Of Mice and Men

A call for help for Isabella. Thank you. Click to enlarge--if you aren't skeeved out by severe skin rashes.

I've come down with a rough ladies time the last three days. I had some bad pain yesterday and my eyeballs seem to be tracking in different directions. I hope to be better tomorrow and get back to animating as I'd planned.

Something else that has had me preoccupied lately is Izzy. if you have a mind to, I sure would appreciate some good thoughts going to our cat, Isabella, right now. If you would, please see her skin smooth and healthy and free of sores, for the highest possible good of all concerned.

For the last few months she's been suffering from a frightening and nasty skin reaction. Normally, if a cat looked as in trouble as she does it would be taken to a dermatological Vet right away. There's a challenge to do that with Izzy. I'm convinced she would find the experience far worse than her horrible skin condition. She is still so wild and undomesticated, no one, not even me, can ever touch her or get near her. Since capturing her wild from a canyon about 7 years ago, we have been unable to establish any level of trust in her, despite taking great care to provide her a calm and loving environment. Getting her yowling into a carrier and driving far to a skin specialist Vet, and the examination and treatment itself would surely cause her significant trauma that I believe could be worse than nearly anything. She's not like normal cats.

Instead of doing that, I've read up a lot online about what sort of things could cause this kind of skin reaction. Things like allergies, parasites, stresses, diet, deficiencies, etc. Firstly, we upgraded all the cat's food to grain-free, human-grade quality several weeks ago. It started to look like the solution, but then the rash roared back worse than before. I thought it might be a reaction to the perfume in the clay litter we were using, so we switched to a great non-fragrance corn litter product throughout all the boxes, still no sign of improvement yet. We tried to apply gels that are supposed to calm inflammation and mist her skin with enzymatic/mineralized water. This operation took both of us all our brute strength and risked bleeding and scaring, on our parts. That treatment plan lasted only four consecutive days.

Her appetite is at full force, she drinks plenty of fresh water, her eyes are shiny and clear, her elimination is healthy. It's just frightening to see a creature in our care so ravaged by skin rash and so obviously uncomfortable. We're giving her until next week to see if she can do anything to visibly turn things around so we can see some improvement. Otherwise, it's sedation and expensive Vet visits, and possible steroid cream treatment, antibiotics, and plastic cones?