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Bagha's Notes on Being FIV+

Settling Down But... Injections!

Well, what can I say. Things aren't too bad. I'm not getting the horrible frothing atropine eye drops anymore, so I can see through my right eye again and I don't find the sunlight quite so blinding. My eye isn't 100% normal though, it's a bit "fuzzy" and sensitive to light. But I'm glad we're done with the atropine.

I go out in the morning and a couple of times during the day, still with my human. She seems to have taken a liking to this new habit of coming out with me. Maybe she needs the fresh air, too. An added perk to having her accompany me is that she takes time to play with me in the grass -- pretty cool.

HOWEVER, there's one thing I'm really not happy about: injections. Yeah, you heard me right: the dreaded needle. I thought those only happened at the vet's, but she gave me one this morning and one yesterday. That's probably why she poked and prodded me with a needle last time we were at the vet's!

Well, I can tell you that yesterday's injection was NOT pleasant. The girl obviously needs some practice. This morning was a bit better though -- quicker and less painful, I didn't have to yowl and threaten her with my claws.

She tells me this stuff she's sticking in my is Interferon, and it's supposed to help my immune system. Not quite sure how, though.

I'm still taking the toxoplasmosis pills (it's been ten day now!) and I have to say I'm feeling a tad under the weather -- you know, tired, and less enthusiastic about going out than usual. But I still have my appetite, and I'm drinking a lot so that I can spray my territory liberally when I get to go out.

Almost Normal

Well, yesterday didn't finish too badly, and today went along quite smoothly. It's almost back to normal now, except my human follows me around outside and then brings me back in. She must be feeling very needy or something. I still get to go out free in the morning, as I'm more of an early riser than her -- she's still half asleep when she lets me out.

Torture continues. She sticks drops in my eyes, including the dreaded atropine that makes me salivate like mad and makes my eye completely fuzzy and intolerant to light. I mean, I have to walk around with one eye shut in the sunlight. And even when I try, I can't see much through it, and it's making me jumpy. I don't feel completely myself.

Pills are OK, though I wish she'd manage to get them down my throat without me first choking on them for 15 seconds.

I'm on the balcony right now, surveying my territory. There's a new yellow cat in the area -- thank goodness I managed to pee on most of my bushes today. I'll have to mark extra tomorrow so I'm sure he knows I'm the boss around here.

Better or Worse?

Right, I'm not sure if this is better or worse. Let's go with the good news, first: my human seems to have come to her senses somewhat and let me out yesterday evening and this morning. It wasn't long, but at least I got to walk around my domain a bit and mark some of my bushes. She seemed rather intent on getting me back in shortly after I went out, but the weather's nasty anyway, so that's fine with me.

Much less fine is all the rest. First, we went to the vet's again. The humans talked and talked and talked -- the problem was that obviously, they weren't content to talk, they also had to torture me. The first batch of torture involved a lot of pulling at the skin between my shoulders and sticking needles in it -- like for vaccinations, only those usually go by fast, and this time, my human was doing a good deal of the clumsy pulling and poking.

Then it got worse: the vet looked at my eyes again, and put another type of drop in it. EEEK! that was nasty! Not only was it unpleasant, but it also made me salivate and froth like mad. Yeah, it was atropine, the vet said. It has some lemon-based something that make cats like me drool. So I spent a good five minutes smacking my lips, trying to do something with all this saliva. Quite distressing -- on the upside, I'm quite content that I drooled all over the vet's table. They wiped me off a bit, but yuck.

Back home, I got to go out a bit, as I previously mentioned. But then -- oh no! The big nasty pill, more drops in my eye. I couldn't even wash my face properly: I licked off some leftover atropine around my eye with my paw, and started salivating again... when will this stop?

But at least I don't have to use the litter-tray.