Erik: minor relapse
Feb. 20th, 2006 06:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioSunday and this morning Erik wasn't interested in food and was a little less active than usual, so I took him to the vet tonight. I did see him drink water this morning, at least, but he had to think about it. He stood and stared at the bowl for a while before drinking; I imagine an inner dialogue along the lines of "c'mon, you know you should" / "but I don't wanna" / "do it anyway".
The vet said he was a little dehydrated (and showed me how to refine my interpretation of the skin-on-the-back-of-the-neck test). She thought a bile blockage unlikely given the surgery and detected no signs of an intestinal blockage. (I gather the major sign would have been complaints when she did those things to the cat...) She said sometimes this just happens with hepatitis (oh goodie), and she sent me home with a bag of water (well, there's other stuff in it too) and instructions to give him some, subcutaneously, every two or three days until his appetite picks up. I should also give him any food he might possibly eat, but I'm not sure what would be more interesting than the canned food and baby food he's already rejecting. Maybe canned tuna. Oh, and there's an anti-nausea drug; that's been a bit of a problem for him and maybe that's why he's not eating.
Though, that said, he did lick a little baby food from the fingers of the technician who showed me how to give him fluids. The little brat -- he wouldn't take food from my finger this morning! (Or tonight after we got home.) Same brand of food, different flavor, so that's the next thing to try.
He was 7 pounds (even) tonight, same as at his last vet visit at the end of January. If we assume that the last couple days have probably cost him a little, that suggests that he had managed to gain a little before this started. So that's good, at least.
I wonder when we'll get to the point where the vet just gives me fluids, anti-nausea drugs, and antibiotics and says "use as necessary". She's already thinking in terms of a regular cycle of antibiotics (every month and a half or so) just on spec.
Edit 8:45PM: Canned tuna is interesting to him (in small doses). Yay!
The vet said he was a little dehydrated (and showed me how to refine my interpretation of the skin-on-the-back-of-the-neck test). She thought a bile blockage unlikely given the surgery and detected no signs of an intestinal blockage. (I gather the major sign would have been complaints when she did those things to the cat...) She said sometimes this just happens with hepatitis (oh goodie), and she sent me home with a bag of water (well, there's other stuff in it too) and instructions to give him some, subcutaneously, every two or three days until his appetite picks up. I should also give him any food he might possibly eat, but I'm not sure what would be more interesting than the canned food and baby food he's already rejecting. Maybe canned tuna. Oh, and there's an anti-nausea drug; that's been a bit of a problem for him and maybe that's why he's not eating.
Though, that said, he did lick a little baby food from the fingers of the technician who showed me how to give him fluids. The little brat -- he wouldn't take food from my finger this morning! (Or tonight after we got home.) Same brand of food, different flavor, so that's the next thing to try.
He was 7 pounds (even) tonight, same as at his last vet visit at the end of January. If we assume that the last couple days have probably cost him a little, that suggests that he had managed to gain a little before this started. So that's good, at least.
I wonder when we'll get to the point where the vet just gives me fluids, anti-nausea drugs, and antibiotics and says "use as necessary". She's already thinking in terms of a regular cycle of antibiotics (every month and a half or so) just on spec.
Edit 8:45PM: Canned tuna is interesting to him (in small doses). Yay!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-21 02:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-02-21 02:30 am (UTC)