Progo update — Day 41 (almost 6 weeks post-op)

A week ago yesterday (roughly 4 1/2 weeks since the surgery), our housecall vet was able to come take a look at Progo. We were pretty concerned about his erratically placed urination, and he'd even pooped in a couple of undesirable spots, but I'd gotten a Feliway diffuser refill and placed it near my son's bed (the LEAST desirable of all the places Progo had peed) and maybe it helped. At any rate, since doing that, he's only peed on the floor -- and it's been the floor in the bathroom, which is where the litterbox is. I started putting down puppy pads, and he peed on those, near the litterbox. 

The vet took a urine sample, and I haven't gotten the results from her yet, but she said his urine appeared dilute and it may be kidney issues. But since he was still (mostly) pooping in the litterbox, she agreed he could clearly get in and out of it. She gave us some calming treats, a new joint supplement that is in the form of capsules we can open up and sprinkle over his food (much better than the weird hard horse pills we had), and also suggested we give him 0.1 ml of Buprenex a day, in case he was having some pain. She also said he was jumping a bit "gingerly" and that he might have some arthritis in his back legs. That and/or the surgery could also have changed how he likes to squat to pee, so the litterbox may be comfortable for poop but not pee -- that's one theory.

In good news, however, last night and today (one out of two times today), he DID pee in the litterbox, so that's a teeny bit of progress.  First times since the surgery!

The housecall vet was concerned about the thick scab that had formed over his incision site, but she said to just keep an eye on it. It looked fine until a few days ago, when it started peeling back around the edges. Today, it looked reddish on one edge, and I wonder if he's been licking/chewing/scratching it. So we put a baby tee on him, much to his annoyance. It doesn't fit well, either (we didn't have many choices around the house), so I might need to get a new one. I emailed the vet, and she suggested warm compresses on the scab a few times a day, and maybe eventually we can pull off the scab (eek!). Not sure I want to tug at that thing, as it seems raw underneath in the center. 

Moodwise, he's doing pretty well, and he's pretty mobile (when not in baby tee). He jumped up on a favorite (high-isn) spot yesterday for the first time -- our dresser. I was concerned about him getting down, but was pleased to see he jumped back down onto the bed first, not straight to the floor.

Another strange-but-minor detail is that he has stopped wanting the calming treats, so that's a bit odd. I have some of the immune-supporting treats left, and he'll still eat one of those a day.

We definitely have mice (ugh), but Progo is ALMOST interested in them, unlike his completely uninterested stance from the previous weeks. The past week, he has occasionally gone over to the radiators and sort of stared back towards where we think they're coming out. I've trapped 5 very cute but unwelcome small mice with a humane trap and my husband's been releasing them in a park a half mile away. 

I think that's everything "major" (even minor seems major). He's doing pretty well, for an old cat who may not last more than a few months. 

Oh, and as for following up with the oncologist at the emergency hospital, I canceled that appointment. Our housecall vet said on Monday that if the tongue ulceration had been the type of mouth cancer they said it MIGHT be, he'd be dead by now. So she gave us some things to look for as he declines, but I don't think I need to put him through another emergency veterinary visit right now. 

Hello! Yesterday was the 3-month anniversary of Progo's right front leg amputation, and since it was so important to me to find other people's experiences -- especially those with cats, and older cats in specific -- I thought I would update.

pain management  -- our cat is on a maintenance dose of .1 ml Buprenex in wet food every day, plus one caplet of Dasuquin mixed up with his food (to help his joints). 

Mice -- We definitely still have mice. Peppermint oil on cotton doesn't seem to deter them long. We continue catching mice in the humane trap (I'm ordering another one) and two days ago OUR TRIPAWD CAT caught and stunned one! BIG improvement over him ignoring them. Now I'm hoping he'll at least scare more of them off, even if he can't catch them as easily as he used to be able to.

Healing -- both the belly wound and the incision scar are completely healed. He has quite a bit of new fur growth, and no discomfort with being petted on any area.

Appetite -- seems pretty good. He gets a little wet food 2x per day, and we do keep dry food out for him, too. He feels bony to me. That could also be his age. He doesn't like the calming treats at all anymore, but also doesn't seem as stressed.

Temperament -- Pretty normal! Yay! He meows A LOT when he wants something, but that's been the biggest change. He was vocal before, just not that vocal. I guess it's about time to refill the feliway diffuser, so maybe I'll see if that helps. He still sleeps a bit more than usual, but I "caught" him playing with a catnip toy the other day, and it made me really happy to see him bat it around with one paw.

Toileting -- Whew. It was a long road. We finally have a "routine" that seems to work. Cat attract litter, with extra Cat Attract additive. Not too deep; not too shallow. Took the bag liner out of the litterbox. He will use it for pee AND poop, but once it has been used once he will pee on the floor if it is not scooped before he needs to use it again. But he did go back to peeing on one particular spot on the bathroom floor (when rejecting the litterbox), so I keep a pee pad down there, and if he poops in the litterbox at night and then needs to pee, he pees on the pad. This is SUCH an improvement over the week or so that he was peeing in my son's bed and unpredictably on the floor in several rooms of the house. Again, whew! 

Overall: He has now lived for 3 months at what is so clearly a higher quality than life with the tumor -- and no one was sure if he would make it three months if he didn't have the amputation -- so, despite the expense and stress, I am really glad we did the surgery. We decided NOT to keep the follow-up appointment with the oncologist. We're done with treating this cancer. If/when it returns, he's so old we will just manage pain. In fact, our vet also hasn't followed up on how his urine test results were, but I'm just not going to worry about anything that's not evident in front of me. Oh, and the mouth cancer never materialized, but it was such an aggressive form that our vet says the mouth ulceration must have been nothing major (he would've been killed quickly by the mouth cancer the vet hospital said it "might" be). Trying to enjoy the time we have with him, and he seems to be pretty content to eat and sleep and cuddle. I feel a little guilty when I see him limping, but then I remind myself that that's just his new off-kilter walk. He runs just fine and jumps pretty well. He's 16! I feel lucky he's done this well.

Thanks SO much for all the support. This is a great community.

Here's an update on our now seventeen-year-old cat. I'm sad to say he seems to be reaching the end of his life, but I have no regrets about the amputation surgery. http://tripawds.....t/#p180734