Rhett's URI; yesterday I took him *back* to the vet because he was not
eating and drinking, and was so stuffed up that he could not breathe
through his nose. Dr S was not available (though he did come by
because he live right behind the clinic and stopped to talk with me
about Rhett before the receptionist and I shooed him away to get to
his dentist's appointment...on time...for once in his life), so I got
one of Dr S's affiliates; he went to one of my brother's schools (the
vet part, not the human doc part, clearly) and I am pretty sure is
gay, so I like him. He said Rhett is 100% fine from the neck down --
lungs clear, feels good, etc.; it's from the head up that he is a
walking snot factory. Rhett had barfed, which is why I brought him to
the vet, so he said to take Rhett off the Clindamycin and just stick
with the Clavamox, because Rhett has a virus anyway, the Clavamox is
just to keep it from becoming pneumonia, and the Clindamycin probably
made his stomach queasy. I never knew that. And he also said that I
need to stop giving Rhett albuterol, and instead give him 0.05cc of
children's Triaminic for snuffly noses (orange flavoured, and we all
know cats are big fans of fruit; every day I'm reading about yet
another orange grove raid carried out by gangs of cats), and get a
humidifier and put Vicks' in it and put Rhett in a cat carrier, cover
the side vents with a towel, leave the back vents open, and run the
humidifier in front of the carrier. So I did this. The Triaminic
makes him sleepy, but it helps with the congestion some. I have also
been trying to suck snot out of his nose with one of those baby sucky
things for infant noses. He really does not like it when I use that,
and I cannot blame him; if I felt poorly and someone came at me with
one of those, I would kick them in the balls.
Butsoanyway.
Well, after I humidified him today with some Vicks' menthol splooge,
he seemed to be a lot better. When he started licking and swallowing a
lot, I decided to call it quits, because the vet said Rhett's left
lymph node is draining a LOT into his throat, and I wanted to help
break up the snot, but not go too far. So then Rhett ate a little
afterwards, and that made me really happy. He ate turkey slices, about
3 whole ones. I still hadn't seen him drink, so I gave him about 2 - 3
cc of water slowly twice today. His fur doesn't feel *overly*
dehydrated (a little, but not serious), so as long as he goes back to
eating and drinking tomorrow, I won't do anything like more sub-q
fluids @ the vet. If he goes back to not eating though, I'll have no
choice but to go get fluids and syringe-feed baby food.
Sigh.
Now, I still have a TON of things to do as far as the rest of my life,
so...wish me luck. As always, I am poised on the brink of disaster.
Pfft.
If anyone has any non-kooky cat URI tips, I'm open to suggestions.
Non-kooky, of course, meaning that I am not taking him for
acupuncture, getting his aura re-calibrated, having the feng shui of
his room adjusted, or giving him homeopathically organic white milk
thistle mixed with water with black lead memory. In short, if they do
it in California, Rhett and I are having none of that. ;-)
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