I crashed hard last night because I’ve been so worried about Shadow. Even with the clean bill of health, he was still sick. Yes, it wasn’t any of the big three things I feared, but he’s still not at his best. Yesterday. I made the mistake of giving him his antibiotics (last night) before feeding him dinner. In addition, I messed up and dribbled it down his neck the first time, didn’t get the liquids in the syringe the second time, and finally got it in him the third.
He was not happy about it and stalked away. He did begrudgingly accept several Temptations (truly the manna of cats) afterwards, but nothing else. Before this, he had been snoozing on my legs, but he went elsewhere afterwards.
Later, he would let me pet him and leaned into it. He wasn’t interested in food, though, which made me anxious. He has lost four pounds in ten years. Maybe I’ve been underfeeding him. He does have a bowl of dry from which he cat eat at any time. That was one reason the vet thought it might be hyperthyroidism or diabetes. Maybe it’s just he’s getting old.
This morning, I decided to feed him the first thing. Normally, I would do Taiji first and then feed him so he wouldn’t meow at me as soon as I was awake. I just want him to eat, though, so I went to feed him. He eagerly trotted after me and meowed. That revived my spirits as I dished out 2/3rds a small can of wet food (twice as much as I normally feed him in the morning) and poured a healthy amount of hot water around it. It’s his favorite way of eating wet food. I mushed the wet food so it would be easier to digest. Actually, I started with roughly half a can and he scarfed that down. I added more wet food and more water. He kept eating. I put more wet food and warm water (the rest of the can), and he finished up the water, but left most of the food behind. In general, he was more about the water than the food, but he did eat some chunks of wet food. And all of this was without me having to dot the plate with Temptations.
Then, I waited half an hour before giving him the antibiotics. This time, I scruffed him and got it in his mouth in one go. He wasn’t happy about it and did not want treats afterwards, but he did allow me to stroke his head an hour later. So he’s not mad at me; he just didn’t like it. Which, I can’t really blame him. I wouldn’t want some giant grabbing me and squirting liquid meds in my mouth, either. Especially when I wasn’t feeling well to begin with and I didn’t know why.
He seems a bit lethargic, but it’s hard to tell because he’s a pretty chill cat in general. Cats sleep up to fifteen hours a day, anyway, and he’s a champion sleeper. Right now, he’s in the computer room and sleeping on the papasan. That’s one of his normal places to sleep, so it’s hard to say if he’s feeling normal or not. He lifted his head as I went to stroke his head, which was his way of saying he wanted me to stroke him under his chin. He had that dreamy look in his eyes that he gets when he’s really feeling the pets.
So superficially, he’s pretty much back to normal. No poop yet today, which is not that surprising. He did pee a normal amount and there is no vomit. He hasn’t been meowing as much as he normally would, but he did meow for breakfast this morning.
When Ian’s cat, Gil, got sick, it was a similar pattern, though shorter. He was lethargic and refused to eat. Ian took him in and the vet gave him an antibiotic shot. He was logy for the rest of the day. The next day, he ate a whole can of wet food, but still was lethargic. Then, the day after, he was back to himself, mostly.
Shadow is in the ‘ate a lot of wet food, but still lethargic’ phase. I’m hoping that he’s back to himself completely tomorrow (and that he poops). I don’t think I need to call the vet right now, but maybe tomorrow. Especially if he doesn’t poop. I want to go into the weekend with as light a mind as possible. I think there might have been some poop nuggets, but it’s hard to tell if they were from today or kinda hugged the side of the litter box from a few days ago. I just need him to poop and he should after all the wet food he ate today.
On a different note, K is coming this afternoon. I am so happy. I haven’t seen her since before the pandemic, obviously, even though I was supposed to fly out two Halloweens ago. She’s staying for a long weekend, then flying back at the butt-crack of dawn on Sunday. She’s a teacher, so she had to get ok from her principal to take off today and tomorrow. She lives in Philly, and we were celebrating late Tuesday night for John Fetterman winning over Dr. (Wizard of) Oz. I’ll write a post about that later, but I was so happy for my stroke brother.
I met Kathleen when I was 22 or 23 and in my first job out of college. It was a terrible job in a very dysfunctional nonprofit (I was a day treatment counselor and she was the admin assistant), and we bonded during the forced company lunch at Christmas. We were the youngest and the only two creative types (that talked about it at all, except the art teacher, which, a whole different story), and she was an English major in college. Plus, she had a tattoo on her wrist, and I wanted a tattoo more than anything.
I left that job after a year, but we remained friends forever. She has seen me through some bad times and vice-versa. We agree on almost everything, just to varying degrees. She has a kid (who just went to college!), and I am stridently childfree, but that never got in the way of our friendship.
She is one of those people who I could lose contact with for years and then pick up where we left off once we reconnected. I love her, and she is on her way (Thursday morning). I cannot wait to see her. I feel bad that she’s coming when I’m dealing with a health scare (Shadow, not me), but I knw she understands. She has two cats and a dog herself; it’s not her first day at the rodeo. She’ll roll with it because that’s who she is. I’ll be grateful for the emotional support.