Hi,
I'm sorry it's taken me so long to respond, but things change so fast and I hate writing all optimistically just to be congratulated and have to reply with bad news.
Satch held his appetite and a ~102 degree fever over the weekend. It dropped to 100 yesterday, is back up in the 101 degree range today. His spirits seemed to gather yesterday, as his appetite waned. His congestion sounds just awful, I wish that there was kitty expectorant to give him. Nothing much is coming out and I wonder if the coughing is making his throat sore and hence the not eating. I hate not eating cats! They make me want to curl up and cry. He's not going to be easy to force feed. He hasn't stopped completely, but compared to what he normally eats, he may as well have. When do you start the force feeding? How long do you give them to regain interest? Again, his spirits seem good, he slept close last night, isn't in hiding, he hangs out in the windows and meows like he wants food, then when it's pointed out to him, he just walks away. He's still drinking water on his own. Does he know that he'll vomit if he eats and that's why he doesn't? I don't want to add vomiting to the mix. When I put more tuna in his mouth he gagged it back up. Same thing with some fancy feast.
He ate some of my raw food last night, not much. He ate some baby food last night, licked it off of my fingers, but again, not much. He ate some tuna/drank the juice, but not much this morning. I'm off to the store for a humidifier to help with the breathing and the makings of the liver shake.
I'll call the vet again today to get his take. If he says to start the forcefeeding, I don't know what to do.
I'm supposed to go back home to St Louis for four days tomorrow to see family. I can't leave a cat that needs to get force fed with someone. My boyfriend was going to watch him, and I was okay leaving him the task of giving the Clavamox, but he's a dog person (who also loves Satch) - so asking him to force feed seems unfair to both parties.
I'll ask the vet today what the Western Herbal Tincture was intended to do, I don't think that it's meant to be ongoing, it made Satch vomit, so I stopped using it.
I'm so distraught, I don't know what to do. I just want him to eat again. I can't leave him not eating, but how can I explain to my 97 year old grandmother that I canceled my trip to come back and see her for a sick cat?
Leslie
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Message: 5
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:41:39 -0700
From: Nina < [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Satch is coughing
To: felvtalk@felineleukemia.org
Message-ID: < [EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Oh for God's sake, Satch better be okay. With situations like this I
usually stop praying to Spirit and start threatening :). You did good
taking him in right away. It sounds like you met a nice new vet in the
process and he knows about the 'don't wait and see approach for a pos',
that's a good sign! I like that he was encouraging you to adopt another
too. Yep, I like his attitude. Find out what the herb is that he put
Satchmo on and let us know what it is, we're always looking for benign
ways to improve immune response, (I assume that's what the herb is
for?). How is Satchmo doing now? Any more coughing? Are you positive
it wasn't just a hairball? Keep us informed,
Nina
