When we got back from the cabin, Tank did his usual thing. He had to potty and I told him he did a good job. Later I noticed he was cleaning his butt, but instead of doing it once, he kept doing it. I thought maybe he needed help and tried to help him out. That stopped the cleaning for a bit, but then he started back up again.
The next morning I noticed a bald spot from all of his cleaning and a small lump. I called the vet and got a same-day appointment. By the time we got there the lump was bigger.
Turns out his gland got an infection. She tried to alleviate his discomfort while he was awake, but it was too severe. He got sedated, or a "forced nap" as I call it. They sent me home with a cone. This is the first time I've seen Tank with a cone on. They suggested I get one of the "toast" ones, and even though I ordered one, he still had to go the night with the clear one.
He didn't like the fact that it pushed down on his head when he walked, so there was a lot of backing up and sitting still. I saw him trying to lick and saw the cone do it's job.
They told me to keep him from stairs and jumping until the sedation completely wore off, so the baby gate helped with that a lot.
He got used to the cone pretty quickly. He still needs to get used to a bigger turn radius. He will sometimes get his cone stuck in the stairs, but he has figured out how to lift his head and not fall down the stairs. He also wanted to jump onto his Attention Post, but I was told to limit his jumping, so I tipped it over. He then climbed all over it.
I was nervous about the warm compress I was told to put on his butt. When I first did it, he was weirded out and tried to get away. It seems that it felt nice because before too long he started purring.
The night before his follow-up I heard a loud sound and then Bill say "Ohh, Tank, come back". When I asked about it later, it turns out that Tank farted loud enough that it scared him and he ran away from it.
They had to do some more uncomfortable squeezing at his second appointment and he got to keep wearing his donut. He stress ate two tubes of squeezy treats at the Vet's office. It wasn't completely good to go, so we had to schedule another follow-up on Valentine's Day.
He got the clean bill of health on his second follow-up and didn't need to go back. To help prevent this in the future I was told to add some more fiber to his diet.
Yearly Yarn Tracker:
Yarn In: 0 (0)
Yarn Out: 4 (1)
Total: -4
