Expensive brothers update: MOAR vet visits and Batman shows off his fever coat

Wrestlemania in the kitchen: Simba and Batman have a lot of fun together. Simba is doing really well, he still limps a little but is normally active, climbing trees and doing cat things. It's midwinter here and cold so I think that he feels discomfort from that. I didn't want to put him though anaesthesia again too soon after his leg surgery but he'll go for neutering on Wednesday as it's long overdue: he's already 8 months old and starting to develop a large tomcat head.

A few weeks ago, I noticed that Batman had loose stools with blood and thought "uh-oh, here comes trouble". Within a day or two, I woke up to the sound of vomiting and didn't even stop to consider options. Straight to the vet who said that he was running a fever and that I'd been wise to bring him in and put him on antibiotics again. I also took in a poop sample for microscopic examination but the vet couldn't find any parasites or other nasties although there was an imbalance of the different kinds of bacteria that are normally seen and advised regular probiotic use. Luckily the antibiotics prevented another round of shitmageddon but we started thinking about where these stomach upsets come from. Batman is one of those cats obsessed with playing in the toilet bowl and my vet advised me to keep the lid closed in future. If drinking the toilet water has been the cause of all the gastroenteritis, the boy certainly has a deadly and expensive fetish!

The other day, I noticed that Batman's undercoat is completely grey - this is called a fever coat and it shows just how sick he was. It's most noticeable where his neck was shaved for blood tests He'll be silver for a while but the hair will start turning black again. Wookie had a very red coat when I got him, from having been sick and malnourished when he was young, as you can see in the picture below, he was both red and silver but is properly black now.

Talking of Wookie, he and Peanuts are spending more time back in the house and have accepted Simba completely. Here they are in the same cat bed on my desk. I think the cold makes being inside more attractive but they are also calmer although Dennis is still persona non grata as far as they concerned.

Poor Dennis, he's so sweet and all he wants is to be inside a house during winter. He's stopped picking fights with the others and sleeps on my bed with me and the other cats at night. Sometimes they all share the bed without any issues but at other times, he's not tolerated and the other males start fights. I'm hoping that things will eventually get better and I have had him vaccinated. It's actually pointless trying to get rid of him at this stage, his presence prevents other cats from trying to move in so hopefully he will slowly be accepted.