My poor Stumpy is sick today. 🙁 When she first adopted us, she would cough during the day. I thought it was some nasty hairballs, but she never actually coughed any of them up. I just figured she swallowed them and passed them later on. She comes to the back door in the morning and we chuck her out every night. She seems to have no issues using the litter box for peeing, but she holds her poop all day until we chuck her out. Since she holds it all day, there’s no stools in the box for me to examine for hairballs or anything else. I thought she was fine until today. I heard this horrible yowl from the bathroom, and went in to investigate. She’d thrown up twice on the floor, and was in the middle of barfing a third time. Poor thing! I can’t handle the sound of cats yacking, so I left her to do her thing, thinking it was hairballs. She finished and I went to go clean it up with some paper towels. As I looked at the barf, it moved. I knelt down to get a better look at it, and the moving thing was a worm! (EEW EEW EEW!) Doing some quick research on the internet, I found out that it was a roundworm. They infest the lungs first, then are coughed up and swallowed. (EEW!) She hasn’t eaten a thing since she was sick, not even the extra tuna I left for her. Tuna is her favorite. 🙁 I will call around to vet’s offices tomorrow to see if I can find a good de-wormer to get her better.
BTW: Larken and Trinny – You’re on not-allowed-over status for a bit until this gets cleared up, as roundworms are human transferable. It’s not likely, but still possible. I’ll be washing my hands like crazy over here too.
