That Bites...continued....

Remember my November post about the student that got bit by a stray cat and was going to have to get Rabies shots? You can read about it here if you need to refresh your memory.

WOOOHOOOO I successfully LINKED for the first time in my blogging career!!!!

Anyway....back to the subject at hand....

The November post left off with me needing to call the hospital pharmacist and let her know that we may need to do a Rabies series.

This is not an easy task to accomplish. There is a shortage of Rabies vaccine right now and the Gamma Globulin shot that you have to get is sky high. That shot alone was around 2500 dollars. The Rabies series was hundreds of dollars. So here is the rest of the story......

That weekend I got in touch with the student only to learn that he had pretty much decided that it wasn't a big deal and he didn't follow with my Nurse friend on the other side of the state. So he never started on antibiotic. Cat bites are notoriously bad. Just think about what they eat. Eww. Especially a stray alley cat. ICK.

I told him to come to our clinic on Monday morning and that he needed to be on antibiotic and he needed to get all the information about the Rabies shots and make an informed decision about whether to get them or not. Both he and I had talked to the PD and no cat was found matching the description of the stray. Without the cat.....the recommendation from the medical side would be....get the shots. Better safe than sorry.

He came in that Monday and he already had a local infection going on at the site of the bite so he did indeed get a prescription for antibiotics. The next step was harder for him. The PA did a great job of presenting the reasons why the recommendation was to get the Rabies series and also gave him the grim details of Rabies infection. He was still a little reluctant so she advised him to call his parents and talk to them and offered to visit with them as well. She did say that she would want to start the series asap but would give him until mid afternoon to talk to his folks and to search for the cat.

I was back in the office by mid morning, since our clinic is first thing, and he was there within minutes of my arrival. He had talked to his Dad. Dad had called a vet buddy and their local hospital and wanted to find out what the cost of the Rabies shots were at our hospital. I called over to get that information and he relayed it to his Dad. Dad was not yelling but I could plainly hear him across the room and he gave a clear directive to his boy. He said "Find that cat! If you can't find it then start the shots but son, I WANT you to FIND THAT CAT!" Sonny boy was instantly transformed into a motivated cat hunter.

I helped him look up numbers for the local animal shelter, vets, and we called the PD...again.

He did all the leg work and was not having any luck at all. The clock was ticking down and he was feeling the pressure. The last Vet clinic he went to was the jackpot. His buddy's GF works the desk there and he was sharing the whole story with her. They unfortunately hadn't received any cats over the weekend but she had been on swapshop earlier that day and as he described the cat....she remembered a FOUND CAT entry that sounded like it matched the description.

He came back to my office about 1:30 and said "The cat is on swap shop!" We pulled up the local radio station site and got on the swapshop listings and sure enough. Right there under FOUND was a picture of the alleged attacker. She was so cute, white with black spots. The family that found her lived in the campus apartments and are not allowed to have cats. A phone call confirmed that the cat was still there. We called the PD and asked that they take the cat into custody and quarantine it until the end of the week.

Here is the sort of gruesome part. If you can find the animal that bit you and you keep in tied up or captured and 10 days later it is still alive....you are home free.

So we were feeling pretty good. Until the PD said they couldn't pick it up because - and this still blows my mind - "we don't know where it has been since last Wednesday night when it bit him." Huh?
Why would that matter?

So the student goes over to get the cat and the family tells him that they found the cat on Thursday morning. I called the PD back and they said they still couldn't get the cat because there were several unaccounted for hours between the alleged bite and the family finding her. Double Huh?? Then the officer said that the student should just be aware of the symptoms and if he is having any problems he should follow up with the Dr.

Well. Thank you officer, but if the kid starts having symptoms it would be more appropriate to have him follow up WITH THE MORTICIAN!!!! I, of course, did not say that because I am passive-aggressive and only say truly witty and sarcastic things under my breath or in my mind. But I WANTED to say it!!!

Anyway the saga continues......I called the student and said that we....yes, I volunteered my family, have a cat carrier and if nothing else we would keep the cat in the quonset and quarantine it there until the weekend. He was as frustrated with the situation as I was but wanted to see about keeping it at the Vet's. They were agreeable and the cat went to kitty jail at the Vet Clinic. Probably a great improvement for her...three squares and a cage. Not bad digs for a stray hanging around McDonalds hoping for a soggy french fry here and there.

I called the PA and the Pharmacist to let them know that we had the cat quarantined and that the vaccine wouldn't be needed yet. Now all that need to happen was for the little darling to live through the week....and SHE DID!! Disaster averted!

But that isn't the end of the story. Aren't you wondering what happened to the kitty after the quarantine was over? Or are you afraid that the ending isn't happy and that maybe she was snuffed?

Nope. The student fell in love with her and paid to have her stay at the Vet for a few more days. He had her declawed, got all her shots and paid for a little surgery to insure that no kitty descendants would result and a week or two later packed her up in his car and took her to his home and introduced her to her new digs. :) She is one lucky kitty. Her name is Cheyenne. :)