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[TheBiggerFish]

It's 3:30 AM, I wake up in 2 hours, I'm still a retard and just posting to make myself better for a while because maybe some randoms on internet care enough to pretend to care.
asdfs

Waking up at 5:30 sucks.
*pats*
Go back to sleep, dude, you're tired and being depressed.
Hope you're feeling better.

[smirk]

cat

Alley cats will break your heart like that =/  If it isn't afraid to come inside, giving it food and a clean dry place to rest can help a lot.

Also: is the swelling/infection localized? Cats, especially strays, are prone to abscesses. They look ugly but they're not often dangerous; draining it and keeping the area clean would help. One of my cats is getting over one at the moment, actually. He tried to fight a stray and got scratched between the ears for his trouble; it swelled up for a day or two and then burst and drained itself in a distressingly messy manner. It's healing well, but he's temporarily lost all the fur between his ears.

Spoiler: His current title is "Friar" (click to show/hide)

[KingofstarrySkies]

I have an essay due tomorrow and it's 10:30. I must now pull it out of my ass and email it to said teacher before I collapse from exhaustion.
...FLÄSHYN.

Update: DID IT
AAAGH

[Amperzand]

YAAAARG!

[itisnotlogical]

I'm starting to genuinely hate the sound of just, human voices in general.

I feel like I'm a pencil that's been sharpened and broken and sharpened again until it's just a chip of wood and a tiny nub of an eraser. I feel ground down. I need a vacation or something. Not likely to get one though. Every day of the week some shitty fucking thing happens and I have to be up at seven in the morning to deal with the repercussions. All of the adults and authority figures in my life are helpless neurotics, and I'm tired of tanking the fallout from decisions made decades before I was born.

[Frumple]

Alley cats will break your heart like that =/  If it isn't afraid to come inside, giving it food and a clean dry place to rest can help a lot.

No alleys for it to cat in, but yeah, it's been an outside cat. Feed it (and... like, over a dozen other cats, if you count the kittens out there right now) regularly, so that's not an issue, but I'll think about setting things up so he's got access to a clean(er, anyway) spot somewhere or another. S'not a bad idea. Inside is a bigger question, since the other house people don't particularly want cats inside, and the other care bits besides food would be money we can't much afford at the mo', but... yeah.

Also: is the swelling/infection localized? Cats, especially strays, are prone to abscesses. They look ugly but they're not often dangerous; draining it and keeping the area clean would help.

Yeah, so far localized, so it's definitely possible... haven't seen many things like it before with the cats in this area, though, which was the worrying bit. Biggest personal concern really is that it's a snakebite that's just taking a while to finish him off, which I've seen happen before, or some kind of internal issue (though it starting to ooze reduces that likelihood). Any recommendations for draining and cleaning? Despite all the years I've had cats I've never actually done or seen done something of that nature

And... best of luck, other folks. Iti, I totally feel you on the voice thing in particular... went through a few periods of that myself. If it means anything to you, I found talking to myself helped with that a lot, particularly with a fair bit of ham. There's was a period I was quoting plays and speeches and whatnot to myself fairly regularly, heh, so I'd be having fun with the human voice (/at all) instead of it (and the people using it) just inflicting misery upon me. Made the overall experience more bearable, if not necessarily better.

[Arx]

For draining the pus (puss?), the best option is to expose the wound by carefully trimming the fur, clean out dirt and scabbing with warm saline or similar and apply gentle pressure.

If it's bad enough, you may need to lance, which you can do with a very sharp, sterilised knife (boil and wipe with alcohol). You'll need a helper to subdue the unfortunate victim, and a mild sedative would help too. It's pretty painful.

Obligatory note that if you're feeding street cats you should make sure they're spayed or neutered.

[Frumple]

Thanks, yeah.

And would if we could, neutering wise. Still looking for low/no cost opportunities (and kiiiiinda' have been for years... tbh, people in general in this area don't care too much about cats save as pest control and target practice), but there's rarely any in this area and the family can't really afford to drop 2-3k (there's a fair number of cats roaming the area we could get to a vet for it, but the quoted price per cat is usually in excess of a hundred USD on the low end, which... not happening, unfortunately) on fixing cats. Though they're more the rural equivalent of street cats, and born and living around the house more than anywhere. Still the same sentiment, and we've been trying for a while to find something that helps with that even remotely close, but... yeah. About the best we can usually manage is to get 'em comfortable around humans and then find homes for 'em, which we definitely try pretty hard t'do. More because they otherwise tend to end up dead than to keep the population down, but still.

[SalmonGod]

I'm starting to genuinely hate the sound of just, human voices in general.

I feel like I'm a pencil that's been sharpened and broken and sharpened again until it's just a chip of wood and a tiny nub of an eraser. I feel ground down. I need a vacation or something. Not likely to get one though. Every day of the week some shitty fucking thing happens and I have to be up at seven in the morning to deal with the repercussions. All of the adults and authority figures in my life are helpless neurotics, and I'm tired of tanking the fallout from decisions made decades before I was born.

Feeling exactly the same way.

[TheBiggerFish]

....

*hugs all the people*

I've no real advice to offer, but...I hope things get better.

[smirk]

Biggest personal concern really is that it's a snakebite that's just taking a while to finish him off, which I've seen happen before, or some kind of internal issue (though it starting to ooze reduces that likelihood).

Oof; I hadn't thought of that. No poisonous snakes in my area so I have no idea what that'd look like. Hopefully it isn't, if he's lasted this long =/

Arx has it for the cleaning/draining. I usually just use a warm wet washcloth and some hydrogen peroxide to help get dirt/pus out of the wound. Not sure about sedation, but having a second person with a pair of gloves to help hold the cat helps.

As for spaying/neutering, try the search tool here. Going by yer profile and searching Arizona, MASH Vet has pretty reasonable prices and HSCAZ has a pay-what-you-can voucher program if you live somewhere called "Rim Country". Or ask your local vets if they know of any places that help out with spaying/neutering strays; some shelters do that kind of thing to help keep populations down.

Please give that cat a pet from me 

[Frumple]

Not actually in arizona, heh, and the nearest free/low cost options I'm aware of are mostly an hour or more's drive away and usually quota'd fairly hard to boot. That search did come up with a couple I wasn't aware of, though, if ones still about that far out. Still 40-50+ usd (plus cost of gas for the trip >_>) which... shit, ~half price is a lot better. It's still more than I'd be able to convince people to pay for a passel of outside cats, unfortunately, and I couldn't pay it myself. Still a good thing to be aware of in the future, heh, so thanks.

And yeah, insofar as the snakes go the only major indication was size/swelling and a bit of shakiness (protip: Watching a cat die to neurotoxins is a complete motherfucker), but it's still a concern, especially with things warming up and the fact that they can occasionally cause death a few days after the bite itself. With the area draining and whatnot it's probably not that, fortunately.

And will do, heh. Cat in particular's one of the handful that's particularly friendly, so it gets attention most of the time I go out the front door.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Nothing better than realizing that you've spent the last four months suppressing everything you know chasing a day dream that will never happen and ripping your own heart out.

[EnigmaticHat]

-snip- (is it possible to delete posts?)

[Orange Wizard]

-snip- (is it possible to delete posts?)

Hit the Report button and say "yo tody pls deleet" or something.