Tooth extraction - swelling?

So I got up this morning, and what did I see? Ralphie actually came upstairs this morning! He ventured out from his safe room, through the kitchen and living room, and came up the stairs to the second floor and greeted me. He meowed, I petted him, and he stared off into space for a second then ran back downstairs into his safe room. He also came to see what I was doing in the bathroom like his normal routine but then after a few seconds he took off back to his safe room. I'm thinking he might be in pain or still has PTSD from everything? I thought it was a small triumph but a good one. He's still sticking to his safe room but he's been coming out more. I'm not sure why he's so scared of the house now but he's off his buprenex now and just on his antibiotics. I just want my kitty back that used to follow me around everywhere. =(

He's still eating fine and all that, but I'd like to see him get more comfortable and less anxious that we're going to scoop him up and take him off to 'the bad man' again.

Just in case anyone wonders what kind of antibiotics he is on, he is on Clindamycin, 1ml in the morning, 1 ml at night, liquid type in a syringe and just shoot it into his mouth. He doesn't like it much and he drools a lot when he gets it but how else am I supposed to get it in his mouth?

Awwww... he is making progress.  It may take some time. 

LOL with the liquid antibiotics... I've never been able to administer them properly.  I always go with pills.  All my cats are used to me giving pills. 

Another update. He's still hunkered down in his safe room, but he did come out for a few seconds and ran back in. He's sitting on a chair under our desk in his safe room. I'm not really sure if he's just still feeling crappy or maybe he is fearful of my wife and I since we were the ones that took him to the vet? I'm just grasping at straws. 

I'm sure he'll be his old Ralphie self over time.  It is pretty traumatic going to sleep and then waking up with stitches in your mouth and all that pain.  If we could only explain to them what to expect!

I agree with you about the antibiotics being included in the bill, any drugs are always listed separately even if there is no charge. 

Same thing happened to my kitty and she needed antibiotics. Hopefully your baby will recover quickly! :O

So it's been a few days, and Ralphie is progressing. He's been eating next to his sister at feeding times, no hissing from her either! He is moving around the house but if he hears noises or gets startled he runs back to his safe room. It's good to see that he has been coming back out of his shell, however, he never was a people person. He never likes being held, and most of the time it's on his terms but it's been trying for him. We've got a vet appointment on monday, so I am hoping he doesn't regress. I don't want to block off his safe room but I just have that instinct to give him a little push but I keep telling myself that he will come out when he wants to. It's just hard to deal with. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and all the helpful advice!

It's great to hear that he continues to improve.      I think your patience will pay off as far as allowing him to get his confidence back at his own pace, especially since that's working so far.  Here's to him getting a clean  bill of health on Monday, even if he heads for that safe room again for awhile after another vet visit.

Just wanted to give everyone an update. Ralphie is himself once again. We went to the vets last monday for a follow-up and his gums were still not healed. It appeared that the vet had taken a chunk of his gum out when the tooth was extracted and in place we thought it was bone, but when the vet pulled the last stitch out that was just hanging there it was plaque/food, and he had a spot where his tooth was. It was bleeding slightly and we were advised it was sign of healthy and healing gums. He is still on a soft food diet but he's playing and acting if nothing had happened, which is great.

My only concern is that for the past week he has had what would appear to be diarrhea. Up until a few weeks ago he was eating a diet of meow mix dry food and fancy feast grilled food. We would give our cats one can in the morning and one at night, but they were three ounce cans and i read that they were only 80 calories per can which is not enough for them on a soft diet. We switched over to friskies prime filets which was almost essentially the same, only we give them each one 5oz can in the morning and one at night.  I read that the larger cans offer 140 calories and pets need at least 30 calories per pound they weight.

I was wondering if this change in diet has caused him to have diarrhea? He's been off antibiotics for a week now as well. The other cat seems to be handling the soft food diet fine (we decided not to leave the dry food out during feedings because it's very difficult to monitor Ralphie and keep him away from the dry food). Once we get the go-ahead from the vets to give him dry food again I want to switch it back to the old food but I wanted to know if anyone had any ideas as to why he may have suddenly gotten chronic diarrhea. 

After everything he has been through I'm not surprised to see some diarrhea. His little system will need more time to get back to normal.

Antibiotics can be hard on the digestive system because they will kill the good bacteria along with the bad.  You might want to think about giving him some probiotics for a while to help his system build itself back to normal levels.

BTW, this is true for humans as well, which is why a lot of people will tell you to eat some yogurt while taking antibiotics, or at least for a while afterwards.

Hello again! While I realize that it has been quite a while, I have another conundrum with my Ralphie boy. He got much better, was all healed up, and on the mend for two weeks. He was acting like his old self again. A few weeks ago my wife and I come home, and he comes out, does his thing, has his dinner, goes out into the living room, and we notice that he starts looking at inanimate objects such as a pillow, chair, or the couch, and gets very skittish and runs back into the room we kept him in when he had an infection from his tooth extraction.

He's eating, playing, and getting along with the other cat when she is around. He's perfectly fine and friendly in the back room, but once he is anywhere else he flicks his tail a lot, seems very unsure of things, and is very skittish. I've got a feliway plug in that i thought would help but thus far we've had no luck. My wife and I have not changed our habits or anything around either. Ralphie used to be very curious, would follow you around all over, and generally be sociable with us. Now he is very anti-social and not curious at all. 

When he had his infection he smelled funny and would hide in odd places, which he is doing neither as of now. I really do not want to have to take him back to the vets because we had such a horrible time there with him and I am rather looking for advice to make him less skittish. I do not know if he is stressed out by something, or thinks we're going to take him to the vet or something, but it's become very odd indeed. Do they offer some kind of kitty ritalin so he isn't so nervous for nothing? We really have no idea what has caused it. We have not changed anything in our home at all.