringe in her mouth (not down her throat). She resisted, but when that liquid started to go down her throat, she gave up the fight and swallowed eagerly. She easily finished the whole thing. I made up a mash of cat food and hot water in case she was up to eating later. Letting the mixture cool, I put that in the crate with her. This morning, Minka is more alert. She is sitting up, with her tail wrapped round her legs. She hasn’t eaten any of the food, but did gulp a fresh cream-and-egg mixture from a bowl of her own accord. I’m reluctant to let her out until she can prove to me that she can eat regular food again. You may ask why we didn’t take her to the vet. The question how much veterinary care to provide farm cats and dogs is different for everyone. Since I’ve worked in animal hospitals and done almost everything except what a vet would do, I’m able to provide some care right at home here. Farmers actually do a lot more home care than city dog and cat owners do – they give their cattle shots, for example. If things hadn’t started to turn around, we would have had a decision to make with Minka. Take her on an expensive trip to the vet, or put her out of her misery ourselves. Thankfully in this case it appears we won’t have to make that decision, as Minka appears to be recovering well. Meanwhile, I’m a little less freaked out.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:35:45 +0000
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