OK, I'm stumped.

[badgerpup]

When I first brought D'Artagnan home from the animal shelter, I took him to the vet within the recommended 72 hours...the next day, in fact.

That little boy had the nastiest ear mite infection I'd ever seen- and lemme tellya, the one that Esme had when she came to live with us set the bar pretty damn high. She'd been in a no-kill shelter with about 30 other cats in her section; all loose and freely associating. Great for socialization and learning to play well with others, not so great if one of them has something nasty- say, earmites.

After bringing a very annoyed and throbbing-eared kitten home from the vet, I called the shelter and gave them a heads-up that they might want to check and treat his two sisters who were still there (and had been dubbed "Hugs" and "Kisses" for their sweet natures) for this same malady.

I had a feeling D'Artagnan might be starting to re-think this 'forever home' concept; that there was a HELL of a lot of fine print and that maybe it wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Here it was barely 24 hours and he'd been subjected to THREE rides in the car and a visit to the vet where he'd gotten injections that hurt (the Ivermectin stings for kittens)...and the ear-cleaning had been thorough and probably very uncomfortable for his probably already-painful ears.
That was really a very bad infestation he had...:yoiks:

Now, at 18 months, D'Artagnan has this habit of shaking his head when you go to pet him from the front. His ears are perfectly clean (he's been to the vet several times because of this), and I keep a sharp eye on ALL their ears, yet he still shakes his head.

He doesn't do this if approached from the rear, and he does enjoy having his ears gently 'itched out' with a thin dry washcloth (all the black cats appear to enjoy this; Wimsey doesn't seem to care for it, but then he's got that dense white fur protecting his ears), and the cloth rarely comes back very dirty.

Any ideas on what's bugging the boy? :shrug:

Thanks...:hug:


Obligatory pic: ;) D'Artagnan snuggled in one of the fleecy blankets (and making it look good in the process).

[Denninmi]

1. It may just be a learned behavior.

From undergoing so many treatments to the ears. Poor kitty.

All I have to do now is SAY the word "pills" around my dog or get out a pill bottle, and he starts to shake his head and drool. He's had too many antibiotics for skin infections, and knows that when he sees or hears about pills, something yucky tasting is going to be shoved in his mouth.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Maybe he is shaking his head because you are touching...

his whiskers first. Maybe that bothers him. Just a thought.