February 13th 2008
My cat with a swollen left cheek..
I have 65 cats now in the shelter and I think I have experienced a lot of medical cases with some of them. Some are fatal but some can be remedied. Just last week, I noticed that one of my female adult cats have a swollen left cheek. It is a standard operating system in the shelter to put the cat in the isolation area for observation. She was eating, no problem with that. She was active. Its just the swell in her left cheek continues to grow bigger. I am no veterinarian, but believe me, here in the philippines, most of the vets here have little knowledge when it comes to treating cats. I have a cat who instead of getting well after visiting the vet, died of antibiotic overdose. The stories are endless but ill discuss them in my next post. Going back to “neneng”, I gave her 1ml of antibiotics(250 mg) 3 x a day for 1 week. After 2 days, her cheek is still swollen but I released her from the isolation room since her caretaker pities her and could no longer bear to hear her meowing. I approved the release since she seems to be fine. on the 3rd day, the swelling starts to subside (see, the antibiotic did work and I was right). On the 5th day, the swelling is gone. but I had to give her antibiotics until the 7nth day.
We also have cats with swollen paws, I just follow the exact procedure i mentioned above, and the swelling subsides.
When you have a shelter with no funding to spare, you will be forced to rely on your experiences and to do some research on your own for some of the cats’ medical needs. We cannot afford to take them to the vet (Unless of course if the cat is seriously sick).
She was a shy cat, a member of my so called “Batman Series” because of her black and white color and a mask just like batman. While having drinks with my friends at THE VENUE (she was named after this bar), I saw the waiter kicking and shooing venue. She walked away and curled inside a pile of circular culvert near the parking lot. When my friends and I were about to leave, I picked her up and brought her home with me. She had the flu so I to gave her antibiotics for a week. she also contracted a virus called eye conjunctivitis which somehow damaged her left eye.