Hi Friends!

Fred and I had a successful visit to the vet today; she said his incision is healing well

She took out the drain (which I am sure Fred appreciated!) and gave us a prescription for more gabapentin. I am glad to have that extra pain and anxiety control; Fred is used to having free roaming access of our cat-fenced backyard (https://www.pur.....tfence.com <-- great product!), so I think being restricted to the kennel is probably hard for him. His kennel is in my bedroom, but I have had to sleep in a different bedroom, because he cries at night to be let out. Poor guy. He calms down when I pet him, but I can't do that all night!

Now he is on an antibiotic pill and the gabapentin, but no more drain emptying. He had a little diarrhea last night, which I think might be from the antibiotic.

I wonder whether I should keep him confined in the kennel (it's 4 x 4 x 3 ft) or let him out in the bedroom to roam a little bit and find his feet?

Thank you all so much for your wonderful advice and support!

Christina

Hi Friends,

Fred is doing so well, and his Mom is doing well too thanks to all your helpful advice. He has a prescription for 0.5 ml gabapentin every 8 hours, which seems to really help his pain/anxiety, and he is finishing up his course of antibiotics. I have given him free run of the bedroom now, and he is spending a little more time exploring and finding his feet. It has been 8 days since his surgery, and from what I can tell, he is not in any pain or distress. Well, other than wanting to go back outside and play with his other cat friends! He is staring out the French windows of my bedroom at the backyard like a Dickensian street urchin with his face pressed up against a shop window.

The doctor has OK'd him to have a whole room to himself unsupervised, and I've set things up so that there are no tempting surfaces or shelves to jump up on. We are waiting to hear back from the pathologist to find out whether the surgical margins were free of cancer cells. I understand that we might need to send him for radiation if not, but thankfully this was not classified as an aggressive form of fibrosarcoma - so fingers crossed for my sweet boy!

Tomorrow I will move him out to the sunporch where it will be easier to have some supervised visits from his best cat buddy, Blackie. They had slumber parties out there pre-surgery when I was having to keep Fred contained in one place for medicating and cat-carrier-capturing purposes. He and Blackie are best buds, and I know it will cheer him up to see him.

I may need to keep him on the sunporch for at least a month or so until his fur grows in -- I don't want him going outside and getting a sunburn in our strong Midwestern sunshine! 

Our next doctor's appointment is in 9 days, so between now and then I will concentrate on just giving him safe places to regain his strength.

Thank you all so much for caring about Freddie and I!