Guys, my cat is an idiot.
Apr. 14th, 2011 12:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kageotogiI was up late last night making fancy cupcakes and didn't head up the stairs for bed until a little after one. As soon as I started up the stairs, my cats raced on ahead of me. Now, those of you with pets already know this, but it's apparently shedding season, and with two cats this means my stairs become coated with fur on an almost daily basis. I try to clean it up whenever I can, so as I was heading up the stairs I swept some fur with my hand to throw away when I got upstairs.
When I paused on the landing, I heard a "Mrrr!" noise from above me. I looked up, and there was my cat -- not Babeh-Seizure!Kitteh, but the other one -- dangling from the stair railing.
For those who don't know, my stairs almost kind of circle around: there's about thirteen steps from the first floor to the landing, then the next six or so steps run almost parallel (you know, if my world was 2D) to the upstairs hallway, and then there's a railing that runs across my hall -- no wall. My cat was dangling from this railing.
In the five seconds it took for this to compute and for me to try and race up the stairs so I could pull him back up, he lost his grip and fell. He hit the first set of steps about midway, tumbled down the remaining steps, and then rolled a bit until he hit the wall.
At that point, he blinked up at me, stunned, got up, and raced under the couch.
I was pretty sure he didn't have any broken bones or anything, since he'd raced away, but I wanted to lure him out from under the couch to make sure he was okay. After heading back downstairs, I cracked open a can of cat food. He of course darted out the second he heard me get the can. He and the Babeh!Kitteh ate that, I gave Clumsy!Kitteh some attention, and then went back up to bed.
About five minutes later, I heard Clumsy!Kitteh vomit on my bedroom floor. I figured he'd eaten too fast so cleaned it up and went back to bed... only for him to vomit (again) almost as soon as I'd turned off the light. I cleaned that up, and because I was already worrying about his fall, went online (briefly) to figure out if they could be associated.
Because the internet knows everything, guys.
I knew vomiting was common in human concussions, but wasn't sure about cats, so I did a google search for cat vomit, and "concussion" and "internal injuries" came up, after the usual "ate too fast, anxiety, blahblahblah" stuff. The cat vomited a third time as I was going to go check his eyes (which were huge as usual, so that was no help), so I freaked out and called my parents.
My parents, for the record, go to bed usually around ten o'clock. It was now about half-past one.
After waking them up and explaining what had happened, following up with "Do you think I should take him to the emergency hospital?" -- the same hospital where I took Babeh!Kitteh after his first seizure, where they did a few useless exams, tried to convince me to keep him at the clinic for monitoring, and then grossly overcharged me for the whole ordeal --, my father advised me to keep an eye on him and, should he continue to vomit or show any other symptoms of something being wrong, decide then. This is what I was hoping he'd say, honestly, so I hung up the phone and headed downstairs to sit on my couch.
I turned the TV on low. The cats followed, of course, and Clumsy!Kitteh went back to hiding under the couch for a bit. Babeh!Kitteh played, and when Clumsy!Kitteh came out from under the couch Babeh!Kitteh tormented him a little. Possibly in retaliation, Clumsy!Kitteh vomited a fourth time. I cleaned that up and settled back on the couch, still keeping an eye on him. Babeh!Kitteh curled up in my lap and fell asleep. Clumsy!Kitteh lingered in the living room for a while, helped himself to some water, returned to me for attention, disappeared under the couch, ate a bug, fell asleep on my shoulder, woke up and went to get more water, ate another bug, and then disappeared again (upstairs, I discovered a little later).
He stopped vomiting a little before 2, which led me to believe he was just scared from the fall (and who could blame him?). The fact that he was hiding under the couch for a while just confirms that, in my head. When 3 o'clock rolled around and he had still only vomited those four times, I went back to bed.
Clumsy!Kitteh was perfectly fine when I left this morning, and meanwhile I'm functioning exclusively on four hours sleep and as much junk food as I can stuff in my face.
When I paused on the landing, I heard a "Mrrr!" noise from above me. I looked up, and there was my cat -- not Babeh-Seizure!Kitteh, but the other one -- dangling from the stair railing.
For those who don't know, my stairs almost kind of circle around: there's about thirteen steps from the first floor to the landing, then the next six or so steps run almost parallel (you know, if my world was 2D) to the upstairs hallway, and then there's a railing that runs across my hall -- no wall. My cat was dangling from this railing.
In the five seconds it took for this to compute and for me to try and race up the stairs so I could pull him back up, he lost his grip and fell. He hit the first set of steps about midway, tumbled down the remaining steps, and then rolled a bit until he hit the wall.
