Last night we took Caligula to the vet.
They wanted a relatively fresh stool sample, so I cleaned out his litter box on Tuesday evening, assuming he’d go again before Thursday night.
Nope! As disgusting as it is, I ended up grabbing old Tuesday litter bag out of the trash and getting an older “sample” figuring that would be better than nothing. Yuck.
As always, Caligula hated the car ride and meowed a lot. Then, about halfway there, a horrible smell came from the back seat where his carrier was. He had finally given us a stool sample, in his carrier. Double Yuck.
So we pulled over and I threw out the old sample and cleaned out his carrier and put some of the fresh stool in the bag. I’m just glad we had tissues in the car to wipe it all up with and he hadn’t stepped in it before we were able to pull over and clean things up. Cats are gross sometimes.
We finally got to the vet and he was weighed.
11.6 pounds.
Eep, isn’t that a lot?
Eventually we followed a vet tech into the exam room, and passed a dog on the way, which made Caligula start hissing and growling. Oh brother. He hadn’t calmed down much when the doctor came into the exam room, and promptly growled as soon as he touched him. Most of the exam went this way, poor Caligula was very unhappy about the whole thing.
He got his 2 year rabies shot and a cat flu shot, which he took fairly well. The vet also emptied his anal glands (cat’s have anal glands? Apparently.) because we mentioned that he sometimes rubbed his bum on the floor and it was slightly irritated. The vet didn’t seem concerned with this because the irritation didn’t look bad.
About his weight, the vet said it is not a problem right now, but it could become one if he kept gaining. He suggested that we make sure he only gets 3/4 cup each day and bring him in to the vet in 6 months to be weighed and make sure he’s not continuing to gain weight. No more cat milk for Caligula!
It was about 6:30 by the time we got home. The vet warned us that cats often act a bit “off-color” for 24 hours following these shots, and we shouldn’t be concerned unless it lasts longer than that. He acted fine when we got home, but some time last night he crawled on top of my clean clothes in our closet and went to sleep.
This is strange behavior for him, he never sleeps there, he usually sleeps on our spare blankets, a pillow on the couch, or in our bed with us. When Michael saw him on my clothes this morning he moved him to a pillow on the couch, but he immediately went back into our bedroom to sleep on my clothes. Very odd indeed. He didn’t move from his place on my clothes when I filled up his food bowl this morning, which he usually runs to investigate. I’m glad Michael is working from home today and can keep an eye on him. Poor Caligula.