Yes! I feel like her snoring means the congestion is getting better. In fact, it is sounding better this morning! She just took her first antiviral meds last night, and although it said that it takes a bit before she sees improvement, I am wondering with being on the antibacterial meds for 6 days that the one dose was “boosted” in a way. 

Thanks Jerry for all your help as I navigated through these last two weeks! It was much needed with the mental stress I was feeling! 

So I gave her her second dose of the new meds at 6am and I just went in to give her her antibacterial and eye ointment, and her eye is nearly clear!!!! 

This medication HAS to be fast action! It’s crazy of the improvement in just the last 12 hours!!! It can’t be a coincidence!

I logged into this site on my computer cause I wanted to add an avatar of her! 🙂 And yay for TRIPAWD POWER!!! This site and community truly is amazing! 

Hi Sally! Thank you for the response, I appreciate it! Holly & Jerry do have a lot of knowledge, and I hope they don’t feel like I don’t believe them when they tell me a million times that it takes time and she will get there. I mean, looking back on my posts, I appear that I don’t believe it. I tend to get really in my head. I kinda wish their regular vet doctor didn’t tell me that if she doesn’t walk shortly after surgery, then she will lose muscle. And just the fact that she is always laying on her leg side, it’s gotta be somewhat a discomfort. She does at times lay on her belly though, but mostly on her side. I wonder if that is normal for other rear leg amputees to do. 

I’ve looked at many posts in this and other forums just to see if I can find someone who has mentioned the things that I feel like my cat is going through, but no avail. One thing I learned is there are A LOT of dog posts out there! I think I’m just hoping to find someone alike just to give me some more comfort, if that makes sense.

With all the amount of help and advice I’ve gotten, I want to pay it forward and write something up to summarize my and Petunia’s experience after it’s been some time after surgery on this site. Maybe the senior kitty community isn’t as big as the kitties that are younger. 

I hope I’m not being too annoying with my repetitiveness of the worries I have. I feel like there’s always some kind of roadblock. Like when she was really sick, my mind was mostly focused on that. Now that she has gotten much better, it’s the walking and the fact she hasn’t pooped in 3 days. Giving Miralax another go. She just did so well two days in a row (the second day she pooped twice).  

One thing that I really appreciate Holly for is the continuance of the pain pills. When she got her stitches on on day 11, the vet who did the surgery encouraged me to stop and see how she reacts. I’ll be honest, the first poop came after going down to every 12 hrs for a day. Then I went 24 hrs without one and she pooped the two times within an hour. So I don’t know if it is the gabapentin that is keeping her from not. Or if it was a coincidence. She also hadn’t gone for 5 days. Hopefully being CONSISTENT with Miralax, she will eventually do it.

I will try to be patient and at least give it another two weeks to see progress. *deep breath*

MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH!!!!

Oh, you guys, a lot happened in the middle of the night! I’m not a fan that it happened at that time, but I’m only in the room for an extended period of time when sleeping.

As it’s been the case EVERY night, Petunia woke me up at 2am. Purring, wanting to cuddle, the norm. But, she was SO MUCH MORE energetic than I’ve seen since she had her surgery. She kept moving around on the bed and even trying to climb on my stomach! It signalled that maybe it’s best she not be on the bed now that she seems to be moving more and I wouldn’t want her to fall off the bed. I also had a feeling that maybe she needs to use the litterbox. So I put her on the floor.

What she has been doing since being in the bedroom is if she doesn’t need to use the litterbox, she would go straight to her cat bed. Or if she was eating, she would go straight back to her cat bed afterwards. Once in the cat bed, she doesn’t budge. Not once would she get up off the bed and walk someone, as if she can’t. This cat bed isn’t heavily padded on the bottom, so it’s not like it’s just hard to get up.

Well, MULTIPLE times she got up off the bed on her own to walk to her food! Then on the way back, might stop at the litterbox. The only thing that I’m currently worried about is she hasn’t pooped since Monday. (I’ve given her Miralax last night and this morning.) She only has peed. But, the fact that she’s moving MORE and on her own is a huge win!!! I gave her a pain pill at 2:45am and this was happening around 4:30am, so I am definitely going to see if I can get another refill of these pain pills now that she’s walking more, especially when I cut back, she would meow in pain after just a few hops.

