Tuesday, January 20, 2015

The paw and the liquid

Unfortunately, those are not different topics. Poor Curtis.

He has been limping a little bit lately. This isn't an unknown thing. We think his paw is a bit tender sometimes. I look at it  every couple of days when he does this. I can do anything I like to his back paws, but he is very protective of his front paws, tucking them away if anyone tries to touch them.

At first the paw looked fine, maybe a bit swollen, but with all the fur it's hard to tell. Then I noticed some dried guck between the big pad, and the base of the toes, and the pad was darker. I took him into the vet this afternoon. For a while they were soaking his paw to try to soften the guck so they could see what's under it. They suspect he has a bit of an infection going on. I was given some pills to help with that, and a liquid that acts like a bit of a pain killer to make him more comfortable.

He's such a good kitty. He didn't mind the lab techs holding his paw in the liquid. He was purring. He thinks the pills are little mini-crunchies and licked them off my hand. Unfortunately, the liquid is a bit of a trial for both of us.

The day started really well, once I found an open lane in the pool. I thought I had started creaky and slow, but it wasn't. Once 500 m rolled up I realized I was having a really fast swim, without really working it trying to be fast. I stayed strong for the last part of it, and I was really, really pleased to finish 1K in 18:10. I went back through my blog looking to see if I've swum a K this fast since I started blogging, and can't find one.

So I think all the focus on technique, and swimming the CSS pace has helped. In other news, I got a haircut on Sunday afternoon. Really short. No, shorter than that. Lots less drag. Coincidence?

9 comments:

  1. Poor Curtis!! We just discovered the other night that poor Casey was limping bc she has had a claw grow into her toe pad!!!! I have been feeling so terrible ever since. Casey however has forgiven us long ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nefertiti had that happen. Every month or so we clipped it off. It doesn't seem to bother them, once the initial clipping is done.

      Delete
  2. Congratulations on all your hard work on the CSS thing to swim faster... or maybe it's the haircut. Most likely the hard work. Poor Curtis. Definitely keep the Woodbine bobcats away from him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Poor Curtis. Hope he feels better soon. Congrats on the swim.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He seems to be a bit more perky this morning, but I still want to have a go at soaking his paw for a while. I should find out tomorrow if the swim was a fluke or not.

      Delete
  4. What is CSS? So glad that Curtis has got some meds and doing better. You are good fur parents. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh no, poor Curtis! I hope his paw improves soon. :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congratulations on the swim time and I am sure it was the short hair.

    ReplyDelete

Looking forward to reading your comment!