Cat won't leave carrier / not eating after vet stay for full mouth extraction.

I just brought my FIV cat, Jack, home after having a full mouth extraction for severe stomatitis. He had the surgery last Wednesday and stayed ay the cat hospital until the following Monday. I called the doctor each day to check on him and every day he told me that Jack was doing great -  he was recovering quickly and was happy, playful, and most importantly eating again.

I went to pick him up yesterday and when we got home, he came out of his carrier, briefly sniffed around his room and then returned to the carrier. He has not left since. He has refused every type of food offered, and is even urinating on himself - basically, we are exactly where we started before the extractions. When we pet or brush him inside the carrier he purrs and seems content, but he won't come out.

I called the doctor (who is unfortunately 2.5 hours away from us) and he said he was surprised because Jack was doing so well at the hospital. He said he probably doesn't like something about his environment, and suggested moving him to a different area. So I moved his carrier to another part of the house and left several types of food, water, and two different litter boxes. My husband and I both left for work. I am hoping he will feel like coming out again.

Has anyone had a similar experience after bringing their cat home from surgery / vet stay? I'm worried he associates me and my house with pain, but I can't sell the house and move just because he doesn't like it. Thanks so much for any help you can offer!

so he was at the cat hospital for 5 days? and did well? maybe you need something with the cat hospital scent to spread around your home. 

Thanks for responding, Detmut! Once I got home yesterday it was apparent to me that the issue was not so much his environment as the fact that he was still in pain. I was not sent home with any pain meds, so I ended up taking him to the emergency vet, where we got several days worth of buprenorphine. That seems to be helping quite a bit.

i'm glad it got figured out. 

no pain management prescribed post a single extraction, let alone full mouth, is not good medicine. Glad he is comfortable now. Follow up with your vet about not prescribing analgesia to start with... recommending a different room for him to rest versus pain management was a poor thought process indeed. Ask what they administered for pain while he stayed with them. Did they apply nerve blocks prior to root extractions? These last up to an hour, but not multiple days...