Mr. Tigger is hurt badly.



I found him yesterday looking like this. He's got a huge bump in the middle of his forehead, making his face all deformed, and under the eye that is swollen shut (which is also tearing) is also really big.

I also notice he's lost a bit of weight, too, enough for it to be very noticeable - I'm praying this is related to spring coming and nothing else. I think it may be from a fight with a local feral that's causing trouble - if the doctor confirms it tomorrow (I have a morning appointment for him), I'm calling a local shelter and making arrangements for that cat to be trapped and taken away from here. They can neuter it and maybe find it a home, but I know it's a nasty cat, it's been fighting with my neighbor's dog.

Tigger's currently in our basement, nice and warm and taken care of. I think he's relieved, normally he's looking for a way out if I bring him in...but he's just comfortable down there on a little mini couch we have, and I just brought in his pillow from outside in his porch, so I know he'll be set.

He gets into fights occasionally, but nothing like this - this is the SECOND time he's gotten hurt from this new cat hanging around (if that's what this is). The last time it was a swollen eye, too - but this is a million times worse than last time, so now I'm just worried. He's FIV positive (hence the reason we can't bring him in with our bunch) and I'm praying everything is just physical, not health related. Tigger has been around here for about a year now and I've never seen him messed up like this, ever.

I've been sitting in the basement with him, I can't stop crying over it - he looks so horrible, I can barely look at him without tears coming to my eyes. I'll be going back down there in a bit to sit with him - I sat down with him when I got home and he just crawled into my lap and leaned up against me.

:shock: :bawling: Poor Tigger!

I really hope he's ok - sending him some purrs from my lot! :comfort: :hug:

I hope he is ok!!! :comfort: Keep us posted!

:comfort: Oh Crystal, you brought tears to my eyes thinking of you down there crying. I'm sure the vet will fix him up not to mention he's got YOU! :kittyluv:

Thanks everyone. I get so emotional over my kitties! I'm just so tired of going outside to find Tigger hurt...we just need to get this taken care of.

One good thing, though - since I'll have him inside this weekend, I'll be scheduling his neuter appointment for Monday. :thumbsup:

I just got back from Tigger's vet appointment and he's doing much better.

Last night I went down and sat with him for a while and he was a mess. He was loving me and purring, though...so we were cuddling for a bit. His face was so swollen, though - he couldn't open one eye at all and the other was only partially open.

Today I went down to get him for his vet appointment and his one eye was cracked open and his better eye was almost all the way open! I also noticed the swelling had gone down a lot - you can't tell that well in the picture but he had a big golf-ball sized swell on the top of his head. Well last night and this morning it really started draining - lots of gooey pink pus - and it's really helping him get back to normal.

The vet gave him two shots - one to help the swelling go down even more, and the other to start treating the infection. He's also on oral meds twice a day, which he'll just LOVE me for. :rolleyes: He'll be staying in our basement right now to heal up, which I'm actually happy about because it's so freaking cold outside and it's just supposed to get colder. I have a call into the animal warden to get the cat that keeps doing this to him out - I know it's the same one, he has all the same *moves* - like he punches him in the same spot and everything. So when that cat is gone, he can go back outside if he wants.

Looks like he'll be ok, this is why I don't let my cats outside. Even when animal control traps a feral cat in my neighborhood there will likely be more. I see more and more all the time, its sad.

Awwww so glad he's feeling better! :)

Yep, you need to get this nasty cat sorted out - how DARE he wander into a nice neighbourhood and start beating up the natives! Especially a sweetie like Tigger :(

:( Aw Crystal, :comfort: Tigger's so lucky to have you.

Yup, we'll just have to deal with them as they come.

Tigger is a local feral that I befriended after a while of feeding. He now lives in our outdoor porch because he's FIV positive. I would gladly bring him in, but he can't be mixed with our other cats.

He does live around in our area, though, I know his "usual places" and he now uses our porch as home base - before it was our front bushes, before we made it really nice in there for him.

So glad to hear he's doing well! :)

Hugs to you and special pets and prayers to Tigger for a speedy recovery :kittyluv:

Here's a picture of Mr. Orange (the cat that beat him up) as Tigger was chasing him out of our yard a few weeks back.



So he's been living in our basement since Thursday (5 days now) and he's healing nicely. His head pussed a lot but it's back to normal size, and the swelling has gone down a lot, he looks just about normal. The top of his head is all matted and the hair is falling out in places - I think a lot more will fall out and he'll look like an old man with a bald spot on top until his hair grows back in!

While he really hates being inside, he's made a nice home down there and he's dealing with it. He gets oral meds twice a day (and he takes them soooo well, I wish my cats did it like that!) and I go down there a few times a day and sit with him while I read. Last night I spent a bit over an hour down there and he was in my lap purring the whole time...he even fell asleep at one point. The Animal Warden came by today and put out a trap for Mr. Orange and I really think we may get him today. I've had food out in Tig's porch the past few days and he's gone through that, and this morning I went out to find that he finished the bowl of food and started going into the trash trying to find food in the old cans. Right now the only food is in the trap, so hopefully he'll fall for it and be gone.

