Here’s the update. I apologize in advance for this being long, but I’m going to throw all this out there in case anyone can give me any additional advice.
Teddy came home Monday night, along with 5 different prescriptions, two different kinds of prescription food, and an appointment to get blood work done in ten days. For those not up on this, he’s got chronic renal failure, which is vet-speak for his kidneys don’t work. He was doing pretty well at the vet, so they opted to not do a kidney biopsey to see just how far gone they were. We’re supposed to give him medication for ten days, then the vet will do another blood scan to see how he’s doing.
For those who care about such things, here’s the drugs he’s on. I don’t remember their real names, only what they do.
Vitamin B-12, since he might not get this from his food
A liquid antacid (administered with a dropper, I can’t tell you how much fun this is…)
Valium (diazapem? Vet said it will stimulate his appetite)
…and two more. I thought I remembered them all, but I’m drawing a blank.
In addition, he’s on a restricted low-protein diet for the rest of his life. Doctor gave me Hill’s k/d, dried and canned.
<sigh> If you asked me Tuesday night, I would have said my gut feeling is that he’s not going to pull through this one. I actually was up most of the night worrying - no matter how hard I tried not to think about it, I did, and I couldn’t sleep. He wasn’t eating much on Tuesday/Wednesday - about a quarter cup each of the wet & dry food.
I’m feeling a little better today, partially because I’ve been worrying so much that I just can’t worry anymore, and partially because he ate just about a half a can of wet food and a whopping 3/4 cup of dry food overnight last night. Yesterday, before I left work, I had prepared myself to go home and find him half dead on the floor. Instead, when I pulled into the garage he came running out to greet me. That felt pretty good!
The funny thing is that he is displaying some appetite now, but he doesn’t eat much of his food. We had lamb stew for dinner last night, and he sat on the couch between me and Mr. Athena trying to get our food. It was horrible - here I am worried sick about him not eating, he desparately wants to eat some of our food, but he’s not supposed to have anything but his prescription diet. I ended up giving him a teeeeny tiny little piece of lamb, then I grabbed some of his dry food and held it for him while he ate some. I think maybe he was fooled a little bit by the smell of the stew being so close to his food.
I’ve been trying to make his food a little more palatable by heating it in the microwave, and putting a little beef broth on it, but it didn’t seem to do much good. Tonight I’ll try chicken broth. The vet said that he was eating 2 cans a day in the vet hospital - I can’t even get him to eat 1/2 a can! What’s up with that?!?
Mr. Athena thinks he’s just a little stressed from being at the vet, and after a few days at home he’ll start eating normally. I hope he’s right.
Cyndar, you might be able to answer this. I don’t have much experience with wet food, all my cats have eaten dry food. Vet said to give him 1/2 can of the wet food in the morning and at night, and to refrigerate what he doesn’t eat. The problem is, he doesn’t eat it fast. If I leave it out all day (or all night) he eats bits and pieces at a time, and last night he got down just about all of it over a 10 hour period. I’ve been leaving out 1/2 can all day, and throwing out what he doesn’t eat at night and putting out another 1/2 can for overnight. Is it going to spoil and hurt him to leave it out like that? He won’t eat it if I only leave it there for an hour.