Vibes for Stumpy please!

I knew it was too good to be true. He still does good with the antibiotics, but last night we also started him on the liquid pred. Pred is a drug that you start out in larger doses and work down to a small amount. So out of the gate, he takes 3 msl daily and that is a LOT of medicine. To make it impossible for cats to like, it is made out of the same flavor as children's cherry flavored medicine. Cats simply don't like it. It smells so strong that there is no hiding it with gravy or hiding it in his food.

So Stumpy went from the sweet boy that was opening up his mouth to take his medicine, to one that after getting in about 1/3 of it, started growling at me and after I got a little more, I thought he was going to bite me. Having the bag of favorite treats handy (whiska lickins) doesn't help me a bit.

I'm going to switch over to pill form for at least the first week while the dose is so high and see how that goes. And I may also push to get this in a different flavor.

Amy, that's too bad. Hopefully the pills will be a lot easier. I had to administer the cherry-flavored stuff to one of my sister's cats for two weeks; talk about a bad vacation. It took the cat a long time to forgive me.

Poor Stumpy...
Lots of calming vibes coming your way sweetie.

He goes back to the vet at 11:30 today. He's not responding to the medication and we can tell he is as sick as he was a few weeks back. He runs away from me most of the time because I am the bringer of medicine. The more assertive cats are not going after him, but they are getting in his face whenever they can. It is the classic case of an alpha cat gets ill and the cats in the colony start to confront him.

This is killing Steve and I. Stumpy is the top of the cat ladder in our eyes and we can't do much other than keep taking him back to the vets which he also doesn't like. Both of us have a very bad intuitive feeling about this.

*sigh*

I'm so sorry Stumpy isn't feeling well. I know how it is to be "the dreaded medicine lady". I can't figure out why medicine for animals isn't made palatable for animals. Hoping you get some good news from the vet. Big hugs to you & your cat-family.

Oh dear...
Loving thoughts & prayers for you & sweet Stumpy.

Sending good vibes to you & Stumpy. I cannot imagine watching the king of the household being challenged after he has reigned for years. Let us know how the vet visit goes!

Stumpy My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

Best wishes from my Stumpy and me to you and your Stumpy!

Any news on Stumpy???

Just talked to my husband (he took Stumpy to the vets this morning). When the vet tried to look at his mouth, he screamed, then wiggled away and went back into the open carrier where he cried for the next 2 minutes. He has never done anything like that before.

The vet was able to look at his mouth long enough to say that it didn't look worse, but didn't really look better. She gave him a long acting anti-inflamatory shot in the hopes that it will relieve his pain, then antibiotic pills to crush up and put in his food. The trouble is that he refused to eat last night and if he continues to not eat, we will need to force the medicine on him. Since he runs away when we approach him, that isn't going to be easy. We'll need to resort to more drastic measures which will further stress him out.

So, the shot should last 2 weeks during which time we need to keep him on the meds to get rid of the infection so that he feels better enough to get him back on the pred.

The good news is that if we can get him to eat for the next 2 weeks, we don't need to approach him with any medicine. He will be able to relax a bit around us.

This cat is not only incredibly smart but also the most stubborn cat we've ever lived with. When he makes up his mind to not do something, he will not do it.

Just got home from work and he followed me as I put out fresh dry food. I put him on the counter next to the bowl and actually started eating. He's swallowing the small pieces whole, but at least he is making an attempt to eat. He's been following me around since then and I'll give him his wet food gravy in about an hour. He actually looks like he is feeling better after the shot this morning.

So, now we can only hope and pray that he feels better for the next few weeks until we can stem the infection.

Keeping fingers crossed.

Well, its definately a good sign that Stumpy is eating..Way to go Stumpy!!

Thank god he is eating. I sure hope little Stumpy gets better... Healing vibes are being sent Stumpys way!!

Stumpy....are you a stubborn boy?

Lots of calming vibes coming Stumpy's way.

Sending good vibes!

Get better Stumpy.

I don't know where I have been lately that I missed this whole topic, but I just read through the whole thing and am sorry to hear about Stumpy. I am glad to hear he is a little better now. I will be sending good vibes your way and praying for a speedy recovery. You get 'em Stumpy-you can do it! Just keep eating and all will be better soon.

The emotional roller coaster is happening. He wouldn't even come to get his wet food from me last night - I had to wait for hubby to come home and give it to him. This morning, we tried the pill in the yogurt trick. He wouldn't go for it so I had to give him liquid meds. Steve and I agreed that we are going to have to play good cop-bad cop with him. I'll be the bad cop and bringer of medicine when he fails to eat his food. Steve will be the good cop so he can get him to eat the crushed pills in food.

Yup - both smart and stubborn, yet a perfect gem of a cat! I love this guy and am trying to remain calm thru this entire ordeal. If we can't get his medicine down, we won't be able to kill the infection and he will die. And we're not even sure with the immunodeficiency problem if we will be able to kill the infection. Sometimes life really sucks.