u/ArsonFrog143

Snapped this yesterday of him holding his new favourite toy, tired out from playing and ready to take a nap 🩷 couldn’t resist making a progress/comparison photo!

Look at this silly boy go!!!!

I’ve previously gotten him to catch one specific mouse toy in his mouth and shake it, but
I had to goad it out of him and it never lasted long.

He’s never showed an active interest in a toy and I’ve never seen him this animated before 🥹🩷

A few days ago he lay down on the floor in the open near my bed and kept me company (pic 4). Since then he’s done it every day, and the past two days it was more or less all day. Yesterday he even stretched out and fell asleep 🥹💕

(Pic 8 = the end of a sneeze 😆)

A few days ago he lay down on the floor in the open (pic 4). He’s done it every day since and the past two days almost all day! Yesterday he even stretched out and fell asleep in the middle of the rug 🥹🩷

(Pic 7 = the end of a sneeze lmao)

Today Rufs was using his missing back leg to fantom-scratch at his ear. First time I’ve seen him try to “use” it.

He actually let me help him, both with my hand and the brush, while he “assisted” by kinda wiggling his hip 🤣🩷

PLEASE SEE THIS POST FIRST! FORGOT TO POST IT HERE!

A couple of weeks ago I made a post (linked above) detailing how Rufs FINALLY dared to leave the hideout when I’m near him and started exploring outside the cat room.

It’s only gotten better from there 🤭 I put his favourite house in the hallway and he spent the next couple of days using it more and more.

I’d immediately re-created his little desk cave after that first exploration but he wasn’t coming back to the main room, so I decided it was time to start moving the other cat furniture out here.

I moved his cat tree and put it in a way where he could see it from the hallway. Either that worked or it was a coincidence, but he started hanging out in here with me—not in the actual cat tree but under my desk—which soon turned into an everyday thing as well.

Although I’d visited quite a bit in the cat room, this is the first time he’s near me 24/7, and I can tell he’s really content 🥹🩷

A couple of weeks ago I made this post detailing how Rufs FINALLY dared to leave the hideout when I’m near him and started exploring outside the cat room.

It’s only gotten better from there 🤭 I put his favourite house in the hallway and he spent the next couple of days using it more and more.

I’d immediately re-created his little desk cave after that first exploration but he wasn’t coming back to the main room, so I decided it was time to start moving the other cat furniture out here.

I moved his cat tree and put it in a way where he could see it from the hallway. Either that worked or it was a coincidence, but he started hanging out in here with me—not in the actual cat tree but under my desk—which soon turned into an everyday thing as well.

Although I’d visited quite a bit in the cat room, this is the first time he’s near me 24/7, and I can tell he’s really content 🥹🩷

“It” being that Rufs came to say hi out in the big room and stayed for like 45 minutes 🥹🩷

Bit of context, kinda skippable: He’s healed up from his illness (and hopefully it stays that way 🥲) and I think the experience honestly made us closer. He was on Gabapentin for like 2/3 of his recovery so he was fairly chilled out, and he watched me care for him continuously for two weeks when he felt at his most vunerable—including cleaning his diarrea butt and wiping his face off after every meal.

The antibiotics for his hip also gave him his hearing back (my theory is swelling due to systemic inflammation), which has made him a little more trusting than before—and that makes sense. He can hear me coming but also enjoys my voice.

Anyway!

Our training/focus lately:

Lately I’ve tried really hard to encourage him to come out of his hideout with me there, the long term goal being for him to spend more time (or ANY time) in the big room where I spend 95% of mine. He did explore it in the beginning but hasn’t since.

After escaping The Cone™️ he was just lying in his og favourite hideout and at first I let him be cause he’d just been through an ordeal. I did however begin to feel like we were a bit stuck and that him spending so much time there was contributing to the problem (as it’s furthest from the door and not as open).

I went as far as to block that hideout off with blankets to get him back to the big open one that’s closer to the door (and he also loves). After a moment of initial confusion, it worked as intended. Phew.

I’ve driven myself a bit mad trying 46372829 different furnishings for the rest of the room in the hopes he might come out of the “cat corner”, all to little avail. I’ve also been feeding him his wet food and treats further and further out from his hideout, with a bit more success.

To the ((((( BIG EVENT )))))

He HAS been out of his hideout with me in the room—even using the litter box—but only ever with furniture between us. And that’s how it started yesterday 🤭** **

Imagine my kitchen as a square room where a wall of cat furniture and blankets divides it so that 2/3 is the cat space and the remaining 1/3 is my food prep area. (I ended up making a lil map lol)

I was making my supper and went around the corner to leave the room. When doing so I ran into a cat! Who hissed but didn’t move. I immediately began backing up, looking away and praising him in a calm tone. He’d never been that far out before and I kept waiting for him to run back inside but he didn’t. Instead, he TUCKED HIS PAWS!?!? 😱** **

I got low (always get low!!) and approached carefully. He let me pet him 😭🩷 So grateful for vocal cues. After a little while I backed off and left the room bc I didn’t wanna overwhelm him.

