Adventures with Astrid, Feathered Non-Friends, and the Letter N

Hello and welcome to another day of the April A to Z Challenge!

My daily preface to this year's alphabetical challenge is that some of my favorite things in life are cats, drawing, writing, and the fantasy genre. And so, my A to Z contributions this year will be illustrations for a weird and wacky fantasy story I'm currently writing. This story co-stars a hind limb paralyzed orange tabby cat named Hobo, and this month you'll get to go along on some of his adventures.

Today we've reached the letter N, which is quite tame and simply stands for the night sky.

For being a relatively common letter, I struggled with N. Though it doesn't play a huge part in the story in and of itself, the night sky is mentioned for certain reasons, and so there's Hobo doing a little stargazing.

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For today's adventure with pup Astrid, she wanted to share something she saw in the creek near our house on a walk the other day.

It might be difficult to tell in that photo, but that there is Astrid with her head shoved through the grates of a bridge. After all, there was a heron more or less flogging some geese who apparently didn't give him enough personal space.

The heron was not interested in being harassed by the geese, and he told them exactly that. That there photo was snapped after their rather loud altercation, which is what got Astrid's attention and made her watch them for quite a few minutes. Luckily, all the feathered individuals involved went about their way in peace after the heron set some boundaries.

Happy Wednesday, friends!

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Tip of the Day

 

We're back to our tips on parasites that can affect our furbabies. Two days ago we gave a tip on Giardia, and the parasite of today is very similar to this. Today's parasite is coccidia, which is another single-celled protozoa that can infect the intestinal tract. Coccidia is similar to Giardia in more than just that regard, though. Just like Giardia, coccidia most commonly causes diarrhea, and is passed in the feces. It is also possible for a furbaby to become infected with coccidia if they ingest an infected rodent.

Also just like with Giardia, sometimes a cat or dog will show no signs of infection even if they have coccidia in their intestinal tract. Young kittens or puppies, geriatric furbabies, and those otherwise medically compromised are at the highest risk. In compromised cats and dogs, diarrhea caused by coccidia infection can lead to dehydration and other complications, which can be life-threatening.

Like the broken record that we are, we're of course reminding you again to keep an eye on your furbaby when outdoors, and to keep their environment as sanitary as possible. As we said earlier, ingesting the feces of another animal infected with coccidia can lead to infection. Also ingesting debris or water near where such an animal defecated could lead to an infection with coccidia.

And, again, if your furbaby has diarrhea, seek veterinary care as soon as possible. Take a fecal sample to the appointment, so that your veterinarian can do a test for coccidia and other parasites. When a diagnosis is made, discuss with the veterinarian the treatment options. Give prescribed medications, which may include antibiotics, probiotics, or another, and do so for as long as the veterinarian prescribes. Stopping medications early, even if symptoms subside, can result in a recurrence. Then again, if a treatment plan is not working, discuss that with your veterinarian as well. Diarrhea, among any number of symptoms, is not to be taken lightly, so do your best to stay on top of it.