The Cats have been Broken.

1/31/04 - Broken cats are a good thing. It's been a rough 3 weeks with the cats.

Almost simultaneously with the arrival of my parents, Bopis went into heat. Let me tell you, that is not a fun thing to go through. Yowling, rolling around, and basically driving this human nuts.
So, she went into heat. We spent some time seeing what possible damage can be done while waiting for them to be "broken". We guess them to be about 6 months old, though Pomelo was also losing his baby teeth at the same time. That's most definitely an off shoot of his poor start in life. He's just maturing later in some areas, because otherwise he's weeks to months younger than Bopis and that's impossible (cats should have all their adult teeth by 3-4 months old).
Anyhow, we did our best keeping them apart, cycling who was locked in the storage room with who had free roam of the house. Of course, no matter what they were both meowing for each other 24 hours a day. It was awful. It worked OK logistically, except for the day we were out and the housekeeper (I guess) figured that we'd missed locking a cat up and put the other one in the storage room too. Here's where I smack my head for not saying anything before we left the house, but also feel like getting annoyed at her for assuming so much. Arg.
The vet came to pick up the cats on a Thursday and ran a series of blood tests. Friday he returned the cats exactly as they'd left, because the test on their liver came back abnormal and he wouldn't do the surgery until it was corrected. Yup, 2 weeks of twice a day meds for both of them. And the whole time separated. Could you hear my head pounding into the wall over that one? It was frustrating, but 2 weeks later and Jetepar complete, he picked them up again and delivered them back the same night, minus their reproductive ability. Pomelo was a little unsteady, but doing fine overall. Bopis had a hard road getting over the anaethesia and the pain was probably pretty bad. The vet gave us amoxicillin for her and another med for Pomelo that would also serve to treat his persistent diarrhea.
This morning I tried to give him the Scourlak. Well the vet had warned that while the cats were recovering we might have some bouts of vomitting, but this was purely med related. Pomelo would have nothing to do with it. We've given him oral med series twice before and never had a reaction like this. Not only did he struggle, but what actually went into his mouth (vs the floor or my arm), was immediately and violently spti out and thrown up. He was so insistent that at one point the foam exuding from his mouth was bloody.
OK, his diarrhea isn't that bad, I'm not putting him or the rest of us through that again, not once a day, not three times a day per the prescription. I gave Bopis her amoxicillin then went back to him and gave him amoxicillin too, and he took it just fine. Let's hope there are quieter days ahead.