It was a less than fun weekend in the world of the cats. I found Manson hiding under the bed Friday afternoon, and when I picked him up to see what he was doing I had blood on my hands.
I took him to the one pet clinic I took Poe "when he had his puncture wound a while back":http://feralboy.com/log/archives/001465/, and they took him in and gave him an x-ray. He had a good sized puncture wound along his right side, and another one on his back. His one rib was bent, and he was having trouble breathing due to shock, so likely something picked him up and shook him (by "something" I mean a canine, either a dog or a coyote), but he still managed to get away. The clinic wanted him to be observed overnight, but they don't staff overnight, so I had to drive him to an animal hospital on the other side of town.
They admitted him, kept him overnight and gave him an IV with antibiotics and painkillers, as well as fluids. I called twice to check up on him overnight, and he rested comfortably throughout the night, and ate and drank on his own the next morning. That morning I went back and picked him up, armed with more oral antibiotics and painkillers (some sort of morphine-based thing, so let's hope he doesn't start selling his body in South Tucson to support his habit), and brought him home. (BTW, that little trip to the clinic with the x-ray plus the overnight stay with drugs/IV/nursing care cost about $600 total. You should really look into pet insurance. I mean it.)
He's been back for 2 days now, and seems to be doing much better. He's graduated from hiding under the bed to resting all day and night on a chair, he's had a little bit of food as well as used the litter box, and so far his puncture doesn't seem to be infected at all. He looks pretty awful tho, shaved where he was bitten and on his front paw where they put the IV. I'm going to pick him up some wet cat food this afternoon, because I can pretty much guarantee he'll eat it if I do that.
It was a bit of a scare, but he's home and safe and getting better, so that's A Good Thing(tm).