Mish has lost part of the right side of his face. He now needs a mask like the Phantom of the Opera and it all happened so quickly. The abscess that had begun to drain filled up again and he began scratching the outside of his lip until it began to bleed. It didn't stop bleeding and within a week had spread so I made an appointment with the vet who diagnosed a probable tumour. He prescribed antibiotics for seven days to calm the infection and this immediately removed the horrible smell but over the next few days the bleeding increased and the size of the lump inside his lip practically doubled. I had never seen anything so aggressive.
Monday July 26th Mishka returned to the vet who decided to take a chest xray. If the tumour was malignant and cancer had spread to his lungs it was pointless doing anything apart from euthanizing. I went away for awhile feeling sick with worry but fortunately everything was clear so he was booked in for an operation within the hour. The vet was hesitant about doing it as he had to remove 1cm of tissue around the tumour which would take him close to the lacrymal gland (tear duct). There was also the worry about the cancer being in the bone so we agreed that if it was he would let Mishka die under the anaesthetic. He would have preferred Mish to go to Massey University for a specialist to work on but this would have cost well over $1,000 which was beyond me plus I felt time was of the essence due to the aggressive nature of the growth.
I had a distraught afternoon but eventually the call came through that Mish had survived the operation and that no cancer had been found in the bone. Plus he also had three teeth less as they were rotten and removed to keep the mouth as clean and infection free as possible. I was meant to collect Mishka two days later on the Wednesday but he was so homesick (and I suspect made such a fuss) that a nurse drove him back home for me the following afternoon. I admit I got a shock to see half his face gone but Mish was so pleased to be home that I knew I would soon become "accustomed to his face". The next day he came with me to my art group as he was getting used to wearing an Elizabethan collar and I didn't want to leave him home crashing around. Everyone was polite but I am sure his swollen face with its now permanent snarl was a shock. After greeting everyone he just settled down on the floor asleep in front of the gas heater.
I remove his collar twice a day to clean it of dog spit and am waiting till he gets his stitches removed this week so he can be free of it forever. The cats have finally got used to his plastic apparel- Peaches even walked up and gave him a gentle kiss on his nose. However when I received the vet bill of nearly $452 this week I needed more than a kiss to revive me.....
I have four cats and a dog. They don't like rats either. They like watching them, they'll even sniff them once they're lying in state, but they won't do anything about helping them get to that nice old deceased stage. However I've worked out that if those nasty rodents get a glimpse of Kit "The Terminator" Cat they may just die laughing.
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