At that point, he blinked up at me, stunned, got up, and raced under the couch.
I was pretty sure he didn't have any broken bones or anything, since he'd raced away, but I wanted to lure him out from under the couch to make sure he was okay. After heading back downstairs, I cracked open a can of cat food. He of course darted out the second he heard me get the can. He and the Babeh!Kitteh ate that, I gave Clumsy!Kitteh some attention, and then went back up to bed.
About five minutes later, I heard Clumsy!Kitteh vomit on my bedroom floor. I figured he'd eaten too fast so cleaned it up and went back to bed... only for him to vomit (again) almost as soon as I'd turned off the light. I cleaned that up, and because I was already worrying about his fall, went online (briefly) to figure out if they could be associated.
Because the internet knows everything, guys.
I knew vomiting was common in human concussions, but wasn't sure about cats, so I did a google search for cat vomit, and "concussion" and "internal injuries" came up, after the usual "ate too fast, anxiety, blahblahblah" stuff. The cat vomited a third time as I was going to go check his eyes (which were huge as usual, so that was no help), so I freaked out and called my parents.
My parents, for the record, go to bed usually around ten o'clock. It was now about half-past one.
After waking them up and explaining what had happened, following up with "Do you think I should take him to the emergency hospital?" -- the same hospital where I took Babeh!Kitteh after his first seizure, where they did a few useless exams, tried to convince me to keep him at the clinic for monitoring, and then grossly overcharged me for the whole ordeal --, my father advised me to keep an eye on him and, should he continue to vomit or show any other symptoms of something being wrong, decide then. This is what I was hoping he'd say, honestly, so I hung up the phone and headed downstairs to sit on my couch.
I turned the TV on low. The cats followed, of course, and Clumsy!Kitteh went back to hiding under the couch for a bit. Babeh!Kitteh played, and when Clumsy!Kitteh came out from under the couch Babeh!Kitteh tormented him a little. Possibly in retaliation, Clumsy!Kitteh vomited a fourth time. I cleaned that up and settled back on the couch, still keeping an eye on him. Babeh!Kitteh curled up in my lap and fell asleep. Clumsy!Kitteh lingered in the living room for a while, helped himself to some water, returned to me for attention, disappeared under the couch, ate a bug, fell asleep on my shoulder, woke up and went to get more water, ate another bug, and then disappeared again (upstairs, I discovered a little later).
He stopped vomiting a little before 2, which led me to believe he was just scared from the fall (and who could blame him?). The fact that he was hiding under the couch for a while just confirms that, in my head. When 3 o'clock rolled around and he had still only vomited those four times, I went back to bed.
Clumsy!Kitteh was perfectly fine when I left this morning, and meanwhile I'm functioning exclusively on four hours sleep and as much junk food as I can stuff in my face.
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no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 04:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 04:17 pm (UTC)I think they'd find a way around the safety net.
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Date: 2011-04-14 04:20 pm (UTC)All animals are stupid~ Just this morning Kali rolled over in bed and the next thing I hear is her hitting the floor because she rolled completely off. :)
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Date: 2011-04-14 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 02:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 03:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 04:40 pm (UTC)Hope you can get some good sleep tonight and that both kitteh's are good <3
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 05:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 05:32 pm (UTC)Good call on avoiding the emergency vet. Hopefully clumsy!kitteh will be fine, but if you want reassurance, call your regular vet. Best wishes for functioning today on that little sleep.
Our cat Pretzel -- the one we replaced with four cats -- once fell from a second floor porch while chasing an insect and not paying attention to what she was doing, but that was no big deal; she landed on her feet and acted like she meant to do it.
P.S. It's good to see you posting more often. :)
no subject
Date: 2011-04-14 05:41 pm (UTC)My regular vet is only available from eight-to-eight, so anything that happens overnight, if it's an emergency, requires a trip down the road to the animal hospital. There's a reason I don't particularly care for the animal hospital (which is also a veterinary clinic, and waaaaay closer to my house than my actual vet), so I'm glad to avoid it when I can.
If my cat had landed on his feet, I'd have felt a lot better about all of it. Because he kind of landed on his side and back, though, I was biting my nails for a bit. As I said, he seemed fine this morning (I'm loathe to say "normal", as he's never really met the criteria), but if things get weird when I get home, I'll definitely call my regular vet.
Haha... I'm trying to post more! It's taking a bit of effort.
no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 12:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-04-15 03:56 pm (UTC)