Well, that was horrible.

[truepenny]

I took the FFJN (Formerly Feral Jellicle Ninjas) to the vet today. This is always an ordeal, because they are utterly and completely terrified of the vet's office and the vet techs and the vet herself. I don't know whether this is because of their feral kittenhood, because I did a crap job socializing them, or because in their transition from feral to house cats, they got carted off to places like PetSmart for adoption fairs. (The first time we ever saw them was in a PetSmart: tiny terrified balls of black fur.) They pant and their paws sweat. I give them tranquillizers beforehand, which takes the sharpest parts of the edge off, but it's still an awful experience for them and for me.

So this morning, I slipped a mickey in their breakfast, and an hour later began the grueling process of catching them and putting them in their crates. It went better this year than some years: I did not have to chase anyone through the house. And they didn't sing much on the way to the vet. In the exam room, the First Ninja curled tightly in the corner of her crate and plotted revenge; the Second Ninja crawled under the bench provided for owners to sit on and panted and whimpered. I spent a good fifteen minutes wedged under there with her, petting her. It seemed to help.

The silver lining to taking the ninjas to the vet is that they are angelically good. They never bite or scratch, and they only hiss at me (and it's only the I resent what you are doing hiss, not the serious I can take your face off and don't think I won't hiss). They passed their physicals with flying colors. The Second Ninja, who is a very solid girl, is perhaps getting a bit too solid, but it's a minor detail.

And then, as the receptionist was helping me put them back in the car, the First Ninja had a seizure.

She's been having petit mal seizures on and off since October 2008, on average about once every four months. I've never been able to identify an environmental cause, or any kind of pattern. They're not getting worse or more frequent over time; they don't seem to have any ill effects on her, other than the seizures themselves; and although I hate them, I'm not particularly worried about them. Ironically, the vet and I had just agreed to do bloodwork to see if we could find a cause.

The seizure lasted half a minute or less, typical of the First Ninja's seizures--about as long as it took to walk back from the car into the vet's office.

Seizures are scary. They're scary to watch, and I'm sure they're scary to undergo. She twitches and shakes, and her legs jerk randomly. She drools copiously, ending up with long strings of saliva hanging off her whiskers and with her chest drenched, and she frequently loses control of her bladder. She did today.

The vet let us sit quietly in their break room for about fifteen minutes. I sat on the floor. The Second Ninja sat in her crate and muttered, There's no place like home, there's no place like home. The First Ninja prowled the perimeter of the room--and as she went, her gait slowly evened out and the fur lay down along her spine--and then went to ground behind the couch. As usual, she scorned the idea that the biped could be a source of comfort. As far as I can tell, her feeling is that the seizures are All My Fault. I get glared at, not clung to. The vet tech had to help me extract her again.

They were very quiet all the way home.

On the other hand, three cheers for the resiliency of cats. It's their dinner time now, and, in their various ways, the ninjas are making sure I know about it.

Dinner makes everything better.

---

ETA 8:27 P.M.: The First Ninja just summoned me to pet her. I may have been forgiven.

Comments

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

Eeek. kibble for them and liquor for you.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

oh, scary! You're a great kitty mom, though.

Soothing hugs!

[bluestalking.livejournal.com]

Oh, ugh. What a mess. :(

I hope you and the ninjas are feeling better now.

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

Sending good wishes for effective treatment for the petit mal seizures.

[malinaldarose.livejournal.com]

Seizures are, indeed, scary. I've had two dogs that had them; my lab had them like the First Ninja, but my Canardly had grand mal seizures in clusters, and those were just horrifying to watch.

But when they were done, they just shook them off and went on their way.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Taking ferals and former ferals to the vet is no joke. My semi-feral BC does pretty well now that she has a carrier that's her very own and very small, so she feels hidden, but she hates me for weeks afterward (the first time she peed from fear, but now seems to know she'll survive). The extremely feral Mr. Jackson was amazing--he never sang, just had sudden hiss/spit explosions that rocked the carrier.

And amazing, yes, how well and quickly they recover. Yay for ninjas!

[inizitu.livejournal.com]

Gah, poor all of you! =( I'm so sorry, seizure are horrible, random, scary things. It's a little worse, in my mind, to watch them happen to someone that isn't capable of understanding what they are. =( Poor ninja.


Luck to you all. Also, tea. And liquor. And tastytreats for kitties.

[michaeldthomas.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Yeah, seizures kind of suck.

A lot.

[rarelylynne.livejournal.com]

*hug*

Yup. What michaeldthomas said.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

How horrible for all of you: The Little White Dog had three seizures like the First Ninja's but the last one was in 2006, right after the vet and I decided to do even more blood work and try meds if he had another (which he hasn't).

[pameladean]

I am glad you were summoned to pet the First Ninja. I don't know how old your ninjas are, but my experience living with ferals is that they continue to change and adapt. They are always weird but may well become less neurotic. (You may know this already.)

P.

[xamaque.livejournal.com]

Maybe there is a vet who would come to you? There are a few here in Atlanta, one, Dr. Housecat, who I like quite a lot and have used for yearly check-ups and vaccinations, since it is a lot easier to have one vet come to six cats than to take six cats to one vet. The cats still don't appreciate it, but at least they don't have to contend with the car ride and strange place and possibly other cats and, gods forbid dogs in the waiting room.

[asciikitty.livejournal.com]

oh dear. hugs for you and skritches for the kittehs.

[rutemple.livejournal.com]

Love to you for caring for kittehs and comfort with small treats to all

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. *hugs* to the great cat mom, and *scritches* to the Ninjas.
I do hope that the seizures either go away or have a simple cause/cure.
*more hugs*

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor Ninjas, and poor Mole! A seizure on top of the Awful Trip--I am glad the First Ninja was able to conclude that it was not so much All Your Fault as the dire and doomful workings of Fate (who is bald behind).

The late (and occasionally lamented) Belle was terrified of car travel, and would void both bowels and bladder whenever she was compelled into a carrier and placed in a vehicle. I had another cat that would hyperventilate (with odiously odorous results) but didn't collapse as completely as Belle.