Good news! Samson took his first drink of water (that I've seen) about 15 minutes ago. It was the second time I held the water dish in front of him and spoke gentle encouragement that he started drinking for about a minute straight. It's a Christmas miracle!  🙂

We had e-mailed the hospital about it and the surgeon replied that we should look for dry/tacky gums.

He has spent most of the day on top of the futon, not hiding at all that I've seen. I also finally witnessed him use the litter box and he maintained his balance really well.

And he slept with me the whole night and morning, showing more signs of his old self.

He's tired now and resting, which is good. He's not getting near the normal sleep that he did pre-surgery.

Thanks again and Merry Christmas!

Thanks everyone! Just to clear up some naming confusion... the cat is Samson and I am Ollie.  🙂

So the past two days have been good. I noticed a bit of redness along parts of his sutures on Wednesday night which gave me concern but I e-mailed photos to the vet the next day and the surgeon replied that he sees nothing to worry about. I love being able to contact the doctor by e-mail. It's so reassuring and beats taking the cat on a road trip every time I get scared.

Samson is sleeping more as he takes less pain killers but he has developed a frustrating desire to investigate the deepest corners of the house. Last night we found him under the basement stairs which is filthy! And then he managed to crawl into a dark corner of a small basement closet. I'd never seen him sleep there before.

His walking/hopping is pretty steady now. He's slow but he knows what he's doing. He can also jump up onto and off of small heights which is good for his independence. He can walk down stairs but still has trouble walking back up.

Oh and he wants to go outside despite the freezing temperatures and mountains of snow.

I am amazed by his progress so far.

Not much to update as things are still going relatively well. We made an appointment to have the sutures taken out this Thursday so looking forward to that. Poor Samson is going to be scared on the drive to the vet though!

I'd say my only concern at this point is that Samson likes to hide most of the day, either on a chair in the corner of the basement or in the upstairs bedroom closet. It's just a slight concern though as I'm sure this is normal. He's still less than 2 weeks out of surgery and I think we got excited to see so much early progress that things seem to be going slow now.

I will try to get organized and post some pictures soon. I want to capture some video of his "hop"!

Happy New Year everyone!!

Hello!

So today was suture removal day and the 2 week ampuversary of the surgery. Samson did well at the vet, was vocal in the car but not scared sounding like when we took him in for the operation. And once at the hospital he was, as the technician put it, "a chill cat."

Everything looked good, including his eyes which you may recall had superficial ulcers on them because he wouldn't blink for the first few days. So now that he's off the eye gel there are no more meds to give him. I agree that this probably has something to do with his hiding. He didn't mind taking his meds at first but he grew less cooperative each day.

I also think he likes the quiet when hiding. We are not a super noisy household but there's usually music or the TV on. That might bother him a bit. He's always been skittish around loud noises. He does come out and sleep with us at night which is a good sign.

OK, and finally a few pictures. None without sutures for now... he's hiding of course.  🙂  Please ignore the general clutter, you don't really plan for these kinds of photos.

Oh, and I don't think I mentioned that he had a small lump removed from his chest at the same time. We noticed it about a week before surgery and it was decided to remove it while he was under anesthesia.

Samson's Recovery