The Rocky Report: Corneal Puncture

You guys!

Welcome to the first edition of The Rocky Report. My brother, aged 14, Domestic Medium Hair tabby, used to be really fat. Like twenty-four pounds fat. And now he’s not. He’s having some health problems and we’re on a mission to get him well.

RockyReport

Some of you may have noticed that I make a lot of jokes about Rocky, particularly about his constipation problems. Sadly, constipation is no laughing matter. Rocky has really been struggling with it (no pun intended) for the last few months and we’re on a serious journey to try to care for him properly. He also had an ordeal this last weekend: He got in a fight with Niles. Buddies for 14 years, they got in a little scrap but Rocky came out the big loser. Due to a quick swipe of a claw, Rocky ended up with a corneal puncture and scratch and was rushed to the emergency vet a few minutes after it happened. Luckily, the FODs were home and were able to take quick action.

The doctors told the FODs that the corneal puncture was deep enough that they were concerned about an eye rupture, which would lead to the loss of Rocky’s eye. So far, though, that hasn’t happened and it seems to be healing well. MomFOD has been up with Rocky nightly trying to keep up with his medication schedule. He required three types of eye drops, one that was administered every six hours and two others that were administered every four. That required her to set an alarm and wake up at 1 am, 3 am, 5 am, and 9 am, but because of the seriousness of the situation, she did it. He also has a cone on his head.  That’s my favorite part.

Napping in the Cone with Mrs P.
Napping in the Cone with Mrs P.

One of Rocky’s eye medications is called Autologous Eye Serum. It was made from Rocky’s own blood, which was centrifuged to separate the blood cells from the liquid. The serum is kept refrigerated and administered via dropper directly to Rocky’s eye. Between the initial trauma and the three days of treatment, the speed of healing has been quite good. We’ve got our fingers crossed that all will turn out well. Here’s some more info on corneal trauma, if you’re interested.

Checking out the Tree in The Cone.
Checking out the short, lazy Christmas tree in The Cone.

Rocky’s going back in for a re-check in a few days and to do some more investigations about his constipation/weight loss. MomFOD’s doing some at-home fluid administration and B12 injections. We’ll discuss that in another edition of The Rocky Report.

Wish the little guy luck!
Love,

Crepes.

PS.  MomFOD may or may not have put a piece of popcorn into Rocky’s cone to watch him get it out. The smart little guy figured it out in two seconds and dumped the popcorn on the floor, ate it, then came back looking for more.  He loves popcorn. He also discovered that banging the cone on the wall is a great way to get momFOD out of bed in the morning for breakfast time.

24 Comments

  • Poor Rocky! I’m glad he was able to get to the vet quickly! We’ll be thinking of him everyday!

  • dood…ya bee givin uz de heebeez heer thinkin bout yur eye…cazoooweez we noe that had ta hurt like hell ina hand baskit with out a handull…hope ya noe niles dinna meen ta due it like on purpoze…..N hope ya get soooper better soooper fast even mor soooper err than de soooper man hiz self…..de blessings oh St Francis two ewe N may bee yur mom fod could look in two pro biotics for ya !!! bee well buddy ~~

    • Thanks, Tabbies! momFOD made him yogurt the other day. Goat milk yogurt. For him only!!! OHHHHH!!!-Crepes.

  • Sending healing thoughts and prayers for Rocky. Big hugs for your mom. I know that is scary as I thought Garfield was going to loss his eye this last year.
    Sue B
    Charlie,Cashew,Garfield,Tubby send extra purrs and hugs.

    • OH, momFOD was in tears at the vet! She told me all about it. She couldn’t look at Niles all evening for what he did. And even the next day. We know Rocky would be ok without it, but the thought of her baby hurting, she told me, was just unbearable. – Crepes.

  • oh no – the cone of shame (though mom laughed about the popcorn thing). we hope you guys can get poor Rocky on track soon. have you tried pumpkin for him?

    • Yes! I did a post on it awhile back. He was getting tons of pumpkin, but it wasn’t quite enough. We’re going to do a post next week about everything we’ve been doing and how it’s been working so far. He’s feeling a lot better!

    • I figured people would find that serum interesting. It’s super important to get them to the vet RIGHT AWAY! The doc said eye trauma WILL get infected so it has to be dealt with immediately. Thanks for the purr! I’ve been putting them in an envelope to give to Rocky when I leave the office for the day. – Crepes.

    • The lamp shade is off. It was wearing the fur off his neck and gave him a little scratch. He should be able to be without it now. He got stuck in the litter box this morning because he couldn’t get his head through the door. That’s when momFOD knew it was enough. – Crepes.

  • Awwww Crepes please give mewz bro my love and know I am sending him healing purrs. He is a handsome guy and like his pawesoms sis- trés intelligente.
    Are mew aware of the fellow cat blog ‘My Himalayan Cat Goma’? Goma is a handsome guy and he and his brofur Kuma are quite the comical pair. Anyway Goma suffers from the same er uh ‘elimination’ problem Rocky does, and the past year his MomFOD Sachi has learned quite a bit about cats and this issue. She recently added a link to his blog page with all the helpful knowledge and advice she received, so other mom and dadFODs can find it easy to help their kitties who have this problem. I don’t know if it all or any applies to Rocky’s specific issue, but I thought I would mention it in case mewz momFOD might find it helpful to read or talk to another MomFOD who’s been there.
    Much love to mewz family, Rocky will be in our thoughts.

    • That’s great! Thanks for the information. I’ll check it out. He managed to, um, purge his colon entirely yesterday, so now we have to find a happy medium.

    • Thank you. It’s looking good so far! Except the cone took all the fur off his chest. We we’ve removed that and are hoping he doesn’t want to scratch his eye if it itches.

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