I'm really glad we were able to bring Tig in like this, though. He's learned to trust me even more so than he did before. When we'd sit together outside during the warm months, if I touched his belly he'd snap at me. Now the little rat rolls over onto his back to get my tummy rubs! He also didn't shy away from my sister when she went down to visit him today, which is good, he's pretty leery of strangers. I'm hoping his transition to Erik will be easier when he gets home because of this.

When Mr. Orange is caught, Tigger will be allowed back outside to his porch, where he will also get set up with his new couch that he loves in the basement. I'll be bringing him back in the weekend of March 9th, he'll be going in for his neuter on March 10th and I need to monitor his food intake the night before. Here's a picture of him recovering nicely, knowing he truly does have the life now that we've adopted him.

Aww that's great to hear, Crystal! And he looks so comfy there. I'm glad he's healing nicely. You've done such a great thing with him. Be gone, Mr. Orange! :thumbsdown:

Aw, glad he's healing up! I hope Mr. Orange gets trapped and moved.

That's great Crystal :jump: So glad to hear he's healing nicely :thumbsup: He's such a handsome boy :luv2:
I hope it doesn't take too long to catch Mr. Orange :(

Sigh, as of this morning, no Mr. Orange.

He's looking fantastic!! :jump: He's such a handsome guy!! :luv1:

:luv2: what a handsome boy he is! Glad he is doing better. Sending belly rubs!

We may have caught Mr. Orange. I'm still waiting to hear back from the animal warden for verification but my dad said he came over yesterday morning to shovel and saw tire tracks pulling into my yard, footprints, the print where the cage was sitting, and kitty paws walking into the mouth of the cage. I finally got frustrated that the cat wasn't going for the 20 pieces of food the guy put in there so I put a whole bowl of food. :rotfl: I think that might have worked!

Updated today to say that we have NOT captured him. I finally got ahold of the animal control guy and he said, nope, cage was empty. So he put it back out...sigh!

Well the trap worked!

But it was the wrong cat...


:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Poor Mr. Tigger.

I dropped him off for his neuter today and asked the vet to take a look at his head.

After his swelling went down (after it was pussing and bleeding), his hair was all matted on top from the grossness. Well it started coming out at the root and one night I just pulled it all out for him (it was just peeling off, no pain) and he had a big ol' bald spot on his head like a distinguished old gentleman. :lmao:

All was fine after that until last weekend. I noticed his head turning blue in the bald area, but just figured it was bruising (which it was). Well mid-week, he started to swell again. I made an appointment, but the next day it started draining again so I just let it go (knowing I was taking him in today for his neuter anyway). It drained for 3 days straight up until Saturday morning. Sunday morning, I noticed it his head was starting to swell for the third time. :pullhair:

When a vet tech didn't call me early this morning, I knew my vet would be calling me to discuss something. Well he called me late afternoon and told me that the neuter went well, but his head was badly infected. He ended up slicing his head open and letting it drain, and cutting out a lot of infected tissue. He also cut a little hole between his eyes above his nose to let it drain, and they pushed medicated fluid through it to wash it out. He said exposing all of that to the air should have killed a lot of the infection, too. He said that male cats have such thick skin in their face and head, once something gets bad in there, it's really hard to get it gone. He said even if I brought him in last week, he wouldn't have been able to do anything without knocking him out so it's better that I just waited.

So now he's doing good, but I have to call tomorrow and see if I can pick him up. Based on how much he's draining, they may keep him a second day to clean him up and watch him.

I'm just so glad he's neutered and completely taken care of. We had them microchip him while he was out as well - that'll put my mind at ease when he goes back outside in the spring (I'm just going to keep him down in the basement while it's cold out, he's living it up down there).

Awesome, Crystal. I bet he's going to feel so much relief from having all that nastiness drained out! Poor little dude! This is yet another reason why I'm glad I keep all my cats indoors. Too many bad things can happen out there... like this. I'm hoping he feels better (and forgives you for having him neutered! :rotfl: ) really fast!

Yeah, I'm totally bummed he's FIV positive and can't come in. He does so well in the basement, he loves it.

So why not keep him in the basement? If he really likes it down there, then why let him go back outside?

Mr. Tigger is home and he's soooo happy! He's not supposed to be running around so I've been keeping him in his room down there, but I opened the door and let him run around a bit while I was cleaning the litter boxes and he was running up and down the stairs chirping. Silly boy.

Here he is, loving being pet in my lap. His head is pretty cut up but he's healing nice.

We're talking about that right now and we're just going to play it by ear.

My goodness this poor guy has been put through the paces lately! Glad he's got you taking good care of him Crystal!

Again Giant hugs, he is a sweetie! So glad he is on the mend!