catheroominations

Daphne, not me. Well, I am too, actually. I got home from Calgary yesterday and before we even went home from the airport, Matte took me to the cat hospital to see Daphne. She didn’t look so good. Her eyes were all red and goopy and her nose was ooky and yucky. She’s still got her cold, but they’ve ruled out pneumonia and liver problems. Whew! When she saw me, she perked up a bit and raised her head to meet my hand. She even batted at the ball I was dangling in front of her and did the elevator butt thing when I scratched her lower back. I was so relieved to see she had so much Daphne-ness even while sick, much more than when Matte saw her the previous day.

The vet came in and said she would maybe be ready to go home that evening, but the hospital would close before we’d be able to come back and pick her up. The doctor said it might be better anyway to keep her on the IV for one more day, plus, he wanted to wait to send her home until she had eaten. They’d been hand-feeding her, but he wanted her to eat on her own.

We picked her up this morning and brought her home. Within a couple of hours she was playing fetch (slowly) and making biscuits on my lap. She’s even assumed her favorite position on her preferred pillow made by her Nana. But she’s still a sick little girl. She gurgles when she meows, and she’s meowing a lot. She sleeps a bit fitfully because she can’t breathe through her nose very well, and her eyes and nose have some yuck coming out of them. We brought home three different prescriptions to give to her and boy is medicine time fun around here!

What concerns me most is that she simply will not eat. She comes trotting into the kitchen when she hears the food pouring into the bowl, sniffs the food, and walks away. She won’t eat wet food or her treats either. I spoke to Jenni who used to work at a pet hospital and she said maybe Daph’s got a sore tooth or something bothering her in her mouth. That sounded valid to me because Daphne has been sort of gnawing on her fuzzy toy ball today, especially on one side of her mouth. She’s like a teething baby.

I went to the store and got different stuff to try: wet food, dry food in small pieces, fish flakes, people tuna, babyfood, and a syringe. Matte and I tried to feed her with a syringe, but she wouldn’t have it (plus, the syringe kinda sucks). We tried pureeing the food, still no luck. I put some wet food directly in her mouth and she tried to spit it out and started coughing. I even rubbed babyfood on her ‘teething’ ball, and she didn’t want that either. I don’t know what to do to make her eat. I know she’s hungry because she goes over to the bowl as if to eat, but once she tries to put a kibble in her mouth, she won’t do it. She just walks around the bowls meowing loudly.

I’m hoping that eventually she’ll get so hungry she’ll just have to suck it up and eat something, even if it hurts her mouth. She’s only been home one day, but Matte’s nickname for me is ringing true. Lady Impatient wants her kitty to hurry up and eat already!

Really, I’m just relieved to have her back home. And I’m happy to be home too. I like home because it has Matte. And kitties. Thanks to everyone who offered advice and comments. I’m not a crazy cat lady, but I do worry about my little boos, so it’s nice to have support from you out there in the blogosphere.