Mites

In November 2008, my husband called me from the warehouse where he was working asking if I could come there to look at a cat. Being the animal lover that I am, I didn't hesitate.

When Beau and I arrived at the warehouse the cat was nowhere in sight. We searched the grounds and then started searching each of the 3 warehouses on the property. I was having no luck finding the cat so I finally turned to Beau and told him to find the cat.

Beau went through the warehouse we were in and went through some rows of stuff. Within seconds I heard a cat growling so I called Beau out so I could try to get the cat out.

It was a very tight area so I had to lay down and crawl on my side to get back to the cat. When I got to him, there was no way I could see him so I just stuck my hand into the area Beau had been in.

As soon as my hand touched him, I instinctively pulled back. What I felt was a massive scabby mess on his head and neck. Thinking the cat had been attacked I reached for him again and pulled him out.

I had to crawl back on my side out of the row of stuff pulling the cat with me. When I got him to where I could see him I was totally horrified. He had not been attacked - he had the worse case of mites I had ever seen.

His head and neck were totally covered with scabs and his face was so swollen that he couldn't open his eyes. How had this cat had managed to survive with the agony of the itching and not being able to see? Where had he come from and how could anyone let him get into this condition?

I carried the cat back to where my husband was working with Beau right beside me. We decided to take the cat to the vet rather than turn him in to a shelter. When I got into the car with him, he curled up in my lap and seemed to be so happy to be held.

At the vet's office they did a skin scrape, took some blood for a feline leukemia test, and some stool to test for worms. It turns out that he had a severe case of scabies but fortunately the other tests came back negative.

The vet gave us antibiotics, shampoo and Frontline Plus spray to kill the mites. I gave him a bath as soon as we got home with the medicated shampoo. He was so pathetic during the bath. The poor baby couldn't see what was going on and he was so scared when he felt the water. After he dried, I used the Frontline Plus spray.

Since scabies are contagious to people and other animals, I had to keep him confined in a carrier for a week. He drank a ton of water because he was so dehydrated and ate all that I gave him. Then he slept and slept and slept. Beau stayed close to the carrier to keep an eye on his new charge and would let me know if he thought Lucky was in trouble.

Yes, we named him Lucky. We felt that name fit him so well. He was lucky my husband was there that day, lucky my husband called me, lucky I came to find him, lucky that Beau was able to find him, lucky he didn't have leukemia, lucky to have survived until we found him and now we are so lucky to have him in our lives.

I did have to give him a couple more baths but once the antibiotics were done and the scabs all healed and removed he turned out to be a beautiful cat. When I found him, his coat was very dull and the white on him was a dingy grey. Now he is a beautifully marked cat with a bright coat. The top picture was taken less than a month after we found him and the bottom one was taken the day I brought him home.

If someone had taken him to the vet when the mites first started, the treatment would have been very simple and the mites would have been killed quickly. Unfortunately no one cared enough to help him so he got progressively worse. If you've ever been bitten by a mosquito and the itching just wouldn't stop, just imagine the agony Lucky must have been in with thousands of mites biting him.

I realize that not everyone is in a position where they can take in strays but at the very least please turn the stray in to the local animal shelter. Lucky is proof that there are worse things than being in a shelter. He like so many others would have died a slow painful death if people didn't get involved.