When Merry had his dental the vet put him on antibiotics as a precaution, simply because he's diabetic & they are more prone to infections. That's also why she put him on Doxy when he had that bad URI I posted about recently. Diabetics are so much more prone to infections than civvies.
This is so true & what I replied with in another thread a couple weeks ago as well because I've experienced this numerous times with my own cats & dogs where urinalysis & culture are negative for bacteria but they have symptoms so I request a broad spectrum abx anyway and voila, the symptoms go away. I don't trust cultures at all anymore, I've experienced this so often. I still do cultures because it's part of the process but when they come back negative & my furbaby has symptoms, they go on abx anyway. I mentioned before that I did not do that with Beau recently and he almost died, went into kidney failure, and even though culture was still negative at that time (and twice before with two different vets who ignored his symptoms because of negative cultures) the ER vet put him on abx & it saved his life and cost me a small fortune that I'm still trying to pay off and all because I didn't request abx sooner as I usually do, so it's my fault.
I also have a cabinet full of meds for my furbabies & my first aid kit ready just in case. It never fails, if one is going to get sick it will happen on a Sunday or a holiday so I have meds on hand so I can give them asap, at the same time my vet is always just a call away & she guides me as well if needed & I always let her know what I'm giving in case she needs to see them when she's open. Just yesterday my cat, Oreo, who has some serious health issues, had a lot of pain in his abdomen & would not eat. I had Buprenorphine on hand as well as anti nausea meds, appetite stimulants & a fresh bag of Sub-q fluids, so I was prepared to deal with the crisis. I treated him as if he had pancreatitis (he has history of that & other serious things that can cause these symptoms), gave Bupe for pain, the anti nausea med since he was refusing food & he had Sub-q fluids as well. I know Oreo & if I don't get ahead of these episodes when they happen he'll be hospitalized & could die but thankfully I always have supplies/meds on hand & this morning he's feeling good again.
Anyway, that's how I do things so I can try to keep on top of things since I have a house full of seniors (3 who are 16 yrs) & other special needs kitties. It saves me money in the long run & helps them over come bad episodes quickly since I don't have to wait for a vet. It's never a bad idea to have extra meds & supplies on hand.
I know this is very stressful for you & for Silver and I hope things get straightened out for him soon. You're doing everything you can for him. Hang in there! Hugs to you!
Since you took the day off and there’s nothing to really be done until Silver comes home, try to rest up and unplug and shake off some of the stress. All this info will be here later when you need and can process it. When you are at that point, maybe make a list of the things you think are important to discuss with the vet before he is discharged, then a list of things you want to have/do/try when Silver is back home with you. It may help organize the things you feel are important and how to proceed from there.
Juliet.