And what happens maybe 10-15 minutes later when I’m on the couch just on my computer? I hear a noise in the hallway outside. Then I hear a noise closer. I think he can’t possibly be coming in here, too. WRONG! It takes me a moment to understand that it’s the sound of his paws against the little mattresses I’ve put out on the floor (bc they smell like him).

I see a little face and think holy shit. I contemplate silence bc previous days he runs back in his hideout as soon as I speak, but he did seem braver than usual so I start talking to him calmly. Then he walks over to my desk, underneath which I’d previously made a cosy cave for him. There’s just a cat bed there now and he tries to get into it but he’s only got 3 legs and can’t figure it out. I don’t wanna approach for obvious reasons so he settles in front of it.

I once again get low and put some kibble in front of him. He lets me pet him and eventually starts eating. It’s late already so after a while I turn the lights out and go to bed—with him still there.

I checked the kitty cam just now and he went back into the cat room ~30 min after lights out 🤭

IM SO HAPPY AND PROUD!!!!

TLDR: I’ve been working on getting Rufs to leave the cat room or even his hideout with me in the room, but have felt been a bit stuck. Yesterday he surprised me, twice!
First I basically ran into him when leaving the cat room, and he hissed but didn’t run to hide. He let me pet him. About 15 min later when I was on the couch in the big room he came to explore 🥹 Then settled in front of my desk where I’d previously made him a cave (gone now, sorry buddy). He initially tried to get in the cat bed which is there now but he hasn’t figured the 3 legged thing out properly. I was eventually able to pet him and give him some food. Turned the lights off to sleep and the kitty cam told me he stayed there for 30 more minutes before going to use his box.

I’ve been sitting on this for a few days cause I’m still processing. Technically this development makes sense but it’s still SO unexpected.

Rufs has been half blind and hard of hearing ever since he moved in ~2.5 months ago. He could hear toy bells, crinkly bags and my voice if I was right by him, but was unaware of most noise. Couldn’t hear the vacuum or electric toothbrush, neighbour kids outside, nothing. His ears never twitched or moved.

A couple of weeks ago he started antibiotics for a hip infection. About halfway through I started noticing signs of him reacting to sound, but I figured it was just a coincidence…

Then it kept happening, and a few days ago I had my aha 💡 moment and the antibiotics connection clicked for me.

I’ve since tested him numerous times. GUYS. HIS HEARING IS RESTORED. HE HAS NORMAL HEARING.

I don’t know if his hearing issues were due to systemic inflammation, whether bacteria from the hip wound had travelled through the blood stream to his ears or what (both of them??)… but holy crap, the issues are no more.

The first sign was him looking at the kitty cam when I moved it remotely, which makes a buzzing sound. It’s always been right by him and he’s not even noticed it’s there.

Then he got scared of the handheld vacuum I used to clean up some sand the other day. This gave me a big “huh??” moment cause previously he didn’t even wake up or react when I used the BIG vacuum.

What finally made it click: I was on the couch in the other room, and the door to his room was open (but it’s out in the hallway so not super close). I was watching him nap on the kitty cam and, as one does, started talking to him but not really to him, just saying he’s a pretty boy and whatnot. He opened one eye. I waited and then tries a few more times. Each time he opened an eye. At first I thought the microphone function was turned on but when I went to turn it off… it wasn’t even enabled.

His ears now move a little more, he is easy to wake up and he even reacted to the neighbour kids outside our front door.

It also explains why he’s had a bigger reaction to my singing lately. He can finally hear mama properly and he loves it 😭🩷🩷

I’m so happy for him!!

TLDR: Rufs has been hard of hearing ever since he got here 2.5. months ago, and we’ve adapted accordingly. Then he went on a course of antibiotics for his infected hip and now his hearing is restored. Idk if it was systemic inflammation or bacteria travelled there from his hip or what’s going on, but he can definitely hear much better.

As you may recall, he got a second infection at the amputation site 3 months after the first one healed, and we were worried about possible resistant bacteria.
__________________

It’s taken two weeks to get the results from the bacterial swab they did because for some reason the bacteria was difficult to grow a culture of and they had to send it to a second lab, but I just got an email about the preliminary results that indicates it isn’t some scary resistant strain 😭🙏As long as the wound keeps looking good, nothing further needs to be done at this time 🥹

It’s taken two weeks to get the results from the bacterial swab they did because for some reason the bacteria was difficult to grow a culture of and they had to send it to a second lab, but I just got an email about the preliminary results that indicates it isn’t some scary resistant strain 😭🙏As long as the wound keeps looking good, nothing further needs to be done at this time 🥹

Since a fre days back he’s all done with the antibiotics and out of the cone. He’s eating really well and his diarrea stopped the minute we stopped the Amoxival 🙌 (Thank god. 2 weeks of cleaning poopy cat butt was enough.)

