Interesting Report About Hammett’s Butt

I’m now a little worried about Hammett’s butt, which means everyone has to worry about Hammett’s butt. It’s actually his intestines, but “butt” sounds more exciting. First, a recap about Hammett’s butt: In the first week he was living with me, he began to have diarrhea, and he dripped a huge drop of blood on the bathroom floor. In addition, his butt smelled quite awful most of the time.

I took him to the clinic at the SPCA—they provide free medical care for 30 days after the adoption—and they said the blood was due to the diarrhea, or maybe it was Dr. Gordon at Mission Pet Hospital who said that.

The SPCA gave Hammy a deworming pill and I had to give another some weeks later, plus administer Flagyl in liquid form for five days.

The smell continued, so I took him back to Dr. Gordon, who expressed Hammett’s anal glands, which is not the same thing as encouraging them to express themselves (“Write a poem! Start a blog! Here’s a watercolor set!”). His anal glands have not been a problem since.

The diarrhea has come and gone since then. Most of his poop is perfectly firm. Sometimes part of it is soft, or sometimes the last bit of it is watery, meaning that where he sits next, he will leave a brown mark.

Dr. Gordon, during one office visit or another, said to administer Advantage (a drop of flea-egg-killing stuff you dab on the back of the cat’s neck) twice and possibly several more times after that, depending on the results. Hammett does not appear to have fleas, but Dr. Gordon said sometimes there can be just one lurking somewhere that can cause anal gland problems; I have no idea why the two would be related.

As instructed, I squeezed the tube of Advantage right onto the skin of the back of his neck. A big wet blotch appeared on his neck and subsequently on his pillow, making me wonder if he’d even gotten enough of the dose. It had a strong smell and was greasy, so I had to try to keep him off the bed that night.

Hammett was also prescribed Panacur, a deworming powder to be given for five days. “This one’s easy,” said the front-desk person who handed it to me. “You mix it with wet food.”

Of course, it turned out that Hammett does not like wet food. He had been eating Science Diet, presumably both wet and dry, at the SPCA, so I got some tasty-looking canned Science Diet and mixed the Panacur into it. He licked up the gravy but left most of the food sitting there.

The next day, I tried junking the solid parts of the food and mixing the Panacur into just the gravy. He wouldn’t eat it.

I wanted to keep him from being exposed to tuna the way one might want to keep a human kid from trying crack, but the next day I gave in and put the Panacur in tuna. He wouldn’t eat it.

I put the remaining Panacur into gelatin capsules, three per dose. The fourth day or the fifth, I got two of the capsules down him but he spit out the third when it was too late to salvage, meaning he got only 2/3 of the dose.

I called Dr. Gordon and he said to repeat the Panacur.

I have some misgivings about giving this small cat so many drugs and was hoping he’d suggest just trying a different food. Dr. Gordon said he respects that point of view, but Panacur is safe for very young cats and he thinks it will be good to get the entire dose into Hammett.

So I called the SPCA to see exactly what food Hammett would have been eating there and went and bought seven cans of it: two to feed him before starting the Panacur to make sure he’d actually eat it, and five cans for the Panacur.

I put this food out one evening earlier this week and he eagerly ate about two tablespoons of it and then wouldn’t touch the rest. He was starving the next morning, when I put out his regular food (dry Innova).

I made yet another call to Dr. Gordon, who said to try putting the Panacur into a tablespoon or two of tuna water, or into beef or chicken baby food. I asked if that would be enough to disguise the taste of the Panacur and he said it should be. That seems improbable to me, but I will go get some baby food and see if Hammett likes it.

This morning, there was a tremendous pile of diarrhea in the litter box. He has been pooping regularly, so I don’t understand where all that could have come from. If the diarrhea continues, I will call Dr. Gordon again.

(Why Dr. Gordon and not Dr. Press? Dr. Gordon works on Saturdays and Dr. Press doesn’t, and I’m trying to minimize my absences from work, of which there were many when Thelonious was dying.)