Kitty not well yet, maybe not even improved

[cjsmith]

Unfortunately, jackiecat is pooping fresh blood again. There's some fecal matter, but mostly it's intestinal mucous and blood.

She vomited again, too, but there's no blood there this time, thank goodness.

She hasn't passed any of the hairballs that were blocking her this past weekend. She does have SOME fecal matter exiting, but overall, this is Not Good.

Managed to give her one of the enormous antibiotic capsules by coating it in butter and hanging on to her for dear life until she finally gave up and swallowed. I am amazed that thing went down. Poor fuzzball!

Another unfortunate thing: Jackie doesn't like Petromalt. (Well, laxatone.) Fortunately Duchess will eat it. Duchess has even more hair than Jackie does, so preventative measures there are a good idea. I wish Jackie liked it, though. She needs it badly right now.

Comments

[mighty-sam.livejournal.com]

Poor baby. All of our kitties send their warmest feline wishes.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

Is surgery out of the question? (I'm not sure what it would fix in the long term, though.)

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

Oh no! You're both in my thoughts and prayers!

[firecat]

I'm sorry. I hope she gets better soon.

Have you tried the fish flavor of petromalt?

I hear that if your cat doesn't like petromalt, you can smear petromalt on her paw and she'll lick it off anyway. (Unless she figures out to just get Duchess to lick it off...)

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Prayers and good thoughts on the way.

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

sneak up on her and smoodge it on the back of her paws (try to do this in a tiled area, as the cat will bolt once you set her down). anyway, that's what we have to do to spainy, who also hates the stuff.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Mm, haven't tried the fish flavor. Thanks! I can swing by a pet store and see if I can get that. I also haven't tried smearing it on her, although last night I was awfully tempted. :-)

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Many hugs and good hopes for you both...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If I bring her in to my regular vet he may recommend it at this point. Not sure. Any surgery where they open up the intestines is pretty drastic, so he might say it's still better to wait. I'll phone him and ask.

You're right, in the long term it wouldn't help; it would solve the acute situation and then I'd have to do other things to help it not happen again. I could shave her periodically or something. ;-) And definitely smear Petromalt (intestinal lube, basically) on her so she has to lick it off.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's awfully good at bolting. I'll smear the goo on her tonight. I was tempted yesterday and now, thinking about it, I have no idea why I didn't just DO that.

Spainy and jackiecat resemble each other quite a bit. In particular, they're both very very fluffy. Does Spainy have lots of hairballs?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :-/

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It helps... even if, right now, it's only me who feels a bit better hearing that.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thank you! At the very least *I* feel better, reading words of support.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Maybe they could purrrr it out of her. (Suppose I set her on a dryer and threw some sneakers in, to try to jar something loose... okay CJ, cut it out with the home science crap.)

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

yes. yes she does.
she hates to be brushed, so we don't do it as often as we should ... and she hates the goo, so she doesn't get it as often as she should.

*sigh*

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

I actually had success with smearing vasoline on my cats, though I've mostly had short-hairs.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the brushing. Well, I can smear Petromalt every day for a month and see whether anything improves. If she just puked hairballs and not blood, I could live with that.

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

the laxatone helps pass the hairballs -- they're more likely to come out the other end than to come up ;-) it works wonders, too. spainy was stopped up for a couple of days once, so we lubed her up with laxatone and let her run ...

next morning we practically needed gas masks to go near her litter box.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oo, I hadn't thought of trying that. I thought of butter, but Jackie was even refusing that last night. She didn't want to eat squat, I suppose. Can't blame her.

I think maybe I'll prefer short-hairs next time I'm looking!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and that in turn would help with the blood: if she puked less often her esophagus would heal up.

Great story - tonight I'll lube 'er up and let 'er go!

[cmpriest.livejournal.com]

don't be afraid to use a little more than it says -- it won't hurt her, and it sounds like she really needs it.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Oh, poor kitty and poor you! *sympathy and good thoughts*

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Tonight I'm going to coat her in Petromalt and run for my life. We'll see what she produces once she's lubed up inside!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! If I'm about to succumb to caustic gases I'll send one last dispatch from the trenches. :-)

[tenacious-snail.livejournal.com]

yeah, it has the advantage of being something likely to be found at home, rather than something to go out and buy that may not work or that the cat may not accept.