At the end of last month, Pancho went in for a teeth cleaning. Came back with canines. The rest were pulled because of stomatitis.
He was on meds for ten days and all seemed well until this past week. A couple of days ago, I started bringing him into the bathroom with some people tuna. The first couple of days, he didn't do too badly, yesterday he actually ate quite a bit.
I had a flareup of an occasional intestinal problem that started Monday night and I spent the day on the sofa yesterday. The gardener was here and working in the backyard (pulling the out of control weeds - the ones Brian wanted to pull a few months ago and I'm all "but the birds....the birds like the weeds!!") I called the vet to see when we could get him in and the vet called back, he was going on vacay starting Thursday, could we drop Pancho off tomorrow? Yeah, we can. So, Pancho spent most of the day cuddled up against me. Because he was taking care of me? Or because he didn't feel good? I got a pretty clear answer this morning.
I took him int the bathroom with tuna and he ate a little, then started pawing at his mouth. I let him out and he ran outside. I had been told to drop him off between eight and ten, the vet would fit him in between appointments and call me back when he had checked him over.
Brian wanted to wait until nine to take him in, he comes inside "let's get him". It took twenty minutes to catch this cat. His poor little heart was beating so fast. I took him from Brian and every time Brian tried to pet him, he jumped. I told Brian to quit touching him. I sat on the sofa with him on my chest, lightly holding him down and talking quietly and gently to him while stroking him. He finally relaxed a little and I got him in the carrier.
And then they were gone, Pancho crying all the way.
The vet called around 10:30, Pancho can go home after noon. It was definitely a relapse of the stomatitis. Pancho will be getting steroids to suppress the immune system (stomatitis is an immune problem, where the body goes into overdrive trying to kill perceived infections, usually hitting the mouth, attacking normal bacteria), stronger antibiotics and for the first few days, pain meds.
If this doesn't work, the vet will have to put him under, take x-rays and look for remnants of tooth roots and extract those. Since his teeth were removed last month, there shouldn't be this problem right now, but he had been so bad and his body had started to re-absorb the roots, there's a possibility he didn't get everything.
So, cross your fingers for Panch.
He's our youngest kitty. Did you know that? I'd like to have him around for a while more.