The reason that I am worried about her is that she is currently compulsively ripping herself up with her own hind-leg claws (I have sometimes joked, grimly, that she is a “cutter”).

I’m so sorry about your kitty, PN. Ironically, my hedgehog had a similar sort of problem. He would bite himself when he got upset. (I always called him a cutter too, actually…) And his poor little chest would get all infected. The vet never did figure out exactly why he did it, though. Still with the antibiotic cream it did help him to heal. The problem never quite went away, but when I could keep him calmed down he at least didn’t do it as much. He lived a decently long life for a hedgehog.

Anyways, good luck to sweet Miki. I hope you can figure things out. <3

I can’t imagine figuring that problem out, PN. Smokey, my kitty, was pretty laid back. She didn’t eat the mice she caught, just left them on the front mat for us. She’d look up at us and go, “Ok. I did my job. Where’s my food?”

She was an adorible, fat, gray cat (Smokey… yeah..XD) with bright yellow green eyes. I loved her. She was the only cat I ever had. She died of old age, fat and happy.

I hope the same can be said for your Miki someday. You obviously love her a lot. She’s lucky. Few strays end up like Miki and Smokey.

Have you tried filing her toenails or putting socks around her feet so she can’t scratch so easily? As for her tongue, I know how flexible their necks are… that’s gonna be hard to keep her from licking. Only thing I could think of would be like maybe a doggie sweater or something to cover the bindings…

I wish you and Miki all the best.

Miki is an incredibly sweet cat. She loves to cuddle very much (she always sleeps cuddled against me when I sleep at night), and almost always wants to be in the same room as I am when I’m home, but, in addition to being very sweet, she is also rather neurotic. This may stem from abandonment issues: she was a stray cat when I adopted her. She has a lot of fears. She is afraid of the air-conditioner, and the heater, despite years of experience living with them and never coming to harm from them. She is also afraid of the doorbell. She often hides under my bed when she gets afraid.

The reason that I am worried about her is that she is currently compulsively ripping herself up with her own hind-leg claws (I have sometimes joked, grimly, that she is a “cutter”). She has terrible wounds on her chest, near her neck) at present, aggravated by licking at the wounds compulsively, and it remains to be seen if the latest steps I am taking to prevent her from kicking and licking at the wounds will be effective long enough for her to heal. Actually, she has removed much of the fur from the front of her neck and under her chin as well, but fortunately this area isn’t badly wounded like her chest is.

She may wound herself initially due to some sort of allergic itching (according to a veterinarian), but after that I think that she just compulsively messes with the wound and can’t leave it alone (she has other compulsive behaviors, but those are fortunately not harmful to her). She has done this cutting—and then aggravating the wound—before, with a wound that she made on her head, but in that case it was easier to protect the wound. I just put a plastic cone around her neck until the head-wound healed. It is harder to protect the wound presently on her chest.

Right now I have put a bandage around her neck and chest, and an inflatable tube-like collar placed around her neck over that. The challenge is to make this arrangement secure enough to keep her from removing it, without cutting off the blood circulation to her head, or having her strangle herself while trying to remove the collar (she has shown that she can remove it if I don’t make it tight enough). Every time I leave home, I worry that I might return to find that she has managed to strangle herself. I also worry that she might not be able to drink from her water bowl with the inflated collar on. And there is also the problem that pressure on the wound might inhibit it from healing. But Miki will surely get the wound infected if I just let it be (plus she makes the wound larger and larger if given the opportunity).

So I am very worried about Miki. Worried that I won’t be able to stop her from destroying herself. It would make me very sad to lose her from my life.

My cat is a spawn from hell, but I love all kitties. But most of them hate me, except for strays. ~_~

Unfortunately, I’m stuck with my dad’s guard dog… ~_~
So I can’t have any other pets because the dog might attack it (or gobble it up). T_T
He even ate my poor lil’ hamster last time!!! TT_TT

And… I always wanted a cat…

Oh, sorry to hear about your cat though. How’s your cat doing now?

I notice everyones little Avatar picture is gone. Someone ate my Mince Pie!

Fixed.
Your mince pie is back.
Thanks for pointing out the loss of the Gravatar avatars.