Cow bites Tiger and it's off to the vet's

Sigh...

Cow is crazy at times and today was one such time.

This morning, I heard the sound of catfight in the Clubhouse and by the time I checked, which was within seconds, I saw Cow confronting Tiger. Cow was panting like a mad person with tufts of Tiger's hair in his mouth. Tiger was too scared to even move. Bunny was walking away from the scene.

I whisked Tiger out to the living room. Based on the scene above, I assume Cow attacked Tiger. Why Bunny was there, I don't really know.

But Tiger seemed fine; we could not see any visible injury with our untrained eye and he wanted to go back into the room, so we let him back in.

In between, there was an episode of Bunny confronting Tiger (no yelling involved) and even Indy confronting him. So we let Tiger roam in the living room again. But Tiger was really afraid of Heidi, so Heidi had to go out to the porch.

He seemed fine and even took a long afternoon nap with me on the sofa.

But by late afternoon, we noticed Tiger limping. It was his left front paw which he could not place down. And he did not even want to eat his dinner. I managed to handfeed him, though (not forcefeed, but feeding by hand where he ate on his own). But he wouldn't let us check that paw. He growled and hissed.

So it was off to the vet's. Not taking any chances. Not eating is never a good sign.

Tiger whined throughout the journey.



The vet observed Tiger and noticed that he could put his full weight on that left front paw (which was good). He was even able to jump down from a stool, walk over a bar, and placed his full weight on that paw each time.

But the vet suspected bite wounds, so he shaved Tiger's paw.

Sure enough, there were multiple bite (puncture) wounds with clear fluid oozing out. There was no pus yet, which was good, so the infection was just starting. The flesh around the wounds were inflamed (hardening).

The vet recommended warm compression, soaking in warm salt water (to draw out the fluid that is causing congestion at the site of the wound), antibiotics is also an option. Since Tiger is FIV+, antibiotics is preferred. We had a choice of Clavomox (which is stronger) or Amoxicillin (same function but milder than Clavomox). The vet suggested we go for Amoxicilin as the infection was not severe (it's best to keep Clavomox for more severe infections, just in case, especially when Tiger is FIV+; better not overkill on the use of antibiotics for a minor infection now. Tiger might need stronger antibiotics later in life.)  That made sense.  The vet also prescribed another antibiotic, Metronidazole, which is good for the inflammation as well as a papase enzyme to help reduce the inflammation. We will also give him Vetri DMG (I already had before leaving the house).

Tiger had a temperature of 39.8 degrees, which is a mild fever.

Luckily we did not delay in bringing Tiger in.

And oh, Tiger weighed only 5.6kg. I was surprised as I thought he would surely surpass the 6kg mark. The good news is that Tiger had maintained his weight since many years ago. He was 5.65kg then. He is still obese, though.

So, Tiger came home, with a shaven paw. Poor guy.

We did the warm salt water dip just now, but could not even last 1 minute as he was growling and angry. We figured we'd better not push it tonight. The stress might do more harm. The vet did say that for normal (non FIV+) cats, wounds like these could even heal on its own. But we would not want to take any chances with Tiger. The vet also said that if I felt Tiger wasn't getting any better, I could go back and get the Clavomox for him.

Meanwhile, I think Cow felt really bad as he was seen grooming Tiger by licking his back.

Sigh...Cow is unpredictably mad. One moment he would be this super-manja cat asking to be stroked and the next, his teeth can sink into your flesh causing blood spurting out like a mini fountain. He has a severe petting aggression issue with humans, but I am not sure what issues he has with cats. Or why he attacked poor Tiger today.

Bunny took advantage of Tiger's condition and tried to attack him twice.

Poor Tiger's only ally is Tabs and as you know, there isn't much that Tabs can do.

Now, you...you please behave, okay? Can we rely on you to protect Tiger? But you are also slightly mad...sigh.

We hope Tiger recovers soon.