When I wrote about Mark being electrocuted last night, we had not yet tried to give Kimba a flea bath.  Poor Mark is taking a beating!

Kimba has had a really bad flea problem, particularly around the base of her tail where she has been sensitive to the touch.  We had given her a flea bath a week or so ago after her first vet visit, and she was scheduled to see the vet again this afternoon, so we decided to give her another flea bath last night.  Mark put a glove on his left hand to protect his ring finger and he held her while I started to bathe her.

Kimba was struggling and she caught the pad at the base of Mark’s left thumb and bit hard enough to draw blood in four places where her fangs dug in.  Mark yelled at her and held her even tighter and her eyes were as big as saucers, but she didn’t struggle anymore.

This morning, Mark called the VA in Green Bay and got permission to go to urgent care here.  They checked the burn around his ring finger and wrapped it up better.  Then they looked at the bite on the same hand.  The bite area is somewhat swollen and they gave Mark some antibiotics for it.  They had to call the sheriff in, which is protocol when an animal bites, and the sheriff put Kimba on quarantine and said she needs to see a vet several times in the next ten days.

This afternoon’s vet appointment was for both Dobby and Kimba.  The vet has determined that Kimba is allergic to flea bites and that might have been why she reacted so strongly to the bath yesterday.  She is irritable from the pain she is experiencing.  The vet gave her a cortisone shot and a pain killer which seemed to mellow her out for the rest of the afternoon.  Kimba has an appointment to go back on Friday and then again on Tuesday to be sure she doesn’t have rabies.  Of course, the last time Mark took her to the vet she got a rabies shot.  That’s the only reason the sheriff didn’t quarantine her to the Humane Society.

Dobby was another matter.  We have noticed that as Kimba has gotten fatter, Dobby has been getting thinner.  The vet tested him and found he has a thyroid problem.  She gave him medication for that and also gave him his rabies shot.  Mark said he was very mellow throughout, only flinching a bit when he got his shot.

In the meantime, this flea infestation is something that is throughout our RV.  Mark opened the door to reach in and get something the other day and when he came back in the house, he had hundreds of fleas all over him.  We have fogged the RV twice now.  We are beginning to find fleas in the house.  We went through this kind of thing when we were working in Oklahoma several years ago.  This kind of infestation takes a lot of work to get rid of.  At least, this time we don’t have to live in the midst of the worst of it.  The cats are in the garage so the RV is empty and we can bomb it sky high if we have to.  We just need the fleas to be gone before we move back in in late October or early November.