| Even though she was now a house cat our
little girl was always a bit wild. There were only certain
ways she could be held, and attention was always on her terms.
Amber still had some rough going. She developed an infection
in her right ear. We kept trying to treat it, but she made all
efforts quite a challenge. We had oral medications mixed as a
specialty pharmacy to make it palatable, but putting drops in her
ears was definitely something she resisted with great "enthusiasm."
We finally had to have her hospitalized for a month so she could be
restrained for her twice daily treatments. After all this the
problem returned only a few weeks later.
Several attempts were made to treat the problem. It
appeared the underlying condition was a yeast or fungal infection
that made her susceptible to secondary infections. Finally we
went with a more drastic approach, surgery. We still had a
reoccurrence so more drastic surgery was required. A large
fungal mass was found deep in her inner ear, apparently causing lots
of pain. It was removed, but a long recovery was still needed.
With the removal of her inner ear her balance was off and she now
had a permanent head tilt.. She also had lost some control of
the right side of her face. This still seemed better than the
pain she must have been suffering from the infection.
When I was working at home she often would come and sit in my
lap. After her surgery she seemed less willing to come up to
the office and usually just hung out in the living room. She
would still come sit in my lap when watching TV, and would always
come over and try to encourage us to share our people food with her.
(She even liked vegetables!) She didn't seem to care much for
canned food (except some fish based foods) but loved chicken,
turkey, beef or anything else from our plates. She ate her dry
food, but also was always a bit picky about it.
Amber's recovery was slow, but she did progress. She
eventually recovered most of her abilities, though she would always
have a bit of balance loss. Over time the dogs joined us and
Amber first let them know what for, then decided they weren't so bad
to hang out with. As other cats also joined our family she
continued to spend more time with the dogs, happily sleeping among
or near them. |
