fleas

So my youngest cat has fleas. I think.

I miss my wife for many different reasons but one of the more interesting ones is because I have no idea what to do with the cats. Ok I know how to feed them and play with them and clean their litter boxes, but I don't have a clue what to do when they get sick. And what do you know, one of my cats has fleas. I can troubleshoot all the computers, server and AV equipment at work but when it comes to a cat I have no idea. 

It started on Monday night, the night my wife left. My youngest cat started freaking out like he was being bit by fleas. He would run to the corner of the room all of a sudden and frantically lick and nibble at some part of his body. then after a minute or so he would be fine. Then 20 minutes later he would do the same thing again. This happens once in a while and usually we just put Frontline or Advantage Multi on all 3 cats and they are fine, but not this time.

I put the medicine on them Monday night and for the rest of the night everything was great. The next day when I got home from work I noticed he was back to doing the same thing again, like he was being bit. I facebooked one of my wife's old coworkers to ask for advice and she said it could be anything from resilient fleas that might take a couple days to die to a skin irritation from the bites to some other allergy. After a couple days if he doesn't get better I was to take him to a vet. Well a couple days go by and still no improvement.

I called up the vet 2 days ago and she says pretty much the same thing and I should try giving the cat a bath in Dawn to kill off the remaining fleas. Now I know how much my cats hate water, but for some reason I was looking forward to it. Alright, I know exactly why I was looking forward to it. The sight of a helpless soaping wet cat just  makes me giggle inside. So on my way home from work I picked up some blue Dawn, because I didn't realize we had a TON already. I loured the cat into the bathroom with food and closed the door. 

I was surprised that he didn’t freak out when I ran the bath so I put about an inch and a half of water in the tub and got myself ready. He was curious at first, like ooo what is that? Who are you? (in the voice of the curiosity sphere from the end of Portal 1) but as soon as his precious little paws touched the lukewarm water he supremely spazzed out like I was dropping him into a tub of molten lava.

After what felt like an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds of super spazzy kitty action, I let him go. He splashed into the water and immediately clawed his way out and lunged for the door. Seeing that it was closed he hunkered up next to it and started franticly cleaning himself. Once I picked myself up off the floor from hysterical laughter I went for round two. “Come on Niko,” I said “you need to get at least a little wet.” I grabbed him and he must have had a momentary lapse of memory because he did the same thing as before and didn’t freak out until his paws touched the water again. What came next was worse than the first time.

I tried to hold him lower so he couldn’t grab anything, hoping that he would eventually calm down like my middle cat did; she gave up fighting and stood there crying. He didn’t. He spazzed out even more and scratched me a few times before lodging all 5 claws of his front paw in my lower arm. I, of course, dropped him immediately and he climbed out and hunkered by the door again. At this point he was wet enough that I could start washing so I soaked a towel added some Dawn and pinned him against the bathroom door so I could scrub his fur. Surprisingly he took that part pretty well and didn’t put up one bit of a fight. I finally finished and, after taking a few pictures to amuse myself in the future, I went about my evening. Thankfully he came over and laid next to me on the couch to clean himself later on so there are no hard feelings. But about an hour or so after this ordeal he was back to freaking out about fleas so I did all that for nothing!

Now what make me miss my wife after all this is that she would know what to do. She was studying to be a vet and worked at a vet hospital until recently. Whenever the cats are a bit off she jumps into action and fixes everything. I can't do that. I have no idea what is really going on with my youngest and like a concerned parent, I fear the worst. Even the doctor said there probably isn't much they can do accept potentially make him a bit more comfortable, a hundred or so dollars later.

I miss my wife for many reasons and I almost feel lost without her. Now I have to deal with a sick(?) cat and her student loan companies who refuse to postpone payments until boot camp is over, fun fun. But with my emotional state, it's a lot to handle.