He's perked up quite a bit in the past week. And he's pooping. That's very important. And the stools are not little round rock hard balls.
I cut back considerably on the pain med for him. This is for his back. The vet believes the pain prevents him from defecating properly. (Have you ever had sciatica and been a little constipated? Yeah, it's bad. When I ended up in ER for sciatica, they prescribed opioids and never mentioned the side effect of constipation. I guess it doesn't happen to everybody, but it sure happened to me and none of the push muscles were very excited about this amid the pain in lower back and buttocks. I never want to do that again. But it gives me some idea of what Mario is going through.)
But at the dose the vet prescribed, he was pretty loopy. He just had a hard time and was whacked out, couldn't walk on the bed, stumbling...cutting the dosage back really helped. He'll be getting the lactulose on a daily basis. Holy moly, is that stuff nasty. Only because it's so sticky. I've taken to taken a couple of paper towels with me when I give it to him since he'll do that open mouthed "ew icky stuff" cat thing and a small amount drips out after I syringe it in his mouth.
I'm hoping we're back on track now. Get the process down and stick to it. And maybe we'll have a few more years with him.
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