Greetings to all Possum's friends and followers, both four-legged and two-legged.
It's still the anxious Mum here.
I took Possum to the vet again this evening (after another more-or-less unsuccessful attempt at forced feeding again this morning). He was very angry with me. He hissed at me in the taxi and tried to attack me through the grid of his carrier, but I was actually quite relieved that for a few moments, he had emerged from his apathy.
When we got to the vet's, Dr. Einat and her assistant managed to get almost half a can of A/D Critical Care dietary food into him (the rest went all over the examining table, the floor, and the towel I had wrapped him in). The odd thing is that he put up much less resistance to Einat and Yardena than he did to me! I'm beginning to feel he's turned this into a battle of wills between us.
He also received subQ fluids and Dr. Einat decided to try and collect a urine sample. She got rather more (or less) than she bargained for, because Possum decided to turn himself into a water-cannon. However, she managed to collect enough to carry out the necessary tests and to our great relief, his urine seems to be normal now!
Dr. Einat thinks it possible that he has pain opening and closing his jaw because of inflammation of the joints there. He certainly seems to have difficulty walking - his hind legs seem stiff, possibly due to arthritis. She gave him a low dosage shot of a new anti-inflammatory drug (which is actually not recommended for cats, but desperate situations call for desperate measures). She says that if it's arthritis, he will be suffering a great deal of pain and if it's in his jaw as well, of course he would stop eating. So now we're back home, waiting to see if this will have any effect. She wants to see him again on Thursday, but she says we'll wait and see and if there's any improvement, maybe we'll wait longer, because she doesn't want him to suffer the trauma of being transported back and forth every couple of days.
Once again, I left her clinic with high hopes - but I dare not let them get too high. Unlike the day before yesterday, he didn't go to eat of his own accord when we got home, though that might be because he ate much more at the clinic than he did on Sunday.
I'm praying very hard that we've stumbled upon the cause of Possum's distress. This morning, I was already trying to come to terms with the likelihood that the parting of the ways was before us. This evening, I have, once again, a glimmer of that "thing with feathers".
7 comments:
Poor baby. This vet seems to be a wonder who really cares. I'd like to find one here like her.
I hope the anti-inflammatory shots work. Kassey has had several. I did not know they weren't for cats.
I hope everything works out for sweet Possum.
Poor boy! So many older cats get arthritis, so it could be so with Possum too. I am glad though you have a kind vet now ;) xx
Continued purrs and purrayers from us. We hope this shot works for him. Paws crossed!
That is what Admiral had too. Mirtazipine. It worked for her. A tiny tiny tiny pill that had to be halved by the pharamicist or the Vet. Made it so tiny it wasn't hard getting it down Admiral. *I* didn't do it but since the pill pockets are available here, I used those.
Will any of your pet stores special order the Pill Pockets for you. Greenies is the brand name.
Possum may indeed be in pain. Hopefully this new medication will help if that's what it is. Precious dear boy. xoxoxox to him always. I am so ans=xious to know if the new med worked next update.
Thank goodness his blood and urine are alright and that you have someone who likes senior pets.
Can you get one of the pill administrators from the vet or the pet shop? You put the pill into it and "shoot" it into the cats throat. It's all over in a flash.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++THIS IS FROM A PET SMART AD:
I used this product when I had to give an aspirin sized pill to 7 of my cats. My husband and I tried in vain to wrap them in towels, force their mouths open, and pop them in...but that just ended in bloody arms. We went and got this pill gun. It just basically holds the pill in the end and you kind of push it back in their mouth. It allows you to get the pill WAY back in their throats so they can't NOT swallow it if you hold their mouth shut. It took 45 minutes to give 3 cats their pills WITHOUT the gun and about 10 for the remaining 4. It's not perfect though and you might need to give it a few tries, but I assure you that if you have two people...it works great.
I wish I could leave you an illustration here but I can't.
We are glad that you are going to a kinder vet now. Hopefully you are on the right track for helping sweet Possum. Our Sammy has arthritis, too. He is on Cosequin (over the counter), and just started 2X/week injections of Adequan. Are either or both available in Israel? It really seems to be helping!
We hope this vet will be able to make Possum feel better and eat like he should. He's just not that old.
My Himalayan lived to be 20 years old. I did have to put out stepstools for her to get up to a couple of her favorite places.
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