Casper is our nearly 12 year old male DSH. Thus far, he's been relatively healthy other than one bout with a UTI a couple of years back that we caught early on. He's an incredibly well behaved, confident cat, so we're really finding ourselves feeling down in the dumps over recent events.
He's always had issues with throwing up his breakfast. Not constantly, but now and then. No obstructions, probably gastric related and certainly from gobbling his food. In past months, we started him on wet food for breakfast which seemed to help the problem a lot. Instead of it happening a few times a week, it went down to a few times a month. We could handle that.
However, in the past couple of weeks he was suddenly doing it again, and more. Even, later in the day. We originally thought he may have been stressed from the recent adoption of our second kitty. But, it continued even after it appeared that he had accepted her living there. Plus, he had also been somewhat hissy and growly but to us also, when we would pick him up. Again, we thought he was voicing his displeasure with Cocoa's appearance but now, we're wondering if he hasn't been in pain for all these weeks.
Anyway, last Friday, he really started acting strangely and threw up twice that day. Right after breakfast, it came right up. Later that afternoon, with nothing in his stomach he did also. We also noticed he seemed kind of confused, and wasn't very energetic.
Saturday morning, I called the vet first thing. He threw up that morning also. He was still somewhat "bright" as far as his demeanor, pleasant to the vet staff and us. All his vital signs were normal but they did a senior blood panel on him, which I'm still waiting on the results for. He did notice his hind legs looked like they had gotten thinner, less muscular than when he saw him last year at his yearly checkup. In retrospect, I would agree. I've mentioned that I thought he was walking funny at times, but I wouldn't have quite noticed the difference until the vet said it.
The doctor prescribed some medication to help with his stomach and asked us not to feed him for the rest of the day, start him on the meds Sunday so he'd be completely clear, and put him on a bland diet for a week.
Sunday, he wouldn't eat the beef/rice the doctor suggested so we went with chicken instead, no rice. I also picked up Weruva's Paw Lickin' Chicken which he did like. However, he was SO weak from not eating for nearly 2 days, and probably from being in whatever pain he is in that he was NOT himself at all. He even bit my BF at one point when he went to lift him. That, is NOT in his nature, at all.
Anyway, he seems mentally confused. He's doing things around the house he's never done before, like going on chairs he's never sat on before in the dining room, and roaming from chair to chair, also in the kitchen too, same thing. He would look at his favorite pillow on the couch like he wanted to sit on it, but wasn't sure if he could, then would sit on the leather couch instead - something he does not usually prefer to do (maybe the pillow texture is bothering him?) He's spent hours laying in a shallow cardboard box we have in the kitchen that he loves for some reason, so much so that we just can't bring ourselves to throw it out. He also can't jump up into our bed. It took him like 3 tries, he kept slipping off
When he got up finally, he spent nearly the entire night sleeping with us, which doesn't happen very often although he usually will come to bed with us and stick around for a while. He's incredibly lethargic. Even jumping onto the couch, which is rather on the low side seems an effort for him.
Anyway, I still haven't heard from their office and it's already past 5:30pm here in the northeast. I leave work soon, head into the subway and will be out of range for 1/2 hour or so and don't you just know he'll call then. And, I don't just want a voice mail telling me the results, I really need to discuss the way Casper actually is now, because he's gotten worse since he saw him over the weekend.
*sighs*
Guess I'm just venting. Not very well versed in sick pets, at all.
Laurie
He's always had issues with throwing up his breakfast. Not constantly, but now and then. No obstructions, probably gastric related and certainly from gobbling his food. In past months, we started him on wet food for breakfast which seemed to help the problem a lot. Instead of it happening a few times a week, it went down to a few times a month. We could handle that.
However, in the past couple of weeks he was suddenly doing it again, and more. Even, later in the day. We originally thought he may have been stressed from the recent adoption of our second kitty. But, it continued even after it appeared that he had accepted her living there. Plus, he had also been somewhat hissy and growly but to us also, when we would pick him up. Again, we thought he was voicing his displeasure with Cocoa's appearance but now, we're wondering if he hasn't been in pain for all these weeks.
Anyway, last Friday, he really started acting strangely and threw up twice that day. Right after breakfast, it came right up. Later that afternoon, with nothing in his stomach he did also. We also noticed he seemed kind of confused, and wasn't very energetic.
Saturday morning, I called the vet first thing. He threw up that morning also. He was still somewhat "bright" as far as his demeanor, pleasant to the vet staff and us. All his vital signs were normal but they did a senior blood panel on him, which I'm still waiting on the results for. He did notice his hind legs looked like they had gotten thinner, less muscular than when he saw him last year at his yearly checkup. In retrospect, I would agree. I've mentioned that I thought he was walking funny at times, but I wouldn't have quite noticed the difference until the vet said it.
The doctor prescribed some medication to help with his stomach and asked us not to feed him for the rest of the day, start him on the meds Sunday so he'd be completely clear, and put him on a bland diet for a week.
Sunday, he wouldn't eat the beef/rice the doctor suggested so we went with chicken instead, no rice. I also picked up Weruva's Paw Lickin' Chicken which he did like. However, he was SO weak from not eating for nearly 2 days, and probably from being in whatever pain he is in that he was NOT himself at all. He even bit my BF at one point when he went to lift him. That, is NOT in his nature, at all.
Anyway, he seems mentally confused. He's doing things around the house he's never done before, like going on chairs he's never sat on before in the dining room, and roaming from chair to chair, also in the kitchen too, same thing. He would look at his favorite pillow on the couch like he wanted to sit on it, but wasn't sure if he could, then would sit on the leather couch instead - something he does not usually prefer to do (maybe the pillow texture is bothering him?) He's spent hours laying in a shallow cardboard box we have in the kitchen that he loves for some reason, so much so that we just can't bring ourselves to throw it out. He also can't jump up into our bed. It took him like 3 tries, he kept slipping off
Anyway, I still haven't heard from their office and it's already past 5:30pm here in the northeast. I leave work soon, head into the subway and will be out of range for 1/2 hour or so and don't you just know he'll call then. And, I don't just want a voice mail telling me the results, I really need to discuss the way Casper actually is now, because he's gotten worse since he saw him over the weekend.
*sighs*
Guess I'm just venting. Not very well versed in sick pets, at all.
Laurie
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