A bit of exercise, sun and fresh air
When Simba came home, he was fairly cheerful and eating well. I continued giving him his pain meds but realised that I was only giving half the prescribed amount of Onsior, which was double the normal dose. I'm cautious of giving anti-inflammatories to cats and I queried it but was told: he needs the pain relief. Google also said that a double dose is usually tolerated well by younger cats so I doubled the dose. After 2 days, his eating had dropped off and he vomited and had loose stools so I phoned the vet again on Thursday and was given some advice and told to take a break from the anti-inflammatory and use only the other kind of pain med I have for him, Gabapentin.
He went downhill rapidly the same day and seemed feverish so I had a sleepless night thinking what to do next, because I had to work yesterday and it was a public holiday, so he was proving the rule: pets only get really sick on holiday weekends. I hoped he'd be better in the morning but he wasn't so I started trying to find a substitute at work. The only person available could only come in an hour after opening so I had to go to work, wait for her and then rush home to get to the vet before they closed at midday. I don't have a car and nobody was available at short notice to drive me to the vet 20 km away, so Simba would have to go by scooter. He's a laid back guy and his first trip to the vet was by scooter so I decided to chance it but felt awful driving those 20km as fast as possible with him in the carrier behind me and I got there 20 minutes before closing.
His wound is healing well and the stitches can come out after Monday. He walks on the leg a little but has lost a lot of muscle and has a long healing journey ahead
When the vet examined him, he had a high fever with a body temperature of 40.6C although the stress of the trip may have contributed to that and antibiotics were in order. Mercifully, they treated the visit as a follow-up so I only had to pay for the meds, not the double after-hours consult fee, I was dreading that.
I had to syringe-feed him yesterday and today but he's eating and drinking by himself this evening, which is a relief: I have never met a cat that enjoyed being force-fed although he is actually a very tolerant patient. He lets me know when he's unhappy but he is generally tolerant of the pilling and other annoyances.
Simba and his brother Batman. Toffee is in the corner of the first picture, these 2 have accepted him so we're slowly getting to general acceptance. He's not going back to his previous home, where he will only be attacked again
So it seems we'll be ok. I'll be glad to take the stitches out because then the cone can come off and he'll be much more comfortable. I haven't given him any more anti-inflammatories, his stomach needs time to heal. Unfortunately opioid painkillers aren't available to vets anymore because the regulations have been tightened up a lot and anti-inflammatory painkillers are not a great choice for long-term use. Thanks, opiate addicts 😠now pets should suffer too.
If you are wondering about the rest of the story, the first part is here @nikv/tale-of-a-little-cat-family-or-the-road-to-hell-is-paved-with-good-intentions
the second part is here @nikv/simba-comes-home-to-his-redneck-cat-hotel