It’s taken two weeks to get the results from the bacterial swab they did because for some reason the bacteria was difficult to grow a culture of and they had to send it to a second lab, but I just got an email about the preliminary results that indicates it isn’t some scary resistant strain 😭🙏As long as the wound keeps looking good, nothing further needs to be done at this time 🥹

Since a fre days back he’s all done with the antibiotics and out of the cone. He’s eating really well and his diarrea stopped the minute we stopped the Amoxival 🙌 (Thank god. 2 weeks of cleaning poopy cat butt was enough.)

I’ve heard before that tripods can have issues with aiming in the litter box but this is straight up impressive lmaooo.

Yesterday I heard him go to the box so I opened the camera app to check on him (he was sick recently). At first I was like aw he’s sitting properly, good job! Wait… what’s that shimmery…. Oh HELL NAH!! I just changed those blankets!!

I couldn’t even be mad tho bc it was so funny.

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Lemme start by saying that we might not be 100% out of the woods yet. We still haven’t had results back from the bacterial swab bc apparently the bacteria he has/had is hard to grow a culture of so they had to send it to a second lab?? Idk.

Also it’s possible that there’s infection deeper down where the antibiotics “don’t reach”, as the vet put it. (Which could be a reason his infection came back even though as far as anyone knew, it was fully healed).

That said, his wound is more or less gone now and we’ve finished the course of antibiotics and been able to remove the damn cone, FINALLY.

His diarrea stopped when the antibiotics did, as I’d hoped 🙌

Since I no longer have to wipe poop or clean his wound, I was also able to stop the Gabapentin a few days back. Today is the first day of no painkillers… we’ll see how he does 🤞

Lemme start by saying that we might not be 100% out of the woods yet. We still haven’t had results back from the bacterial swab bc apparently the bacteria he has/had is hard to grow a culture of so they had to send it to a second lab?? Idk.

Also it’s possible that there’s infection deeper down where the antibiotics “don’t reach”, as the vet put it. (Which could be a reason his infection came back even though as far as anyone knew, it was fully healed).

That said, his wound is more or less gone now and we’ve finished the course of antibiotics and been able to remove the damn cone, FINALLY.

His diarrea stopped when the antibiotics did, as I’d hoped 🙌

Since I no longer have to wipe poop or clean his wound, I was also able to stop the Gabapentin a few days back. Today is the first day of no painkillers… we’ll see how he does 🤞

If you missed my previous post:
His amputation site got re-infected somehow 3 months after being “healed”. He had a hidden abscess burst and had a really bad wound which was more like a crater. He’d stopped eating and drinking and had a hard time pooping. We worried (still are, a bit) about resistant bacteria or a deeper infection that was somehow missed. The prognosis was, and still somewhat is, uncertain.

Lemme start by saying that we might not be 100% out of the woods yet. We still haven’t had results back from the bacterial swab bc apparently the bacteria he has/had is hard to grow a culture of so they had to send it to a second lab?? Idk.

Also it’s possible that there’s infection deeper down where the antibiotics “don’t reach”, as the vet put it. (Which could be a reason his infection came back even though as far as anyone knew, it was fully healed).

That said, his wound is more or less gone now and we’ve finished the course of antibiotics and been able to remove the damn cone, FINALLY.

His diarrea stopped when the antibiotics did, as I’d hoped 🙌

Since I no longer have to wipe poop or clean his wound, I was also able to stop the Gabapentin a few days back. Today is the first day of no painkillers… we’ll see how he does 🤞

If you missed my previous post:
His amputation site got re-infected somehow 3 months after being “healed”. He had a hidden abscess burst and had a really bad wound which was more like a crater. He’d stopped eating and drinking and had a hard time pooping. We worried (still are, a bit) about resistant bacteria or a deeper infection that was somehow missed. The prognosis was, and still somewhat is, uncertain.

The vet has said to remove my cat’s collar when his wound is “completely healed” but I tend to take things a bit literally so I’m wondering what that means.

For context it was a burst abscess/infection that was left open to heal and drain on its own. It was about 4 cm across.

At this point it has completely shrunk so there’s no tissue exposed any longer but I guess it’s technically not “completely” healed ie it’s in the stage where crust is forming.

Edit: here’s a photo from today

Is completely healed when it has a crust/scab? When the crust is completely gone too?

It’s located on his hip pretty far down, close to his (former) gonads.

I’m asking because he reeeeeally hates the collar and is in need of a good self-wash atp

Edit: oops I forgot, neutered male former stray who’s now an indoor cat. 8-12 ish years old. Tripod (this was at the amputation site).

God, I love the Furminator.

God, I love the Furminator.