Her eye still is tearing up, but the congestion and sneezing is non-existent!!! It’s crazy how much she has improved since I started to give her these new meds!!! It’s amazing! And it’s as if she is feeling more motivated to walk around now that her symptoms have subsided. I’m just so dang proud of her!!! Her eye drops should be delivered today, which u cannot wait! I stopped giving her that ointment cause I feel like it made her eye so much worse.

I feel like maybe she might be pooped from all the walking she did the last hours, which is all good! Yesterday I put a blanket in the closet in case she would be more warm and I found her in there after she ate this morning!

Now if she can just 💩, then I can finally breathe!!!

Yay Petunia!!!!

I haven’t called the vet yet. I was planning today as I have 5 pills left from her previous dental surgery. I will ask if 100mg would be better for her. She seems to be good with 50mg, the two times she cried I was testing out the 12 hours. Obviously it was not enough. The only thing I worry about 100mg if it would make her sleep all hours. Which wouldn’t be a bad thing if she’s still feeling pain, but up until 4am this morning, she literally did not move. At all. Unless I helped her take a few step. I gave her a pain pill at 2:30am and 2 hours later is when she was super energetic and walked the most I’ve ever seen since the surgery.

Petunia came home the same day as surgery. That first evening was the hardest and I think that experience is what put me in a bad mental space. They mentioned she might stay overnight, however no one is there overnight, which meant she would be there for 12 hours by herself. I did not like that idea, at all. They said depending how she is after the surgery, they may recommend her to be brought somewhere else, but they said she’s good to come home that same day. I wish she stayed somewhere that night cause navigating through that evening was so stressful as I did not know what to do. As you saw in my video, I restricted her from moving at all cause all she wanted to do was walk around, but she fell on her incision side twice. And I needed to feel comfortable sleeping and knowing she is safe.

The leg that was amputated had issues for a while, which may have been the cause of her arthritis in her hips. The bone cancer was found until I saw a bump at the joint where her foot meets her leg. Took X-rays in the beginning of September and that is when they saw the bone cancer. But the vet was very happy to see how great the other leg looked in the X-rays that she had no concerns of it being the only back leg. I just really think it’s the fact of her laying on that side all the time. I try to flip her over on the incision side when I bed to give that side a break and I’ll massage that side as well. 

All her bloodwork came back perfect with one level, her ALT was higher than it was back in April before her dental work (in April, it was just over normal range). Her thyroid was in the higher normal range in April, so we tested that again as that could explain why the ALT levels were higher. And indeed her thyroid levels went just above normal range, so now she is on hyperthyroidism meds (just like her sister). Her other liver blood work, kidneys, etc all were in normal range, so we’re good there. 

I’ve called my vet so many times these last 2 weeks (looked at my phone log … 9 of 14 days I called them), and have brought her in 3 times since her surgery. I definitely keep them in the loop when something is wrong. 

For pain, I was just following my vet’s recommendation to stop it all together, and it was really quick when I realized that wasn’t the right idea. When I call them for a refill, I will mention the pooping.

Speaking of pooping, I would sprinkle the Miralax in her wet food. Did it last night and this morning. 1/2 tsp. She has been eating all her food (especially I this AM, not a single pebble of wet food was left in the bowl), so I’m not concerned about her not consuming it. 

But, yes, besides that one day, she has been eating all her food. At times I bring the water bowl to her and she’ll drink water. She’s very hydrated and everytime I went the vet the last 2 weeks, they always say, “wow, she’s very hydrated!” She gets a lot of it from her wet food and there are times when I would take a syringe of water and squirt it in her mouth if I felt like she needed water.

I didn’t think of being aware that if I were to reach out to someone, they may have lost their pet since. I brought up if you or Jerry knew anyone on the top of your head that may have had a similar experience. If not, no worries. I already have read that post on senior cats, but thanks for linking it in case I hadn’t seen it!