Tail trouble
Last night Sara and I attempted to shave the last four inches of Lucy's tail's hair to remove the wax that was stuck on it. We decided that this was the thing to do since Lucy has been kinda freaking out about the wax on her tail. We hoped that if we removed it, or lessened it, that she would be able to clean it herself and make things better.
Sara put on my welding gloves, we wrapped Lucy in a towel, and then I tried to shave her tail with my electric shaver. Lucy was less than agreeable to this and Sara bore the brunt of her malfeasance (being the one closest to the end with the teeth and claws). I was able to reduce the amount of wax on her tail, and we thought that would allow her to chew the rest of it out over the coming days.
I saw her chewing at her tail this morning and was hoping that she would have it all fixed up in short order. Unfortunately, that didn't go as planned. She removed a lot, but not all, of the wax herself. Unfortunately, it seems she chewed her tail raw in the process.
What that translates into is a cat that's afraid of her own tail because it seems to hurt whenever she touches anything with it. She had been running around the house afraid of her tail for at least 20 minutes until, panting(!), she came and sat on my lap -- I guess hoping that I would save her from her tail.
I tried to calm her down by holding her tail, stroking her, and "shushing" her. It seemed to be working, but then as she grew more content she started to wag her tail and she grew more restless. She started hissing at me, or her tail, it was hard to tell as she circled and jumped around on my lap. She was crying and meowing and looking quite scared. I decided that I would have to finish the job and wondered how I would hold her down all by myself.
I got her, my electric shaver, and a blanket. I wrapped her in my blanket and she immediately started to squirm and cry. I decided that the only way to hold her down was to sit on her and squeeze her between my legs. I started shaving her tail, much to her dislike. She started to squirm, quite forcefully, and then started to howl and cry like I've never heard a cat cry before -- it almost sounded like a baby crying. Spooky. I tried to console her with my voice, but decided that be best way to console her would be shave her as quickly as I could.
After a minute or so, she got her head free, or maybe a foot, but I think it was her head, and sunk something very sharp into my ankle. That halted the shaving for a brief moment as I had to rearrange her and the blanket. I was able to quickly finish shaving her tail and made sure that it wasn't bleeding from my trimming. She ran off, and I took my bleeding foot upstairs to clean and bandage it.
After a few minutes she had time to settle down. I think that she's doing better. Certainly she doesn't have a giant wax club on the end of her tail making life miserable for her. She's still a bit jumpy around her tail, but I'm hoping that her unease will lessen as the pain wears off. Too bad I don't have any pain meds for her, but I think she's a trooper and will be fine by the end of the day. At least that's what I'm hoping for.
Sara put on my welding gloves, we wrapped Lucy in a towel, and then I tried to shave her tail with my electric shaver. Lucy was less than agreeable to this and Sara bore the brunt of her malfeasance (being the one closest to the end with the teeth and claws). I was able to reduce the amount of wax on her tail, and we thought that would allow her to chew the rest of it out over the coming days.
I saw her chewing at her tail this morning and was hoping that she would have it all fixed up in short order. Unfortunately, that didn't go as planned. She removed a lot, but not all, of the wax herself. Unfortunately, it seems she chewed her tail raw in the process.
What that translates into is a cat that's afraid of her own tail because it seems to hurt whenever she touches anything with it. She had been running around the house afraid of her tail for at least 20 minutes until, panting(!), she came and sat on my lap -- I guess hoping that I would save her from her tail.
I tried to calm her down by holding her tail, stroking her, and "shushing" her. It seemed to be working, but then as she grew more content she started to wag her tail and she grew more restless. She started hissing at me, or her tail, it was hard to tell as she circled and jumped around on my lap. She was crying and meowing and looking quite scared. I decided that I would have to finish the job and wondered how I would hold her down all by myself.
I got her, my electric shaver, and a blanket. I wrapped her in my blanket and she immediately started to squirm and cry. I decided that the only way to hold her down was to sit on her and squeeze her between my legs. I started shaving her tail, much to her dislike. She started to squirm, quite forcefully, and then started to howl and cry like I've never heard a cat cry before -- it almost sounded like a baby crying. Spooky. I tried to console her with my voice, but decided that be best way to console her would be shave her as quickly as I could.
After a minute or so, she got her head free, or maybe a foot, but I think it was her head, and sunk something very sharp into my ankle. That halted the shaving for a brief moment as I had to rearrange her and the blanket. I was able to quickly finish shaving her tail and made sure that it wasn't bleeding from my trimming. She ran off, and I took my bleeding foot upstairs to clean and bandage it.
After a few minutes she had time to settle down. I think that she's doing better. Certainly she doesn't have a giant wax club on the end of her tail making life miserable for her. She's still a bit jumpy around her tail, but I'm hoping that her unease will lessen as the pain wears off. Too bad I don't have any pain meds for her, but I think she's a trooper and will be fine by the end of the day. At least that's what I'm hoping for.
posted by Mark at 1:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home