Home From Tooth Surgery, But Stubborn Kitty Is Making His Own Life Hard

[linkworshiper]

Mr. Jenkins just had a damaged tooth removed a few days ago, but I'm kind of worried about him. He won't touch wet food and only picks at kibble soaked in water. I attempted to blitz some dry kibble in the food processor but with minimal success. He's very fussy about his meds, and normally we pill him, but with stitches in his mouth, I worry we're going to upset something if we go through our usually squirmy routine. He hates being pilled, hates syringes, hates wet food and treats. He also has a little dot of blood on his lip above the surgery site. Is that normal? I assumed it was left over from the surgery. I wish he could just tell me what was going on

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi
Does your vet clinic have a vet tech who could stop by? Have you had a chance to talk to your vet about the dot of blood? They need to know he's not eating.

 

[linkworshiper]

No, but I suppose I should give them a call. Thanks

 

[Furballsmom]

Let us know what they say, I'm sending tons of good thoughts for him to start feeling better and begin eating

 

[daftcat75]

Can you ask your vet for a few cans of Hills A/D or Royal Canin’s recovery food. These are high calorie, highly appealing foods that are meant to entice sick and recovering cats to eat something when they don’t much feel like eating.

And if your kitty likes it as much as my Betty does, he can be taught to pill himself. My Betty takes meds twice a day, two capsules each shift. She takes them on her own as long as I twist them in Hills A/D for her, just enough to coat the capsule, and drop it onto a textured surface like carpet for her. She takes up her pills so easy. I sing to her with each capsule, “you’re such a pro, such a pro, and here you go!” Giving her her meal after her meds.


Betty usually eats their Hills I/D chicken and vegetable stew. It’s junky. But she likes it and I haven’t been able to find a replacement she eats as readily or enough of. She only gets just enough A/D to coat her capsules on a normal basis. But she did have a fever of unknown origin that tanked her appetite. And A/D got her through that. She didn’t eat full amounts. But she ate enough to keep her going until she wanted her I/D again. And that’s good too. Because A/D is meant simply as a bridge food to keep them eating until they have healed enough from whatever was ailing them to return to normal food.

 

[linkworshiper]

Okay, so after I contacted my vet yesterday, they scheduled me for an emergency appointment today. When we went in, they took a look at Mr. Jenkins's mouth and noticed that the stitch was coming out a bit, so that accounts for the blood on his upper lip. He was also sneezing a lot, and I got really scared when I opened the carrier and saw he'd sneezed blood in there, but because it was dried, the vet said it was most likely from the day we brought him home from surgery.

Anyway, they did give us the super high-calorie food, which he eventually ate a bit of this evening. I'll see if he ate any more when I go to bed, but we left him a wide selection of food choices. The vet also gave us his gabapentin in liquid form so that will hopefully make things a little bit easier for him. They gave him an IV of fluids and checked his other vitals, which were normal. They also gave us an appetite stimulant so hopefully that does the trick. Mr. Jenkins is probably going to continue living on his own in the bedroom until after Thanksgiving guests leave so he'll have plenty of time to recover from the pain. I'm just really sad he's probably still suffering a bit. I just want him to be happy in our house

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[daftcat75]

If he likes the recovery food, you can mix it with regular food to bring up the appeal of both. It seems the recovery food is often too rich for them. Great for getting them to eat something and very helpful that it’s high in calories. But it’s not meant to be a full time food. Mixing it with a full time food will help bridge him back to his regular diet. You don’t have to rush him back to regular food just yet. But after the couple weeks expected for the dental recovery he should be on his path back to regular food too. While I was stabilizing Betty’s IBD, she ate a 1 part A/D to 2 parts I/D (her regular food) for a number of months until her gut felt well enough to eat just the I/D and enough of it to sustain herself. One day she wanted just the I/D and that’s all she’s been eating since. (Except the tiny amount of A/D I twist her pills in twice a day.)