[Misc] Cat Update: Wow, Loki's Still Around
Loki is still hanging on. He's actually gained weight, through a combination of forced feedings via oral syringe, daily subdermal hydration injections, and by my discovery that he'll actually eat chicken-and-gravy or turkey-and-gravy baby food, or some expensive "a/d -- urgent care" cat food I was prescribed for him. The pricey KMR kitten formula no longer interests him; it's reserved solely for oral syringing when he seems to be merely nibbling at his food or pushing it around.
He won't eat much at all in a single sitting; basically, I have to keep putting away the cat food when he's apparently done with it, then put it in front of him again every 2-3 hours or so (whenever I'm around, and conscious, of course, though it's been a fairly regular thing that he wakes me up around midnight or 4 am, and since I'm groggily stumbling around and trying to clean him up anyway, I might as well try to get some food in him).
Gwendel hasn't been so much on the forced-feeding, but when she's around during the day, she sets up her laptop in the bedroom (where the cat tends to camp out -- either on the bed or in the laundry hamper), and takes the chance of taking the cat's E-cone off and letting him rest without it. His fur tends to stay un-matted for longer when there's no E-cone, but he still on occasion, without warning, may suddenly unleash an attack on his own head (either right or left side) with a hind-leg, so he can't be left unattended without the cone, and I have to put it on when I sleep.
The vet office has been generous, giving me leftover hydration bags that were otherwise going to thrown out at the end of the day. I'll have to go pick up another one today to last through the Labor Day weekend.
Loki is slightly more active, no longer limps, occasionally purrs (typically when we're cleaning his fur and ears), and has actually once or twice gone over to the regular cat food bowl and nibbled a bit at it. For whatever reason, he simply won't lap up any water from the water bowl. (We still keep changing the water and cleaning the bowl daily, just in case he might be inclined to drink again.)
His original injury is nearly healed, but with all the other things going on, it's still painful to look at him. His chin is really messed up by a massive tumor, and that's probably contributing to his reluctance to eat or drink. That THING in his right ear still requires attention. It's not going away, and operating on it isn't a viable option (what with the location, the cat's very slow healing rate, and the vet's judgment of the cat as an "anesthesia risk").
I have no way of knowing how much more time we have with him, but it seems like it might not be mere DAYS like I was expecting before. In fact, I might need to arrange for cat-boarding for Necronomicon at this rate. (I really, really hope he's back to drinking water by that point, vs. the daily subdermal hydration.)
Baby food is expensive; oddly, the prescribed "urgent care" cat food was cheaper by the ounce. I took a chance that perhaps it wasn't necessarily the contents of the cat food (it smells like "deviled ham") per se that prompted the cat to start gobbling it up, but maybe it's the "pate" texture -- so I bought some cat food (a 4-pack that was cheaper than a single can of the prescribed stuff) and -- success! He is happy to gobble up the cheaper stuff. It just appears that the regular wet cat food chunks are beyond him. (Why he has nibbled a couple of times at the dry crunchy cat food, though, I have no idea. Not everything he does seems perfectly "logical.")
He still requires daily attention. Left to his own devices, he mostly just lounges around. He doesn't meow to get our attention like he used to. (He only makes noise when he's in distress or pain, such as if we touch a sore spot while cleaning him.) He still shows no interest in cat toys, and doesn't seem to be particularly interested in going to the garage or out of the house. I still bought a "cat harness" for him so that once the rain lets up a bit, I'd like to take him outside for a little bit, in the hopes of entertaining him a bit. (He really seemed to perk up the last time I took him out, and that was pretty close to the point where he actually seemed to be willing to start eating again. I have no idea if there's any connection at all; it's very hard to guess at cause and effect, and my methods are far from scientific -- I'm just making this up as I go.)
One hopeful thing: He looks a bit closer to normal when he sleeps. In the evenings, I'll tag-team with Gwendel, and she'll go back to the computer room so she can play Minecraft on her main PC on Dr_Rhubarb's new server. I've been mostly working on miniatures for Digital_Rampage, but I've also used Gwendel's laptop to play around a bit on Minecraft as well (though I'm leagues behind everyone else) -- and I'll sit next to the cat while he's sprawled out on the bed. When he's sleeping without the cone, he adopts some of his old familiar "kitty sleeping poses" that I haven't seen in quite some time. He also occasionally makes movements like there's some sort of action going on in his dreams. I hope they're GOOD dreams.
I have to temper my hope. The tumors aren't going away, and he really can't get "better" from this. But nothing is forever in this life anyway, is it? Gwendel and I try to make the cat comfortable, give him attention, and get him some decent food. I can't really give him the FREEDOM he was used to, but I do what I can with what we've got.