brown recluse bite

20180611_082349 — Tanner getting lasered; what a badass!

Our story begins on a typical Tuesday morning. The lady of the house, A.K.A. the boys’ momma, was getting ready for work when she noticed one of her many dear boys limping. Tanner was walking across the counter, as was customary for this ungodly hour in the morning, but his left front leg wouldn’t support his weight in the usual fashion. The momma decided to check it out, even though she assumed he must have jumped oddly on it, or maybe had a piece of litter stuck in his paw.

You see, Tanner wasn’t the lightest of cats, and it would not be surprising for him to have twisted his ankle jumping from the counter. (Something he did all the time.) The boys’ momma grabbed her phone to pull up the flashlight since the dad of the cabin was still asleep and she didn’t want to disturb him for a little ankle pain. She walked over to where Tanner was eating on the shelf, and lightly grabbed his paw to see what was going on with it. She couldn’t feel anything protruding from the leg nor paw, but as she turned it toward the light she could see there was a fairly deep gash on the backside.

Luckily for Tanner, his momma works at a vet clinic, and was able to bring him with her to work. It was decided he would need stitches, but they would have to do it the next day so they’d be able to sedate him. (There is no way he would have let them do it awake, and he had already eaten so they couldn’t do it that day.)

She didn’t know how he could have done it, since they lived in such a small place and she didn’t think there was anywhere he could have hurt himself like that, and in that spot. The dad of the cabin found the culprit, however. There was an unused aquarium in the utility room that Tanner must have jumped on a million times. Apparently this was the final time, seeing as the broken glass and light bulb from above it were scattered inside. He must have sliced his wrist either jumping in or out of the aquarium. His dad got rid of it as soon as he found out though, even before the momma got home!

The next day, Tanner went unhappily back to work with his momma. His wound seemed all right and like it was trying to heal up. When they put him out and were able to shave around it, however, they realized it was still incredibly deep. They cleaned it out and he went in to surgery. While the doctor was working on sewing him up, she told his momma the cut was one millimeter away from his artery. ONE MILLIMETER FROM HIS ARTERY!!!! You could see the thin blue line that was his artery!! His momma definitely freaked out about that one. Tanner for sure used up one of his lives that day; he missed nerves, tendons, his artery, and only had a cut that needed two layers of stitches.

Tanner was able to go home later that day, although he had to stay the night in the kennel because he was still ‘drunk’ from the anesthesia. The next day he was released from that prison, and had made a sore on his nose from trying to get out of the kennel. (Something else his momma felt horrible about.) He was still ‘drunk’, but ate and drank some water and seemed to be doing just fine.

He was still limping yet doing well, but then Saturday night rolled around. His momma was holding him and noticed what felt like a mat on his left side. She had his dad grab a light and look at it while she was holding him. He said it looked like some type of cut, and they decided he must have had another cut from the aquarium that they had missed. His momma would bring him to her work on Monday.

Monday rolled around, and she took Tanner in to the vet clinic to have him looked at yet again. The doctor took a slight look and thought it seemed like more of a bite than a cut, and had her technician begin shaving the fur around it. It definitely looked red and infected, and they decided to keep shaving until they completely found the edges of the infected area. When all was said and done, his whole side was pretty much shaved and red from the bite. It had to be a brown recluse, that was the only thing that made sense. Poor Tanner was having quite the week!!

He got some more medicine, and later the next week some pain killer meds to help him hopefully feel even a bit better.

Now, let’s cut to today. Tanner is doing extremely well, his bite is beginning to peel around the edges and has completely necrosed, and he isn’t limping much anymore although he still holds his paw up when he’s siting somewhere. This all seems good, but then a couple days ago the dad noticed a lump between his shoulder blades. His momma took him back in once again to see what the doc had to say.

Luckily, she thinks it’s just a shot knot and that it’ll go away on its own. They just need to keep an eye on it, and bring him back in if it gets any worse, or hard and bigger. (Hard and smaller is okay though!)

So there you have it, ‘The Tanner Saga’. They say things come in three’s, so let’s hope the shot knot is the third and it isn’t anything more serious!! Because let me tell you, Tanner’s momma needs him.