Biggest Challenge With Bringing In My Feral, And Gabapentin.

[Teri122]

Seriously. And now she is so freaked by me she she runs upstairs when I get near her. All I had to do is put the pill meatball in front of her and she ate them, now I haven't gotten her to take any so far. I am feeling very very defeated.

 

[shadowsrescue]

I too would call the emergency vet and ask about it. She may be just fine.

She will readjust. It just takes time. Try to stay calm. She will pick up on your angsts. I know it’s hard

If you need her to eat try the liquid from a can of tuna. Most cats will lap this up. You can add a few flecks of tuna to the liquid. Then offer more tuna if she eats/drinks it.

Other options are plain cooked chicken, canned or fresh cooked salmon, canned mackerel, Gerber stage 2 chicken or turkey baby food, etc. Also try really stinky cat food such as Friskes or Fancy Feast.

 

[shadowsrescue]

How are things today?

 

[Teri122]

Leg is still wrapped, still don't know what to do. I have some gabapentin, but hate to have her sedated for an entire day to take off a wrap, but also hate to attack her again and stuff her in a carrier, not sure she would even hold still enough in the carrier to be able to unwrap it . And so far none has come off itself.

 

[shadowsrescue]

Did you try calling the emergency vet to see what they suggest?

 

[Teri122]

But she did start to eat! And she is taking the pills. She is getting Baytril, metronidazole, pred (which I had been giving once a day but upped to twice right now), and cerenia in case she is nauseas. They gave me little tabs of 25mg Gabapentin for pain, but I don't know if that works for abdominal pain anyway, so I might use that (100mg) for the leg wrap removal . still need her awake to eat and get her meds thru the day so maybe I will give it at bedtime, and get up in the middle of the nite to do it . Do you think that would work? Do they recover like nothing happened in 8-12 hours? Still nervous about the med, and messing up her progress .

 

[Teri122]

Did just talk to the ER vet, they approved the Gaba, I feel that is the lesser of the 2 evils (vs grabbing ) but still am almost terrified. And I hope she recovers to feel good tomorrow and continue to eat so well.

 

[shadowsrescue]

It wears off in 8-12 hours and no worse for the wear for the cat. Yet it does take a good 3-4 hours to work. My boy started to get loopy at 2 hours, but by 4 hours he was like a limp noodle. It was the first time I was ever able to hold him.

I hope it goes well. Let us know.

 

[Teri122]

Unfortunately she did not have the same result. At 3 1/2 hours I still could not touch her, and she seemed almost to be less wobbly when she ran from me than she was at 3 hours. She certainly looked all chill, but when I tried, slowly, to touch her, she would scram. So we just did a grab again. She certainly still had fight in her, but possibly not quite as crazed as without the med. I just hated doing it! Perhaps at that point I could have removed the wrap myself when she was in the carrier, but when she settled she was laying full on that arm. We only live about 4 minutes away from the emergency vet so I took her in and it was removed in about 20 seconds.
Now it is all about waiting for the reports from the studies done. She is on 2 antibiotics, which may be for a month or so, so I am giving her pred twice a day to make sure she keeps eating enough to eat the pills readily.
I will let you know when I hear from them on the radiologist report of the ultrasound and cytology results.
Thank you all so much for the support!!

 

[shadowsrescue]

When I have used the gabapentin, I give one 100mg dose at night and another 100 mg dose the next morning. For my kitty this ensures that he is fully dosed. I am sorry your kitty was still not calm enough. Yet so glad she has the bandage off.
I am hoping for good news when you get the results.

 

[walli]

Hang in there Teri! Your doing great, First time I read about someone else having an older Feral!

 

[Avery]

Too bad the gabapentin didn't work as well as we all hoped, but good for you for trying it even though I know you were very nervous about it. Maybe the vet would say a slightly higher dose would be OK for next time or try the extra dose like Shadowsrescue does?? It is nice that you are so close to the emergency vet so they could remove the bandage. Whew, you must be very glad to have that over with! I'm happy to hear that she is eating and taking her pills. I'll cross my fingers for good test results.

 

[walli]

Terri how did you get kitty to take the pill?

 

[Teri122]

Hi guys. Sorry I have been MIA. Thanks for the support for doing the Gabapentin . Even though it did not work well for her, I appreciate that people understood my fear about it. Next time I should not worry so much. And if the vet ok's it I would do the dose at nite, then in the morning as suggested, as long as that's ok with liver issues.
Walli, I have a few things I do to get her to take pills - best is to wrap in a little piece of cheese, then kind is stick that to a Temptations treat. She eats those pretty well. I will do other things here and there so she doesn't get too bored and stop taking them, but I always cover the pills in either smashed bread, cheese, or pill pocket, then put in a cat food meatball or stick to the treats. I am giving her a total of 6 pills most days, and since she MUST eat them on her own, I need to keep it working. Hopefully in a few more weeks we can cut back some, but I know it takes a while for the condition to resolve. Probably will be a chronic thing though. Her diagnosis was cholangiohepatitis, pancreatitis . I have had my housecats with pancreatitis in the past, but not the rest of this, so it's so much worse with her since I can't pill her like other cats, and then there is the repeat lab work to check on the status of things. But she seems very happy, and I am at least grateful that this came AFTER I brought her inside.

 

[walli]

Good that she is happy!
I feel your stress, actually you are doing really well!
If it was my Feral it would be a huge problem, she is not food motivated
she wouldn't eat a pill pocket with nothing in it!!
I like the cat food meatball! hee hee
This is a good place to just vent too! we will encourage you!
Your doing great!

 

[Teri122]

Thanks Walli. It is something I did think about before getting her inside, the question of, "what if she needs meds". So far so good, and I have learned that cyproheptadine works well for her to stimulate her appetite, so it is always an issue with these guys to get them to eat just enough to get them to eat an appetite pill to treat something else.
She got constipated over the summer and got past the point of eating and was vomiting. So that was a - grab with oven gloves, get to vet, shot to sedate, get out poop blockage... Big ordeal which taught me to be very vigilant about every single thing with her, and document poops to be on the lookout for trouble.

 

[walli]

I know your prolly on special food, but I started mixing hairball food into Walli's dry food, it has more fiber, and her poo is better now.
very wise you thought about this before!
appetite pill-interesting!

 

[Teri122]

I just give Tab about 1/8 of a ciproheptadine daily for appetite .But she is on pred now too for the liver.
I did try RC Fiber Response for her diet, but she didn't really like it. I am going to try to switch her to a special diet for her condition, but taking everything a step at a time.