She is still fighting a bad case of oral mouth ulcers, goopy eye and poor appetite. The vet was disappointed that the depo shot didn’t do much for what is going on with her. He did give her one more convinia shot and we got more eye medicine for her. Since her last visit, she is down 2 pounds. Although she is one cat who can afford to loose weight, he wants me to monitor her weight for the next two weeks then bring her back. I won’t be taking her back. She is so stressed from all these vet visits she has been peeing all over herself since she got home. It’s not worth it, especially knowing that what they are doing for her doesn’t work.
We pulled her health file and looked it over, searching for answers and he has determined that the covenia shot does not work on her in the past, and he hopes that now that she is older it might. She’s had several of these shots in the past with no results. Bummer. I am going to increase the L-Lysine that I am feeding all the cats including her and looking into holistic ways to heal her ulcers (perhaps unprocessed honey?) I don’t know the answer- but hope for her sake, we find it and soon.
This is terrible. It doesn’t seem as though medical chemicals are going to help her. Please keep us apprised.
With renal cats, oral ulcers happen. Lots of folks are able to give the cat temporary relief with a syrup made of slippery elm bark. I don’t know if she’ll let you dribble it on her ulcers, but it can coat and soothe.
I had a cat recovering from bowel obstruction and he knew that the slippery elm syrup made his gut feel better – when he needed it, he would ask for a shallow dish of it so he could lap it up.
Re: vet visits with terrified cats. Gabapentin. It’s freaking awesome. I recently used it for my semi feral who I’ve had to trap in the past to get her to the vet – and even then, she’s TERRIFIED and comes home completely traumatized even though they’re very gentle with her.
This time, we tried Gabapentin (capsules, NOT the liquid, which is foul). 100 mg mixed in her food the night before the visit, 100 mg the morning of her visit. I was able (for the first time in 10 years) to pick her up and put her in a carrier and take her to the vet! She was still convinced they were going to kill her (she was badly abused as a kitten and has some serious PTSD), but when she came home, she was MUCH more relaxed and recovered ridiculously fast from her experience! Like, instead of a week of hiding (which is her usual after a vet visit), she was walking around the house an hour later! It was crazy. I was seriously shocked at the difference. And even when the drug wore off, she was still totally fine, no regression at all.
So if you have a cat traumatized by vet visits, seriously, ask for Gabapentin. My vet says that it has a very wide safety margin and it’s not just a sedative, it’s an anti-anxiety thing. Which I didn’t really believe until I saw my girl’s response.
I appreciate the responses. The problem lies in her mouth and all the oral lesions that are just sitting there. They wanted to put her on Doxcy instead of doing a second Covenia shot, but the ulcers are in the way of her swallowing anything that isn’t liquid. Compounding is too dang expensive so that was out. She doesn’t like to be handled in her face or mouth area (from all the pain that she is in) so even pain pills are out for her. We are at a Catch 22 with her. I am able to put ointment in her eyes but she pees all over me and fights tooth and nail. I am supposed to do this three times a day. So far, I am lucky if I get it in her eyes at all!
I blame myself for this. When I started this Non-Profit, I vowed we would only take the cats no one else would touch. She is paying right now for her early neglect and mistreatment and we can’t seem to find an easy path for her.
Surprisingly, I believe she knows we are trying to help her, because for the first time since she has arrived here, she is seeking out my lap at night and wanting to be petted (she is a fan of elevator butt!) She slept with me last night and this morning as she tried to eat, less food was falling out of her mouth than before. Thank you Casey for the head’s up on Slippery Elm. I will pursue that-
I just have a feeling that something more is going on with this five year old then what she is presenting. I pressed for additional blood tests (even though the budget isn’t there) But was told that it would be a process that was unnecessary for what they were looking at. Since we don’t have hundreds sitting idly in our account, I have to hope that my vet is right and because of her early severe calicivirus episode, this is going to be an ongoing issue with her despite the vaccinations given.
It’s so hard get ferals good vet visits. Here’s hoping Shimmer gets better.
Slipper Elm Bark Powder on it’s way, even though it won’t arrive until Monday April 23rd (amazon delivery) , I remember using this for tummy nausea with one of my crf kitties, think you will find it keeps forever, and you can use it with other kitties. Hope it will help Shimmer.