My cat may or may not have a fever.
She had one on Friday. I wanted to find out if she had one today. Now, modern technology being what it is, I do not have to try to take her temperature with a rectal thermometer. (A good thing, too -- I expect it would be completely impossible unless the first step of the directions is "Give Cat Pounce-Flavored Valium.") But now, there's Ear Thermometers. I even saw the vet use one on my cat on Friday. Easy-peasy.
Fifty bucks later and I now own an ear thermometer. I also bought a bag of Cat Chow. (Because, see, she's a year old now, so I need to switch from Kitten Chow to Cat Chow. And she HASN'T BEEN EATING THE KITTEN CHOW this week -- which makes me all worried what with the fevor on Friday.)
So, Ear Thermometer. I read the instructions. It basically involves sticking the thermometer in the child's-- I mean, cat's-- ear for one second. The cat does not think this is a good idea. I can't get her to hold still for a second. She runs away. She hides. She bites me (not actually breaking the skin, but with much more intent to actually do me harm than she normally has). I finally get a reading: 95.2. This would be wrong. I'm aiming for something in the neighborhood of 102. I try again and get a reading around 96. Better, but still not right.
Maybe I'm using it wrong. I put a new safety cap (read: thermometer condom) on the thermometer and test it on myself. 96.2 96.5 97.2 97.7. I start to wonder whether the thermometer takes any readings at all, or if it just increases the reading a little bit every time you try it. I get it up to 98.6, and it keeps going. I stopped taking readings on myself when it put my temperature around 99.7. I tried the cat again. She sat more or less still and I got two readings off of her. Both in the 99 degree neighborhood. I decide the thermometer is a completely useless piece of crap.
On the plus side, the cat damn near devoured the bowl of Cat Chow I left for her. She's eating! Good kitty!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
those ear thermometers are a piece of crap. when my son was 3 he was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia. he had a 105 temp and i was scared out of my mind. the nurse would give him some childrens motrin every 8 hours on the dot (god forbid if it was sooner) as long as the ear therm told her to. Well, once this nurse took his ear temp and had the audacity to tell me it was normal. Meanwhile I'm holding him and i'm sweating from the heat radiating off his body.
i told her very nicely to please check it again, because i didn't believe it. so she did, and it said the same thing 'normal'. I told her to go get a rectal therm bec there was NO WAY that thing was correct. She had this serious attitude and tried to argue with me, but I absolutely insisted. She left with her nose up in the air, but returned with the rectal.
sure enough...it was in the 104 range. she didn't say one word, she gave him the motrin and left. I will never use those ear therms again. Can you return it and get your $50 back? I hope so!
Good thing you stuck to your guns with that nurse. How awful!
Post a Comment