The Capsule Failed, Off To The Vet’s Again (Vincent’s Story)

The capsule failed miserably this morning. Vincent fought it off, spat it out twice and it was a struggle.

It only took him half a day to figure out a winning strategy on the capsule.

Sigh…

He also didn’t want to eat anything this morning.

The most alarming thing was that his weight (taken this morning) was only 2.5kg. That’s a very drastic loss. It wasn’t totally unexpected, though, since he has not been eating well at all.

I texted the vet and he said maybe it’s time for another blood test, so after work today, we took Vincent (and also Ginger (previous story)) to the clinic. I thought Vincent might need to be on drips as well.

Blood was taken and surprisingly, Vincent’s blood was thick and of a rich colour. I had expected to see diluted blood, but that was not so. Another surprising thing is that while blood was being taken from his neck, Vincent purred.

“He’s a pretty chill cat”, the vet said.

So relaxed too, even when blood was being taken from his jugular.

Next, the vet gave Vincent 150ml of subcut fluids. Vincent had been slightly dehydrated all this while (even though he was drinking ample water from his bowl every day). Today, he seemed more dehydrated.

Vincent struggled a bit during the procedure but we managed to pump in slightly more than 150ml of fluids.

Why Vincent is dehydrated remains a mystery. He is drinking so much, and yet, he is dehydrated. One possibility is, maybe he has just been licking water, and some of it isn’t drunk? But, I do see the water level going down, especially when he drinks for more than 2 minutes. Sometimes, the water is murky after Vincent drinks it (which means he could be just licking the water), but that is usually after eating when his mouth has food remnants.

And why wasn’t he putting on weight when he was eating like a horse in prior weeks? This is also a mystery.

The plan now, is to continue with the Clavomox until Sunday. Hopefully, he feels better after the subcut and will eat again. If subcut is needed, it will be on a alternate-day basis. Right now, our hope is that this one-off subcut will work.

We gave him Complivit, a multi-vitamin supplement. He didn’t seem to like the taste either…sigh. But at least there is some nutrients going in, hopefully. I can give this three times a day.

I also decided to try Recovery, though the chances are he will not eat it too. Vincent is not too keen on processed foods.

The vet says force-feeding sometimes does more harm than good. For one, the cat is so stressed, he probably burns up more energy fighting off the force-feeding than whatever energy he can get from the force-fed food. Also, if the cat doesn’t want to be force-fed, the experience is very, very stressful.

So, let’s just be patient and wait for Vincent to want to eat on his own. Hopefully, the subcut makes him feel better.

The vet also said I could try warming up the food so that Vincent can smell it better.

Another option is a stomach-tube, but we will probably not do that.

We’re back home now.

Will wait for the blood test results and go from there.

Meanwhile, we are already doing our best for him. Sometimes, doing too much can be very stressful for the cat, so we need to strike a balance.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2018/09/06/the-capsule-failed-off-t..

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AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

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