He really is a good boy, he doesn't even fuss too much about his medicine... though he does go "alligator jaws" trying to clamp his mouth shut between syringes. 

One other interesting thing I've noticed - the episodes of what we thought were phantom limb pain have stopped entirely, or at least they have so far. By this point in his last recovery he'd already had several, that was one of the first things we worriedly called the vet about. The only angry growly moment he had was vaguely my fault. I couldn't tell if his incision was leaking or if it was spitty from washing and I gently blotted it with a tissue. You know how cats are - I touched the royal personage! - and when he went to jump out of my lap on the recliner, he banged his stump on the corner on the way. There was a little yowl and a growl and he took a few steps backwards, but by the time I could let out an "Oh no, Ziggy!" he was already fine and off after his brother.

Hopefully we got an unexpected benefit out of that piece of his femur being removed. He spent about 5 hours yesterday having drugged-out naps in my lap... life is pretty good!

He is! At the moment he's back on his initial regimen - an Oncior pill and Veraflox once a day, and buprenorphin and gabapentin twice a day. Technically the gaba is every 8-12 hours, but he seems to be doing well on it every 12 hours and that's less medicating round a day.

Great video! We usually do go in the side just because he seems to spit it out and foam at the mouth less if it's not on his tongue... if we slip and get the gabapentin on his tongue he turns into a foamy lizard, LOL. He just sits there and foams, drools, and flicks his tongue out while smacking his mouth, like a lizard eating a bug. The vet said it's because gabapentin is often prescribed for kids do it's often flavored, and the flavoring can often be gross for cats. It certainly SMELLS gross to my dull human nose!

Before, we thought maybe he was getting those fits right before his next dose of gabapentin because the effects had worn off, but they continued after he was off it completely and healed, or so we thought anyway. Now I really do suspect that he was reacting to the infection and probably discomfort with his muscle degrading, and that was the only way he could tell us. I feel bad, but at the same time we did consult the vet and got it taken care of as soon as it was clear there was still some kind of problem.

LOL, Herbie was so much worse. He had some really bad stomach issues when he was a kitten, really had diarrhea for about three months I think? No cause that the vet could find, and she said some kittens just get it and grow out of it. We had him on Tylosin powder that supposedly you were meant to sprinkle on food, but he wouldn't go near that. We had to dissolve it in liquid and Herbie not only foamed, but shook his head violently as he did, so yellowish sticky foam EVERYWHERE. At least it wasn't pink, though!

The gabapentin is definitely for cats, no worries! I did read about the xylitol somewhere but they only have the kind without it there. Still flavored but what that flavor is supposed to be, I have no idea, I'm not about to taste it to find out! LOL I always tease the vet now because she always would say "cats don't mind the taste of it" or "most of my kitty patients love this stuff!" or "he won't even notice it in his food" and every single time she's been wrong and I razz her about it later. Fortunately Ziggy's super good about medicine. He has yet to spit a pill out and aside from clamping his jaws a little, he's really not bad. I can pick him up and hold him while the wife medicates, and he mostly just tries to pull his head back into his body like a turtle... maybe he was a reptile in another life!

I feel horrible saying it, but I told my wife that if this HAD to happen to one of them, I'm glad it was Ziggy and not Herbie. Ziggy's pretty chill cat. Of course there are things he doesn't like and he'll run away if he can - it was almost comical after the first surgery, we were giving him his meds after breakfast and dinner, so the instant he finished the last bite of food he wanted to eat, he'd BOLT and try to hide wherever he could. We had to start feeding him at the back of our dead-end kitchen so he'd have to run past us to escape.

Mostly he just looks surly about being given his meds, but he gets an Easy Cheese chaser so he forgets pretty fast. When we had to medicate Herbie he turned into OctoKitty and all 8 tentacles had claws. He was STRONG when he was 6 months old and it took two of us really wrestling him to medicate him. I can't imagine trying it now that he weighs almost 14 pounds... we had to put him on a diet.