Cat Is Very Ill-clear He Feels Awful

[laura mae]

How's Jeffery doing today?
It was so good to see that he made it home for Christmas day.

Thanks for asking! So far so good. Last night he went for the thyroid medication in the pill pockets. Wet food still sort of makes him gag so continuing with the kibble for the moment. This AM, he wasn't falling for the pill pocket trick and so I crushed up his dose and mixed it with 1/4 teasp of water and was able to get him the medication.
Overnight he ate about 1/3 cup of the kibble and about 1/8 cup today with a few licks of baby food.

The way he is sleeping tells me he feels okay. Last night he was curled up with his head upside down--the total cat happiness sleep position. Right now he's stretched out completely.

The vet also gave metoclopramide for reflux. If he doesn't eat more, I'll give it to him.

I noticed his nose is still sort of bubbly last night but didn't see that this AM. Zero drool YAY! I realize the bubbly nose could be some reflux too so I'll check on him a bit. I figure sleeping is restorative and he should do that.

The compounded version of the methimazole for the thyroid should be ready today. The compounding pharmacy I'm using works some magic with Booberry's cisapride so I'm hoping the same for Jeffery. With Boo, I ask him if he wants his appetizer and he comes right up to me and I give him his medication. Of course, Booberry is the most laid back cat I've ever known. ( A stray we rescued in 2013)

 

[mservant]

Lots of fingers, toes and paws crossed here for the improvements to continue. I agree, sleep is restorative, and if he looks comfy and is happy to chill out and snooze around you it sounds good to me.

It's brilliant when a cat likes the medication they have to take and think it's like a treat, Mouse is often like that too and it makes life so much easier. There can be few things worse than feeling sick and the human you usually rely on for positive things seeming to want to torture you the whole time.

 

[laura mae]

Update: Jeffery has no sniffles left which is good. However today he's less interested in food. I heard him eating his kibble very early this AM but he continues to turn his nose up at wet food including his formerly beloved baby food. And even with the kibble, he's not eating as much as I would like him too.

With both him and Scoo, I wait until they've eaten something before giving them the methimazole so that it doesn't go into empty tummies. So I thought that maybe Jeffery was dealing with some acid, or upset so I gave him a dose of the anti-nausea gastro medication metoclopramide that the vet sent home for him. About an hour later he threw up a little.

And of course---now he's suspicious of me every time I come near him, earning me either him darting away or a hiss. He isn't acting otherwise ill and in fact we were playing laser light for awhile after the medication to distract him. Having 3 cats that need medication every 12 hours is sort of distressing. Got to watch them all (One cisapride two methimazole). Hopefully he gets used to the medication routine, but that's not how this cat is wired. I'll do the best I can for as long as I can.

 

[laura mae]

Improvements in eating, I think. Today's rounds of medication went much better. And I think Jeffery is eating. I went to the pet store to look for toppers for his food. I remembered that Booberry loved the freeze dried raw food, but can't have it any longer because of constipation issues. I got a tiny bag of NW Naturals for Jeffery thinking that maybe the warm water over the chicken would smell good. It did and he snarfed down the bowl. It was a small bowl. He came into the kitchen and wound around my legs asking for another. So I made him another bowl. Later I was so pleased he ate that. But....I think Scooter ate the 2nd bowl. Scooter is the 17 year old also with hyperthyroid but also the beginning of kidney issues so...I was not particularly happy that he may have eaten it. I made Jeffery a bowl of it for supper and Scooter was in on the bed in a hot minute chomping the bowl. Jeffery lets Scooter do anything so, now I'm not sure if he ate the other bowl or not. So now he's safely tucked in the bedroom with the door shut and Scooter is here in the living room. Sigh...

Anyway I don't notice any sort of snorting or gagging and Jeffery took the medicine just fine today. Progress!