Ratty

I came back from grocery shopping the other night to find that Ratty the cat had somehow done something to his left eye. He was holding it closed and it was a bit teary, though when I tried to look I didn't see anything obvious. I don't know what happened (though I have a lot of guesses, mostly to do with his very frisky and fond of wrestling siblings) but given it wasn't any better the next day I called the vet, who saw him this morning.

He's got an abrasion on his cornea; it looks to be healing well so far, but the vet gave me some drops to put in his eyes to help things along.

One of the drops, the one that has to go in three times a day (good god wish me luck) is an antibiotic so it doesn't get infected. The other thing is something that goes in once a day and is used to dilate the pupil, because with the cornea injured the muscle of the iris tends to spasm, and dilating the pupil means relaxing that muscle and so it hurts less.

Why am I telling this story here on the hedgewitch blog?

Because that second medication is atropine. Which is one of the main poisons in belladonna, the deadly nightshade plant, otherwise known as the poisonous plant in witchy tradition. One of its other traditional uses, besides being a purported ingredient in traditional flying ointments (no thank you very much) was to dilate women's pupils to give them a pretty, doe-eyed look, back when that was considered a good idea. And here it is doing just that, though for medical purposes rather than cosmetic.

Belladonna. The famous, highly toxic, beautiful beautiful Lady with the big black eyes. The one that this beginning herbalist will likely always steer very clear from.

And there's Ratty, a walking Mercury retrograde of feline health (oh my god this cat), taking belladonna.

For some reason that's just the funniest thing.