Conference misery::feline

    Holly, is all of the kitty teaser intact?  She didn't swallow any of
    hte mylar, did she?  Please let us know what's happening.
    

    Yes, please let us all know what is the matter.  I have a tendancy to
    let the girls play with the kitty tease by themselves, so if there is a
    danger, I would love to know.
    
    I really hope your baby is OK.
    
    Sandi and the Storm Troopers plus 1
    
    

Karen,

All of the teaser is in tact.  None of the mylar is missing (that I could see).

I'm so worried about her!  I'm pretty sure that she'll be fine, but I'm 
still AUFULLY worried!

Holly

    Kitty Teasers can be dangerous if the cat puts one end in it's mouth
    and then runs with the teaser.  I have seen one of my cats run that way
    until the end of the teaser hooked on the rug and jammed the other end
    into the cat's mouth.  Fortunately the injury wasn't serious and I
    learned a valuable lesson about leaving the cats unattended with toys.
    
    Hope Kyra is okay.
    
    Jo

    
    Hi Holly,
    
    My Bear didn't get hurt by a kitty teaser, but once she DID have some
    burns on her tongue that we traced back to the cabinet under the sink
    and the chemicals there.  They were three small burns, but enough of
    an aggravation that she did not eat, and did not groom, and tried to
    hide for a few days.  The vet simply gave us some antibiotics and
    put Bear on Gerbers baby food (Beef and Veal and Lamb were her 
    favorites) for a week, and she recouped just fine.  I wish you all the
    best with Kyra and hope her condition changes for the better real soon.
    
    Nancy

Well, Kyra DID eat an entire jar of baby food between last night and this
morning.  She still doesn't want me to go touch her.  Every time I pick
her up, she cries.  She even hissed at me this morning.  SOMETHING is
hurting her, but I can't figure out what it is.  She will be going to the
vet tonight to get checked out completely.  Will let you know what's wrong.

Holly

    
    Holly, keep me posted.  I find this note so interesting because I just
    spent about $230 on Bear.  She had a severe intestinal upset (probably
    brought on by a hairball) that caused her to have both diarreah and
    throwing up.  Between the two, she became dehydrated and had to have
    intravenous fluids for three days at the vet.  The vet said that this
    can be very dangerous, as cats can die when this happens.  They give up
    easily and won't eat or drink or let you near them.  The dehydration
    can just get too severe.  Anyway, Bear hissed and growled if I touched
    her anywhere near her tummy to her tail.  Just did not want to be
    handled.
    
    Still, she is fine now after ten days of Gerbers and some Amoxy drops.
    
    Let me know how Kyra does.  Thoughts are with you.
    
    Nan

Well, it turns out that this may not have been caused by the teaser.  We don't
know WHAT happened, but she somehow got an abscess (sp?) on her neck, near
her shoulder.

When I was in the living room on sunday, the only thing I saw was the kitty 
teaser all of the sudden move .. then  Kyra screamed, hissed, and screamed.
It could be consequental that the kitty teaser got knocked over at the same
time.

I brought Kyra to the vets last night.  The vet found a lump on Kyra's neck,
near her shoulder, on thr right side.  She said it felt like an abscess, but
wasn't sure (Kyra wouldn't let her touch it.  She threatened to wack her
one!  Paw was up and claws were out!).  It obviously hurt whenever it was 
touched.

Well, I ended up dropping Kyra off this morning so that they could x-ray
the lump.  It turned out to be an abscess and they put a drain in it.
The vet wants to talk to me later on, but the vet has gone into another
surgery at the moment.  I will be calling her at 5:00 to find out
what's going on.  They may want to keep her there over night. )-:

will let you know what's happening as soon as I find out.

Holly

    Couldn't this have happened if it jabbed her?
    

    Once they start draining the abscess..Kyra will feel much better.
    Abscesses are nasty and painful until the pressure is relieved.
    
    Kitty hugs to Kyra!!!
    
    Sandy

    How's Kyra?
    
    Roslyn

I've been trying to get into this file all morning.  Haven't been able to 
connect to MUTTON.

Kyra is much better, but she gave us quite a scare!

It turned out that the kitty teaser DID hurt her.  Evidentally, the teaser
went down her throat, and went THROUGH her esophogus! (sp??).  It developed
an infection and formed the abscess.

The vet stitched up the hole in her esophogus with dissolvable stitches, then
put a drain in the abscess.  She didn't like the drain at all.  She kept 
pulling at it and I swore that she was going to pull it out on her own.  The
vet had told me to move it, but she was doing that on her own!  I also had
to put warm compresses on it for 5 minutes two times a day.  As well as giving
her antibiotics.

The drain was taken out on Saturday, and she became her normal self again.
The abscess is healing beautifully.  There was still a little bit of infection
in the abscess left, so I needed to put compresses on it for three more days.

She's now doing MUCH better.  SHe even came up and cuddled with me last night.
She hasn't done that at all since she got hurt.  My poor baby!

So NEVER EVER EVER leave kitty teasers around the house where kitties can
get them.  They can get SERIOUSLY HURT!!

The vet told us that we were extremely lucky with this.  She came within an
inch of her juggular!!  If she had hit her juggular, she would have been dead
within an hour.  Talk about SCARY!!

Holly

    Hooray!
    
    Hugs 'n' pats to Kyra!
    
    K.C. & Co.

    Excuse me asking so stupid, but I did not find it in any dictionary.
    What is a kitty 'teaser' please?
    Thank you in advance, 
    
    Nat

    Nat, Kitty Teasers are a specific cat toy sold in the US.  One of the
    Feliners in this conference knows the people that make them (in
    California), hence, a lot of us have ordered these.  They are basically
    a short pole with a toy attached at the end.  There are different ones
    available, but I think the one Holly was referring to had strips of
    mylar on the end and when you twirl it, the cats are fascinated by it.
    Mylar is the type of shiny material that some balloons are made from. 
    Hope this is understandable to you, Cheryl

Actually Cheryl, it wasn't one of the ones from California.  It was a teaser
that I got from a cat show quite a while ago.

It's a long piece of bendable plastic with mylar on the end.  It's a great
toy, but cats MUST be supervised while playing with it.  

Other than that small thing, your description was right, Cheryl.  Thanks.

Holly

    My god, reading this was really scary.  We've got one teaser that
    we'ver put up because all 3 of them lost interest for the time being it
    seems. I've been thinking of all the times I've left it out.
    
    I'm so glad that Kyra is ok.
    
    Giudi

    Thanks for .15, .16 and the extra mail, too. You're great folks.
    Nat