What a stressful few weeks this has been.
So, let's see, where did I leave off? Oh, yeah, my most recent adventure. I'm okay. There's some bruising, my big toe really hurts, the skin on my head is sore, but other than that, I'm pretty sure that the garage door incident will not be the death of me.
I set up a couple of wi-fi cameras, with infrared capablitiy, in the bathroom so I could keep an eye on Skip during the night. One on the counter, one on the floor. Saturday night, Sunday morning, he finished all of the food on the plate. Sleep for me sucked, because my head and I kept wanting to watch the cameras to see how he was doing. His favorite place to sleep was between the toilet and the counter and the camera was right in his face. I watched him blowing snot bubbles. I watched him sleeping with his mouth open because his nose was packed with snot.
During the day Sunday and into Monday morning, he ate three more. Then he quit. All he would eat was Greenies. The treat for teeth. Unlike DaNiece and her love of scrambled eggs, Greenies a nutritious diet do not make. He needed more than Greenies.
I would let him out during the day and it was hot outside. The bathroom with the humidifier wasn't really any more pleasant, just more humid. Cool mist humidifier? I think not. When he was outside, he'd be under one of the tractors, which I didn't mind, I could watch him. And I could easily get him to wipe the snot off of his nose, snot that had picked up grass, dirt and whatever else was out there. I even saw some of those little bees flying around his face. When he took up residence under the pool pump, it wasn't as easy. I'd have to coax him out. With Greenies.
I checked with Doctor Google and found there were a few different possible causes of his repiratory problem. Viral or bacterial, bad teeth, cancer....there were more. I started treating the viral first. That's why the l-Lysine paste, it helps the immune system. I found four amoxi tabs from a million years ago and gave him those over the course of a few days, for the bacterial. Four wasn't going to be nearly enough, I knew that, but I wanted to do something. I wasn't worried about his teeth because he had no problem eating those Greenies.
He was getting the l-Lysine at least twice a day and I gave him 60cc of fluids every day since he wasn't eating or drinking much. Is he getting better? Sometimes it seems like he is, but I'm never sure enough.. At this point I've convinced myself he needs more help than I can provide. Yesterday morning, I called the vet. Did I want to drop him off (never again, not after the Potter thing) or make an appointment? We took him in this morning at 9:30.
And the prognosis is great! He has lost a fair amount of weight since his last checkup, but she said that it didn't worry her because it's a seasonal weight loss. And also his FIV status. His blood values were pretty good, some were low, some were high, easily explained by stress or FIV. She'd like to see him put on at least another pound. But she was very pleased that his bloodwork looked so good.
I asked her if it was viral or bacterial. She said how it usually goes is it starts off as viral and turns bacterial.
They gave him fluids so I don't have to today. He's on doxycycline, twice a day for two weeks, I'm to keep up the fluids until he's back to normal and he should be good to go.
I've pulled all of the stuff out of my bathroom and it's no longer a hospital room. The premium food I ordered from Chewy got here a little bit ago.
I need to re-apply Advantage II to the cats (hey, something else I learned this past week; you can apply Advantage once a week, it's that safe - I mentioned that to the vet and she said it's very mild, it won't hurt the kitties).
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