Tink’s been limping around the apartment and complaining, loudly and frequently, since Tuesday. The diagnosis is both a relief and a worry: five minutes with the vet stretching and feeling Tink’s right rear leg and we discover that she’s got a luxating patella.
In English? Her kneecap floats around.
The good news is that she’ll live, bless her bitchy, klutzy heart. A yowling and limping young kitty makes for some worrisome moments.
The bad news? For one thing, it’s genetic, which makes me cross my fingers for Zeugma’s sake. For another thing, if it gets bad enough, the corrective surgery — involving transplanted ligaments and the carving of a deeper groove in the leg bone — sounds absolutely excruciating.
She’s a-sprawl on my desk right now, purring away on top of some Foucault and two back issues of JAC that I’m clearly not going to get to tonight. Zeugma, having taken the repeated recent measure of her sister’s temper, is staying down by my feet.
But, yes, Tink still thinks she’s a person. (And you can see her favoring that leg.)
Tell her nice things.
Having injured my knee once a long time ago, I can sympathize with you, Tink. Let’s hope it’s a temporary flair-up and not something that will progress.
I had a cat with a heart condition and now I have a dog with seizures, so I am well-acquainted with large vet bills–they suck! But, I’m convinced animals with needs end up with folks who will care for them, and so go into debt when necessary.
My dog, a Chihuahua mix, has the same condition. In fact, I thought it only afflicted dogs, especially small ones. She has done very well on Cosequin. After a year or so on it, her limping has improved greatly. Maybe it’s an option for Tink?
Apparently it’s common in small dogs but rare in cats. What’s Cosequin, and what does it do?
It’s a glucosamine supplement, mainly used to help with arthritic symptoms and for general joint health, but her patella problem has improved. The vet wasn’t sure it would help, but it has. She’s not perfect, but I’d say there’s been about a 75% improvement on it.
I hope that whatever you give her works and that she won’t have to have surgery and then convalesce.
It’s very thoughtful of you to get her a glass of water, though, so she doesn’t have to hop around on the floor. ; )
I’d like to see some comments from the cat in first person. Yeah that would be pretty funny. Maybe you could work on that for your next friday non-disertational. That would give your website that over the top “I love cats” feel that it is missing and we so desperately desire. HA!
Hope all goes well with the knee.
Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow, beeyotch.
Bravo and touche. I love it when you get in touch with your feline side.
I take it that your cat either thinks she’s Rick James-Superfreak, or Dave Chappelle. The whole Rick James/bondage thing might explain the knee problem.
Too funny.
Rob, I have to apologize for Tink’s language. She’s been really foul-tempered lately because of the knee, and now I come home from work and find that she’s been calling my friends names: you can imagine my distress.
I mean, Zeugma knocks my pens off the desk and brings me balled-up Post-It notes (“KIBBLE NOW OR THE PHILODENRON GETS IT”), but Tink seems to be developing a unified critique of the entire metaphor of literacy, not only in her weblog comments, but in the fact that she uses her teeth to shred whatever paper she can get her paws on in my office, including draft pages of articles and dissertation chapters.
I don’t know what’s up with the Rick James/Dave Chappelle thing, but it might help explain why I’ve been receiving Parliament-Funkadelic CDs in the mail each week addressed to “meow meow meow meow meow ffft meow meow meow.”
I really was thinking of myself when I suggested you get back to posting about your cats regularly (and I do hope she’ll be OK) but I confess that I thought, but didn’t want to sound presumptuous, that Rob would benefit from something other than the dissertational meditation since you’d already deviated from the Friday non.
I don’t know how other people feel — I gather from some comments at other places that some people feel excluded — but I like watching (listening, engaging in a voyeuristic way?) exchanges between people who are true friends outside the sphere. It lends an air of authenticity to everything.
“Rob would also” is what I meant to say. I meant to align myself, however inappropriate since I don’t know him, with Rob in appreciating personal posts.
Michelle,
Who said I was friends with this guy? HA! In all honesty I am usually afraid to post here because I fear that it will take away from Mike’s original “plan” for the site. I fear that I might be a distraction from his cathartic thought process. However, I do now see your point and I hope that you will be able to live vicariously and voyeuristically through my occasional jabs (even if they are occasionally nonsensical).
That is a seriously beautiful cat. Do whatever she tells you to do.
Becky, that strategy didn’t work out so well for David Berkowitz. 🙂