Yes, it is GROSS!

There are many things I want to blog about....because they are part of our daily life on the farm. But usually, I spare you all :) Sometimes it is because you might not want to know about all the dinners Savannah the barn cat leaves on the patio. Maybe it grosses you out or maybe you'd feel bad for 'the dinner'! And sometimes I just don't want you to think we are totally gross! LOL

Anyways, I have decided, at least in this case, that it's part of life and it's all I got for today so what the hell! You want to rescue? Well then, pull up a chair, listen to this and welcome to rescue!

We've discovered that Maggie, our current foster cat, has tapeworms. [Ewww, yuck, gag me, yes, totally GROSS]! On the flip side, she is probably not feeling so great so the sooner we get them to go away, the better she'll be.

I was cleaning stalls Sunday and I hear Allen yelling for me to "come here". *Sigh* What could be so flipping important that I need to remove myself from the barn to see what he wants! As I get to the door, he is holding Maggie. He turns her around, lifts up her tail and says "What are these?" [Ewww, yuck, gag me, yes, totally GROSS]! They were *gasp* what appeared to be tiny little maggots on her 'butocki' [boo-tock-e] (my slang for BUTT!)

Knowing my husbands flare for the dramatics, I instantly downplayed it. I said 'EW' and then scooped her up, took her to my office, wiped her 'butocki' off, gagged a tad, and then went to go get some wormer. (yes, I have this stuff on hand!) I gave her a dose of Strongid (for cats) but knowing that she already had this when she first came into the rescue, I was fearing the worst....da-da-dummmmm - Tapeworms!

As I understand, a cat gets a tape worm from ingesting a live flea. This is common in outdoor cats [or any cat exposed to fleas that is not flea treated] and it takes some time for the actual tapeworms to show themselves. Maggie has only been "rescued" for maybe about a month now so the timing is just about right. And of course, I was concerned about these nasties extracating themselves from Maggies butocki and being in my home, getting to my dogs etc etc. Wendy assured me that what I was seeing was just the tail and as long as the dogs couldn't get to the litter box, we were fine. And they can't, so we are good!

Of course she is in quarantine again so that even these tails don't spread [Ewww, yuck, gag me, yes, totally GROSS]! even though they look like a miniature piece of dried up rice. Yesterday I stopped by the rescue to pick up a tapeworm pill and when I got home in the evening, I gave it to her. Wait, let me rephrase that - by the time I got home around 11pm last night, I was shoving a pill down a cats throat and then trying to chase it down with a syringe of water. Ohh - she loved me ;) This morning, no change; no tails but no full on worms either. So, I cannot wait to get home and she what she's left for me :( But the sooner we get these out of her, the better off she will be.

Moral of the story - when you want to do good for animals, and your heart is almost as large as your gag reflex, you are going to have this stuff happen. At least YOU are taking care of this animal and ensuring it gets well. YOU care - and that is all that matters to that animal.

On a side note, I had to also tend to my sweet Gypsy on Sunday; she wasn't feeling well. I needed to take her temperature and of course I couldn't find any petroleum jelly. So, I did what anyone who lives on a farm would do....I spit on it ;) My MIL was there and the look on her face was priceless .... my husband wasn't too thrilled either when I told him that if he felt he was coming down with a temperature, he better go buy a thermometer ;)