Is the growling/hissing a constant thing or is he "fine" for a while and then suddenly starts, like if jolted or startled? 

It is not a constant thing! It is quite random. Normally about 1.5-2 hours before his next gabapentin dose. Like your mother, they do not last very long...at most, maybe 20 minutes total. Then he quiets down but still looks annoyed. Then he looks fine once his gabapenton is in and he is a sleepy (almost cuddly) kitty. Sometimes he will wake up and then randomly growl and bite at the air where his leg would be.

Also perhaps your vet or an emergency vet could give Scott a longer acting pain relief injection to let him get ahead of the pain if you took him in?  Then you hopefully could keep him there with the oral meds.

I asked the hospital (where his surgery was) last night if we could bring him in to get an additional 6 day injection, basically what he was on Sat-Wed, because that seemed to really work. And they were really against him coming in because he is such a violent and aggressive cat at the vet. They want to avoid this stress for him at all costs. However, they only gave me a 2-3 day supply of Bupre. so I think I am going to call and ask for more. This seemed to be somewhat helpful this morning! I am still trying to get it in his cheek and I think he swallows most of it

Obviously not a vet, just offering a few things you could talk with yours about.  But great to hear Scott is getting around ok, eating, using litterbox etc.  Those are huge positives.  Try to hold onto that as you ride out this rough period.  It will get better!

Thank you for your support!  I have been scouring the internet for stories like Scott and I fear he may be the most aggressive post op treatment I have read about. *sigh*

Mid-afternoon Update:

Scott had a pretty decent night. He just kind of looked stoned from about 11PM - 1AM and then was just rolling around on the ground and stretching. I turned on "bird TV" for him because I fear he may also be bored. Around 3:30AM he started getting growl-y and hissy. He gets an episode for about 5-15 mins, then just loafs and looks annoyed. Then he just snaps out of it and his eyes are clear again.

4:00AM - Gabapentin

7:00AM - Sleeping peacefully, cuddled with his dad. Buprenorphine given (administered while sleeping - so much easier, but I am still not sure that I got it all in his cheek, he looked like he swallowed some? I am like..how does it just stay in there?)

7:30 - 10:30 am - Slept hard, woke up and threw a few fits - but it makes sense with his gabapentin shot about 1.5-2 hours away.

2:00PM - Onsior will be given

So far my husband says we are doing what we can for him and he is just in post-op pain and every cat probably experiences and displays it differently. We have been in contact with both of our vets. They still say the sutures look good and that he has just been under medicated.

We are still waiting for pathology to contact us as well!

I hope that by Monday he is going to feel better and these pain meds will help him relax this weekend. I will post regularly, because it feels cathartic and it leaves me remembering what happened when I am too tired the next day to think (hahah).

Hello all.

Well, it has been a weekend that is FOR SURE. My mom came and gave my husband and I a break so we could sleep longer than 4 hours. She said that Scott's behavior did not seem so strange as he is recovering. She thinks it is more of a pain management situation and maybe meds are messing with him a bit.

I have noticed he hasn't had as many growling/hissing/nipping episodes as much since we started the new meds. However, these end today and I am hoping the gabapentin will be the only thing he needs. Otherwise we will have to drive 2 hours to get more.

I started keeping a log of his behaviors to see if there is a pattern....it seems closer to med time he starts getting growly.

BUT on a good not: he seems to want to play a little bit and cuddle when he doesn't look at drugged up. He still has his appetite and is going to the bathroom. I am really hoping that as this week goes on he starts acting more himself. A part of me wonders if it is the medication causing some of this, but I would rather not fully take him off pain meds until the Dr. says his sutures are okay.

I think we have taken 2 steps forward and 3 steps back. We have been keeping Scott in a little shirt, which he somehow tolerates (barely).

My husband was in a meeting for work and when he got out he saw Scott had his shirt off and what licking his suture. There is not some bleeding -- not running blood - but kind of like when you pick a fresh scab off blood -- along his suture line.

We sent a photo to the vet to see what he wants us to do. Our local vet and the surgeon/animal hospital absolutely do not want him to go in because of how vicious he is at the vets. So I am curious to what they are going to say.

We ran out of buprenorphine this morning. I am hoping that he will still feel better without it. If not, I am going to call and get some more.

Question: How do you know when to take the cat off the meds? I really do not want him to be in pain, but he is still growling/hissing even while on the medication. Sometimes he does this while playing with his mouse and sometimes he does this and is angry. I am wondering now if the meds are also partly to blame for this behavior?

Hi everyone!

I would like to report that things may be looking up? Monday and Tuesday went really well! There was still hissing and growling. but it seemed to be when he was trying to do something with the missing arm and was getting frustrated, which makes total sense to me. He even started climbing on my chest and purring, which hasn't happened in a long time! All the meds have stopped except the gabapentin - which our vet wanted us to do every 12 hours so he could start getting used to being less asleep.

Last night, however, was a bit of a disaster. He had an episode for about 20-30 minutes. All he is doing is trying to lick his suture, but I redirect him and he gets pissed. We tried to give him the Gaba 1 hour prior but he was refusing to eat, which is how we get the meds in his system. After his fit he went to sleep. Then out of nowhere he jumped in his sleep and started attacking himself (idk how else to describe it?). I quickly tried to put a stop to it but he was really agitated. I tried the food with Gaba again and this worked. Hopefully he just had a bad dream and woke up startled? But I wonder if that could be a symptom of withdraw? We went from having him taking gaba every 6 hours to every 12. So maybe that is it.

This morning as gone somewhat smooth. I want to think things are getting better but then we back pedal every time. It will be 2 weeks since his surgery tomorrow and I feel like there should be more progress with his mood and behaviors by now.

AND we are still waiting for pathology to come back - so this is causing extra nervousness.

Hi all! 

I am happy to report that we have been almost behavior free for 2 days! He had a bit of a fit yesterday when my husband wouldn’t let him groom his suture.

we also got the blessing from our surgeon that he can move freely throughout the house. Although he still does not want him licking his suture. We are trying to keep a shirt on him but he just finds a way out of it and starting Monday, my husband and I can both no longer WFH. So I guess we are just going to do our best. 

Scott is walking pretty well, except he is slipping on our hardwood so we ordered some rugs for traction . 

The surgeon said he has heard of behaviors like ours before and it isn’t super uncommon, but to keep him on his Gabapentin for another 2 weeks, 2x daily and see if we can taper off! So that is exciting news and also made me feel reassured since our local vet was at a loss. I hope with him having access to the rest of the house and him moving around more, his confidence goes up and he starts feeling more normal. 😌

We Are starting to see glimpses of his old Personality. I almost cried yesterday when he ran into the living room when I got home. 

Hi Jerry! Thank you so much for all of your support and of course everyone else here!

We only had one behavior yesterday when we were redirecting him from licking his suture.

The surgeon said that we will "know" when the suture is healed because it will sit flat. Which honestly, we have no idea what this means lol. It already looks like it is sitting more flat and isn't swollen anymore. This is the first day both my husband and I went back to work since we werent able to WFH anymore. We left him in our room with his little shirt on. Hopefully, he is fine and just sleeps all day, but I am going to assume the worst and hope for the best.

When was your cat able to start licking themselves again??