Poor kitty.
I was trying to clean clogged printer heads last night and also replaced a black ink cartridge. My cat and a small child (looking after a friend’s spawn for the evening) were ‘helping’ me. The kid was actually being quite helpful and made a good runner (‘Fetch me chocolate!’ - ‘Do printers like chocolate too?’). My furrier friend was basically just tapping printer parts in a manner that said ‘I think the best thing to do would be to attack THIS bit.’
Anyway, when we finally got around to putting in the new black cartridge, I caved to the kids’s request to be allowed to pull the safety tape off. Unfortunately the ‘pull’ was a little too enthusiastic and resulted in removing not only the safety tape but also the little plug part that was holding all the ink in.
So there was a small ink explosion .
Somehow the kid managed to avoid inkage, but neither my favourite pants (stupid thing to wear playing with machine innards, I know) nor my curious cat escaped the horrors of the ink.
I got as much ink as I could off the cat straight away, just with towels and water, I just didn’t want her to lick it and ingest any. I rinsed the pants in cold water too.
Cat, who is Siamese and mostly white, unfortunately, still has a lot of grey patches. The ink seems to have come away from the outer tips of the fur, and is now only a murky colour from the roots to about halfway along, so it is still visible.
I don’t mind looking at it, but I am still worried that it might be dangerous for her to lick herself. Is there anything I can do? Should I go straight to a vet?
Also appreciate any advice for removing the ink from my white pants, as nothing seems to make it budge. Tried plain water, a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and detegent - which is what I use for wine stains - and isopropyl alcohol, which is what I was cleaning the print heads with in the first place.
It’s unpleasant, but the best solution would be to give the cat a good old fashioned bath with shampoo in the sink.
No, my cat doesn’t like it either. Some things just need to be done.
If you are going to wash the cat, I suggest a nylon mesh bag. I still have memories of when my parents had to wash motor oil off a cat. That bag was the only way they had a prayer of having any control over him.
Uhh… How come? :smack:
I’ve always made sure to rinse her thoroughly afterwards, because I was paranoid about it. Is it really bad for me to have done so?
PS. Don’t tell the cat.
If there’s any reason, I’ve sure never heard it. I only worked at the vet clinic for a summer, but you’d think I woulda heard about that. Meh. One time my cat got outside and hid under the neighbors van - came back inside all covered in motor oil. We decided to use dish soap - I’m guessing shampoo would have been less effective.
If this was a human with ink in his/her hair, I would suggest hairspray. I don’t think I would try that with the cat though; sounds like you’re going to have to wash the kitty (after taking pictures, of course).
I’ve also heard that hairspray removes ink from fabirc, though I’ve only heard this in reference to ball point pen ink.
Thanks everyone, I guess I really do have to bite the bullet and wash her.
T’is a pity, she was miffed for two days once when I accidentally spilled half a glass of water next to her. And that was only a splash. Now she’s going to hate me forever and go and live with my evil neighbour who’s always trying to entice her…
I just went out to the pet store to find pet shampoo, one clerk out of three thinks it will get rid of the ink. Still, worth a shot.
Sigh. I’d better go find a way to convince Tenzing (cat) she likes mesh bags enough to get calmly inside one.
Here kitty…
armed with several layers of long sleeves
Trawling the net, I find no specific solutions for the pants stain either. Guess they’re being promoted to ‘painting pants’!
My gut feeling is that anything the shampoo won’t get out - a stain on the fur itself - is pretty unlikely to hurt your cat. If it’s set so well that you can’t wash it out, it’ll just fall off as the hair falls out; I can’t imagine the cat’s tongue dislodging enough of it to make it sick.
The cat will survive a shampooing. We’ve done it before. They smell really good afterwards, too.
