When we last left our small pride of intrepid buddies, Otto was recovering from a dental and Reggie couldn't stop vomiting. I'm pleased to say that Reggie has fully recovered with the aid of his Chi-taming tonic. Otto's troubles, however, were just beginning.
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It was Father's Day, and we had just gotten back from taking my father out for lunch. We went up to the porch and Sean put Otto in his lap and flipped him over for his traditional "baby nursing" pose. He'd been like that for about twelve seconds when Sean urgently stated: "We have to take Otto back to the vet. Now."
Turns out that when he flipped Otto over, Otto's belly was completely wet. But even worse than that, it was also completely raw. In the few hours that we had taken to have lunch and eat ice cream, Otto had licked all the hair off his belly and was starting on a layer of epidermis, to the point that there were red splotches that were a few skin cells away from completely releasing their sanguine contents. It was indeed time for another emergency vet trip. Sean took him and I stayed with the other buddies.
When Sean got back from our vet (which, bless them, stays open from 3pm untill 11pm on Sundays), Otto had a new satellite dish around his neck and some silver ointment for us to put on his belly. Turns out he had an allergic reaction to either one of the antibiotics or one of the pain meds (he had two of both varieties). They took them off all of them to be safe. Now we had this topical stuff to apply morning and night. Otto was not a happy camper (again).
But if there was a silver lining in this whole painful, terrible ordeal, at least for Otto, it was this: the vets were nice enough to give him an "Elroy Shield" so that he could finally have a little space. We're not really sure why, but Elroy avoids Otto like the plague when he's wearing his Elizabethan Collar, which is all the time now.
Yes, even now, nearly a full month later. You wouldn't believe the full magnitude of the damage to his tummy-skin. It's such a large, smooth, well-defined scab now that it kind of looks like a slab of round beef jerky on his skin. When our friend and pet-sitter came over to keep the cats this past weekend, she literally thought we had put moleskin on it to protect it. Nope, that's just Otto's scab. It almost boggles the mind how bad it was.
And yet, Otto has been the perfect patient. He has won over pretty much everyone at the vet by now with his easy-going, gentle demeanor and rock-star good looks. The techs always ask specifically about Otto (even when we're taking someone else in) and make a point of saying that they really hate that all this is happening to him, the sweetest and gentlest of cats. (We had to take Zelda in for an initial checkup a few weeks ago, and when we told one of the techs that Zelda had not yet warmed up to Otto, the vet tech was shocked. "Zelda," she told our youngest sternly, "you should like Otto. He's sexy.")
Indeed.
Otto goes back for about his tenth re-check today. We'll keep you updated on how it's going. And maybe post some pictures...
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