10/29/2004: Baby raccoons
 

http://cellar.org/2004/babyracoons.jpg

Thanks to xoxoxoBruce for sending along this shot of
baby... what do you think? Well, you know already, because
the title has to give it away. Yeah, raccoons. Would you know
if the title didn't give it away?

It's interesting because they do have that streak of black
across the eyes, even at this incredibly young age. I find that,
on my white dog, her black fur spots are "skin deep", she has
black skin spots below the black fur spots. Only occasionally
she has a black skin spot covered in white fur.

I left the image large because it's not too big a download, and
sometimes it's fun to see the larger images. Eventually we'll
all have 80" monitors and these images will seem tiny!

Cute little devils. Anyone know what's become of Mama?

I have always thought raccoons were darling little critters. Of course, they don't get in my trash cans, either.

Very cute. And I think I might have guessed raccoons because of the stripe across the eyes and because of the feet.

My calico has dark skin under the dark fur,mostly, orange skin under the orange fur, and white - well, light pink -skin under the white fur. At least on the ears, where it is easy to tell. The tabby seems to have the same color skin everywhere.

katkeeper, you mean if you took a picture of the calico, then shaved it. And took another picture, it would have very similar coloration to the first picture? Skinnier of course. :hafucking I didn't realize cats skin sometimes reflects their hair color.

Aside from the freckles on the red point, my cats have the same color skin everywhere... but this is kind of cool;

Yup...we got a surprise when Bosley had a growth on his back removed and they shaved and cut a huge area on his back. Grey fur, grey skin. (btw, turned out to be mild cancer but they got it all and his is just fine 2 years later).


FD

Personally, I think I can sew better than that. Of course, I've never sewn a cat.

A straighter incision would be a plus as well!

I've noticed that vets don't care much about sewing techniques. My calico had an injury (shaving revealed white fur; nearly white skin) that had to be stitched. She still has a spot in her fur that shows where the injury was because of the skin that was kind of bunched up to sew it together. In defense of the vets, I have a doctor friend who was in Vietnam putting people back together, and he says that the faster you can work on a person, the less stress on the body and the quicker the person will recover.
So he learned to work very fast. I assume this is true of animals also.
When my friend returned to civilian life as an ob-gyn, he worked very quickly on patients when he had to do surgery. He was known for the short recovery time of his patients!

I think part of the stitching issue is also that a cats skin is not attached to the underlaying tissue so it moves all over the place... it might actually have been a straight cut when the vet did it (and the cat was unconscious and stretched out). Then again, he probably knew this little persian would grow 4 inches of fur over the cut and his incision never seen again, so what the hey... now that I think about it, I think they had to remove a sizeable rectangle of tissue to make sure they got the growth...so they probably had to pull and stretch the skin to get it to meet up again.

the amazing part is 2 days later he was acting like nothing was up....cut that big a hole in one of us and see how fast we get on our feet afterwards.

FD

Forgot to comment on the picture. It is great - shows everything. Was the cancer due to shots? I have read about a higher rate of cancer in cats that have had lots of shots. How great that Bosley recovered so well.
I had a cat one time that came in the front door and collapsed. We put him in a blanketed box under a table where he lay unmoving, refusing food and drink. On the fifth day, he got up and resumed his normal life like nothing had ever happened. Later we discovered that he had become deaf, and I thiink he was hit by a car that he couldn't hear approaching.

That same cat went through a period where he seemed listless, lacking in energy, and slept a lot. I took him to my father's house in New Hampshire where I was going to spend Christmas, fearing he might go into a decline and die if I left him alone for a week. My father had a youngish cat which my cat quickly realized he could dominate and terrorize pretty easily. This meant the same cat who had laid around sleeping most of the day was never seen asleep during the entire week. He returned home and resumed his normal indoor-outdoor life style. I think he had gone deaf and become fearful. Realizing that he could dominate my father's cat gave him a new lease on life!

Strangely enough, the spot that developed into the lump was where a tick bit him in CT. We had a real hard time getting that tick off and I think that caused the initial trauma to the spot. Too much of a coincidence that it was exact same spot a year later that got the cancer. The cats have had very little shots...all the ones when they were young but almost none in the last 10 years...the two we have are both 16 years old now.

FD

Ack - Vaccine Associated Sarcoma - also called Injection Site Sarcoma because it does NOT seem to require vaccine.

My Cat Tuxedo was diagnosed with VAS 2 years aro in April or May (I could look it up). VAS is a form of Fibrosarcoma that is directly related to injection sites - and any swelling found there. By _MOST_ studies, it seems to be 1)Genetic and 2)Moderately rare, but this point is HIGHLY debated

The BAD part about fibrosarcoma (of any type) in cats OR humans - It's a tough nasty cancer. It tends NOT to mestastize - BUT it sends out tendrils. The problem is, to a surgeon who does NOT know he is dealing with fibrosarcoma, or is inexperienced, they tend NOT to take large enough margins. I talk about surgery, because they have NOT found a drug that works against fibrosarcoma, and it is only slightly effected by radiation. Right now the "Gold Standard" is radical surgery (with at least 1cm clean margins - prefer 2cm) followed by 21 radiation treatments (this is for cats)

Tux is lucky - he has been in remission since Early September 2002. He's one of the rare cats that survives that long with fibrsarcoma - most don't make it to 1 year - never mind 2 years in remission

Straight incisions don't heal as quickly as well-sewn jagged ones. As to whether that one is well-sewn . . .

Everybody is more used to seeing human incisions ... dainty little stiches, closely placed together ... because human docs objective is to stitch the skin together to heal with a minimum of scarring.

ever seen a one inch incision with 10 stiches in it? that's being careful. It also takes a long time. Big bite sutures go in fast, tie off fast, and are done fast.

A vet is also racing the anesthesia. A lot of times they don't want to put the animal out longer. Because of their lower body mass, it's a more delicate balance. Vets pass their own gas, too, they don't have an anesthesiologist in the office ... unless that office is the University of Pennsylvania.

Pets typically don't get upset over how the scar wends around ... given enough time fur's gonna grow over the site, and you'll only notice the scar during an extended petting.

Ah ha, so that's why the critter hospital smells funny. :cool: