Sunday, May 03, 2020

What's new ...

What's new? Well, I learned a long time ago to "always expect the unexpected" and so it is. On Friday morning, I noticed something which looked like uncooked rice all over the blankets where the cats usually sleep - both in the bedroom and on the sofa. Yup, you guessed it - somehow my totally indoor cats contracted tapeworms - AGAIN! We went through this issue two years ago and we now find ourselves dealing with this yet again. And so we called up our vet, they asked us to bring the "uncooked rice" aka dead segments of tapeworm, and drop it off asap, they would come out to us in the parking lot, take them inside to their lab and place them under a microscope right away to see if they were in fact tapeworms (yes, they indeed were) and they dispense the de-worm meds for all five cats right away. Now, that was fine except the med dosages are measured by the cats weight and they did not have an updated weight on Merlin. So, we took the other cats' meds home and we are temporarily quarantining poor Merlin in the catio and separated from the other cats for now. Not really a big problem since he spends so much of his time out there anyhow. I am scheduled to take both Merlin and Tabitha for their annual check ups early this week before I have to go back to work on Wednesday so they will give us his proper dosage at that time. Meantime, I have been spending my entire weekend cleaning, sterilizing, disinfecting all of the cat boxes, doing eight loads of wash after stripping down everything to (hopefully) start fresh and get rid of these nasty things once and for all, and spraying down all of the furniture, bedding, etc. with pet-safe treatments. Merlin's area (catio) is the only place I did not do this as of yet because I am going to wait until right after I bring him back from the vet and give him his meds. Why do it now and then have to do it again after the vet appointment?

A little aside, our cats are pretty good at giving meds to, except for Tabitha who gave me a few battle wounds on my arm while trying to administer her 1 1/2 pills ...

She later told me that she was really sorry ... lol
Our little princess Ginger cuddling up with me later on that evening ...

In other news, a pair of cool earrings I ordered on Etsy.com came in the mail last week. I will wear these with my new steampunk dress I just bought for the Witches' Masquerade Ball this year (hopefully!!) ... They are Phantom of the Opera earrings.
Titanic Temptations - Esty shop
https://www.etsy.com/shop/TitanicTemptations?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=260573151)

While I am on that subject, this is the other outfit I was originally planning on wearing before I found the dress ...


Well, I finally broke down and decided to take a little break from all that house cleaning and joined my friends Deb and Dave for pizza and a movie yesterday ...


Pizza Time delivery! Very tasty!!! 😄

Oh yes, and their cute kitty Jack, too! (btw, Jack can not get infected by my cats simply by me going to their house - tapeworms do not get contracted in that way at all) ... 😽

And last, but not least, two gratuitous kitty pics -Ginger relaxing at the living room window and Sir Leo (at bottom) helping me load up the dishwasher today. LOL!


Have a good week all!

7 comments:

  1. What a pain, any idea where they picked up the tapeworms?

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    1. Judy, we are not really sure but we think perhaps maybe one of us brought in an infested flea on our socks/clothing or something unknowingly (one of the ways cats can get tapeworms) and one of the cats may have ingested it and BOOM! It happens that easily! Normally, if you have a cat that goes outdoors, they usually pick them up by eating raw food like mice, etc. But being that our cats are completely indoor, we can only guess at this point. Take care!!

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    2. I had forgotten fleas were the intermediary host for tapeworms. Will you have to treat your yard? Oh boy, it just occurred to me, what about your car? You have my sympathy looking for where those nasties came from and getting rid of the source.

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    3. Well, I am not planning on treating the yard (too much to do and I am far too busy to do all that right now anyhow), but I will spray down the car seats I suppose. I can only do what I am able to do and hope for the best. Thanks, Judy and as always it was good to hear from you!

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  2. Pizza looks tasty …
    Have a good week.

    All the best Jan

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  3. Oh, my ! I did not know any of that! I hope all the kitties are doing better and Merlin gets his treatment, too. Take care. Oh, and those earrings are super and will look spectacular with your outfit.

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  4. I am so sorry about the tapeworms!! I love your outfit and those earrings! I hope you had a very good movie night out! I'm happy your work took a week off! Big Hugs!

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